Search Engine Results Pages (SERP) scraping refers to collecting data from search engine results.
Google is at the top regarding search engines—with 85.53% of market shares worldwide. It shows how data from Google is objectively the most valuable among all its competitors.
However, Google is not fond of web scrapers constantly collecting data. Your IP can be banned from Google if you send more requests than a regular user.
This is where proxies can help. Continue reading to learn how to scrape Google search results pages using proxies.
🔑 Key Takeaways
- Google SERP holds featured snippets, related searches, questions, product suggestions, and more. Extracting SERP data is easier now due to its extensive information.
- Using a Python script, you can employ a Proxy Rotator.
- Providers like SmartProxy offer SERP APIs, allowing nearly unrestricted scraping.
- A downside of data center proxies is their shared subnet from the same source.
What is the Best Proxy Server?
Smartproxy
Smartproxy is a top-rated proxy provider trusted by many. Its 40 million+ proxies from 195+ locations help bypass CAPTCHAs, geo-blocks, and IP bans. It offers a free trial and has a high rating of 4.7 on Trustpilot with 89% 5-star ratings, making it one of the best in the industry.
Scraping SERPs From Google Using Proxy Servers
Whenever you type a keyword, Google will return several results that match your search query. The results include images, videos, and a list of web pages ranked based on relevance and usefulness.
Google SERP data has changed over the years. It now includes featured snippets, related searches, questions, product recommendations, and more. Scraping SERPs has become easier than ever due to the vast information.
Web scraping involves extracting content from public web pages for data storage. When scraping Google SERPs, scaling up requires proxies to overcome restrictions.
Here are three ways to use a proxy solution in Google SERP scraping:
1. Manually Changing Proxies
You can collect a set of proxies for scraping and apply one to your device. After that, simply change it to another one after a few requests or if it gets blocked.
However, this method is tedious and works best for small-scale web scraping projects. You can use this method if your research is limited to a few location-based results.
You can only get so far by manually scraping data from Google SERPs. The requests that you can send out are limited. You will eventually run into Google’s anti-bot mechanisms—doing CAPTCHA or being added to its IP blocklist.
| ✅ Pro Tip: Tired of CAPTCHAs and IP blocks? Nexusnet provides all-in-one residential and mobile proxies that go beyond anonymity. They benefit individuals, businesses, web admins, and traffic arbitrage pros. Learn more in our 2023 guide for the best proxy services. |
There are ways to semi-automate this task by using Python scripts. However, this raises the possibility of being detected since the requests are more “programmatic” or bot-like.
2. Using a Proxy Rotator
This technique can be done with a Python script. Here is an example of a proxy rotation script that uses a list of proxies for multiple Google search queries:
| import requests class ProxyRotator: def __init__(self, proxy_file, user_agent): self.proxy_list = self.load_proxy_list(proxy_file) self.current_proxy = None self.user_agent = user_agent def load_proxy_list(self, proxy_file): with open(proxy_file, ‘r’) as file: proxies = file.read().splitlines() return proxies def get_next_proxy(self): if not self.current_proxy: self.current_proxy = self.proxy_list[0] else: current_index = self.proxy_list.index(self.current_proxy) next_index = (current_index + 1) % len(self.proxy_list) self.current_proxy = self.proxy_list[next_index] return self.current_proxy def make_request(self, url, query): proxy = self.get_next_proxy() headers = { ‘User-Agent’: self.user_agent } proxies = { ‘http’: f’http://{proxy}’, ‘https’: f’http://{proxy}’ } try: params = { ‘q’: query } response = requests.get(url, params=params, headers=headers, proxies=proxies) response.raise_for_status() return response.text except requests.exceptions.RequestException as e: print(f”An error occurred: {e}”) # Example usage proxy_file = ‘proxy_list.txt‘ user_agent = ‘Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/80.0.3987.132 Safari/537.36’ rotator = ProxyRotator(proxy_file, user_agent) queries = [‘Python Proxy Rotator’, ‘Web Scraping’, ‘Data Mining’] url = ‘https://www.google.com/search’ for query in queries: response = rotator.make_request(url, query) print(f”Results for query ‘{query}’:”) print(response) print(“——————“) |
You need to collect a set of proxies from a proxy provider or free sources. Copy and paste them into a new .txt file.
Run the script as usual. It should return the results in HTML.
This is not the most beginner-friendly option. However, there are easier methods on this list.
| 📓 Related Article: Static proxies are fine for simple tasks, but they won’t cut it for web scraping or data parsing due to potential IP blocks. Enter rotating proxies – they use a pool of IP addresses, letting you send numerous requests with different IPs. Learn how to implement rotating proxies in Python through our guide. |
3. Employing SERP APIs
This is the most cost-effective method for scraping Google SERPs.
Many proxy providers, like SmartProxy, offer SERP APIs that let you scrape with almost no restrictions.
| 💡 Did You Know? Smartproxy boasts a global server network with 40 million+ IPs, allowing precise geotargeting down to city levels. SmartProxy is a user-friendly dashboard and informative knowledge base; it suits both novices and pros. Advanced users can leverage the API for extensive data mining, while beginners benefit from ready-made templates. |
Subscriptions are usually based on the number of requests, not the proxies. Since these providers will handle that, you will not have to think about rotating proxies.
As an added convenience, you will get the results in an organized JSON file.
Follow these steps to start using SmartProxy’s SERP API:
1. Go to SmartProxy’s website and sign up for an account.
2. On the SERP API pricing section, choose a plan based on your scraping needs.
3. You can go to SmartProxy’s API playground to start scraping.
4. Set up your search parameters, then click Send request.
5. Copy or download the results in JSON format.
You can also set up advanced search parameters and perform the process through Python code.
Detailed instructions on how to do these can be found in SmartProxy’s Help documents.
Proxy Types For SERP Scraping
Different proxy types overlap with each other. You must know their differences to determine which proxy type is best for SERP scraping.
Here are the main types:
1. Data Center Proxies
These proxies are housed in data centers. They are usually the fastest proxies due to the data centers’ advanced infrastructure. Data center proxies are also the cheapest and easiest to acquire.
| 🎉 Fun Fact: There are two primary categories of proxies commonly used for web scraping. Datacenter proxies, a popular choice for web scraping, and residential proxies, which are tied to ISPs or users. |
The only downside of data center proxies is that they usually have the same subnet because they are from the same source. Because of this, traffic coming from data center proxies is easily distinguishable from regular home users.
2. Residential Proxies
Residential type is the best to use with web scraping tools. Network traffic will look like regular home internet use and can be obtained from various locations.
| 👍 Helpful Article: Residential proxies use others’ local IPs through ISPs, associated with real devices via user agreements. In contrast, Datacenter proxies lack physical ties, stemming from third-party providers to suit web scraping needs. Check out our 7 best residential proxies to help you choose which one suits your needs |
However, remember that residential proxies are harder to obtain and more expensive.
3. Shared Proxies
This proxy type means multiple users on a single IP. Shared proxies can also come from data centers or residential IPs. It lets you share pools of IPs for proxy rotation.
4. Private Proxies
Private proxies offer limited and individualized access and are dedicated to a single user, ensuring premium exclusivity with minimal blocking. They can originate from data centers or residential IPs, providing tailored solutions.
Pros And Cons Of Using Proxy Servers For SERP Scraping
Proxy servers may be advantageous when scraping SERPs. However, they also have drawbacks in the process.
To give you an overview of what the use of proxies entails for SERP scraping, here are some of its benefits and downsides:
| Pros | Cons |
| Maintains anonymity while scraping | May strain search engines with too much traffic from unrestrained scraping |
| Avoids being IP blocked or being slowed down by anti-bot mechanisms | |
| Faster and scaled results |
While you have all the advantages of using proxies for SERP scraping, it is also important to respect your target sites.
The best way to do this is to limit the number of requests and work only during non-peak hours.
The Legality Of SERP Scraping
Scraping data from SERPs is completely legal since the collected data is publicly available and not password-protected.
However, scraping data from search engines violates the host site’s terms of service. Google itself uses scraping methods to index content on the web.
Regarding laws like the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), data from SERPs are facts—which cannot be copyrighted.
Also, data search result pages are publicly available, so the CFAA will not apply.
However, this does not mean that Google welcomes SERP scrapers with open arms or that scrapers should abuse search engines.
| 👍 Helpful Articles: Discover our articles on web scraping for valuable insights. Explore techniques, tools, and ethical aspects to collect data from websites effectively for research, analysis, or automation. |
Wrap Up
Using proxy servers for SERP scraping is a powerful solution. It keeps you anonymous while letting you scale up your web scraping projects.
However, it is also important not to abuse these capabilities concerning the target sites and the regular users.
FAQs
Is proxy better than VPN for scraping?
Yes. Proxies are less expensive, so massive pools of IP can be collected. Also, VPNs do not rotate IPs as regularly as proxies do. Proxy rotation is crucial for web scraping.
Which browser is best for scraping?
Depending on what method you use. Google Chrome has some browser extensions for web scraping and proxy management. Some web scraping tools are software-based, so browsers do not matter. SERP APIs are not picky about browsers either.
Are SEO and SERP the same thing?
No, but they are closely related. SEO involves techniques for websites to climb higher in the keyword search results rankings. SERPs are the results themselves.
Sources
Timeline Of The Article
By Harsha Kiran
Harsha Kiran is the founder and innovator of Techjury.net. He started it as a personal passion project in 2019 to share expertise in internet marketing and experiences with gadgets and it soon turned into a full-scale tech blog with specialization in security, privacy, web dev, and cloud computing.