How to Build an SEO Rank Tracking Tool with Google Search Scraper

Dedicated rank trackers charge $50 to $200 a month for what is essentially a scheduled Google search with a position lookup. The NanoScrape Google Search Scraper on Apify does the same thing for $1.50 per 1,000 SERP pages, with no monthly subscription. You give it a list of keywords, it scrapes Google, and you get back a structured dataset with every organic position, paid ad, People Also Ask question, AI Overview, and related query on each page. Schedule it daily and you have a full rank tracker for a fraction of the cost. This guide walks through setup, scheduling, and how to find your domain in the results.

What you get

The NanoScrape Google Search Scraper runs on Apify and returns one dataset row per SERP page. Each row contains everything Google shows for that query: the ordered list of organic results with their positions and URLs, paid ads, People Also Ask questions (with pre-rendered answers when Google provides them), related search suggestions, the featured snippet, and the full AI Overview text with source citations.

• Organic results with position: each result includes its title, URL, description, display URL, bolded keywords, position number, and source site name. Position 1 is the top result.
• AI Overview body and sources: the full synthesized AI answer text and the citation cards Google credits, each with title, URL, and excerpt.
• People Also Ask with answers: every PAA question on the page. When Google pre-renders the first answer (most informational queries), you also get the answer text, source title, source URL, and publish date.
• Paid results and shopping ads: text ads with destination URL (not Google's tracking redirect), description, and position. Shopping cards with title, merchant, price, and image URL.
• Related queries: deduplicated related search suggestions from the bottom of the SERP.
• Featured snippet: the highlighted answer box at the top of results when present.
• Pagination signals: resultsTotal (the displayed result count) and hasNextPage.

For rank tracking, the key field is organicResults. Each item has a position integer and a url field. To check your ranking for a keyword, search for your domain in the url values and read the position of the matching entry.

Prerequisites

• A free Apify account. The free tier gives $5 of usage credit every month, enough for about 3,300 SERP pages.
• A list of keywords you want to track. These are usually the search queries you want your site to rank for.
• Your domain name (for example, yoursite.com) so you can identify your own entries in the results.

Find keywords worth tracking

Before you start scraping SERPs, you need a keyword list that is actually worth tracking. Targeting queries with zero or negligible search volume means you are measuring rankings nobody cares about. DataForSEO gives you real Google search volume data via API, so you can build a list based on actual demand rather than guesswork.

The two most useful endpoints for this workflow are:

• Search Volume (live): /keywords_data/google/search_volume/live. Pass a list of keywords and get back monthly search volume, competition level, CPC, and trend data for each. Use this to filter out keywords below your minimum volume threshold.
• Keyword Ideas (live): /dataforseo_labs/google/keyword_ideas/live. Pass a seed keyword and get back related queries ranked by volume. Great for discovering which long-tail variants your competitors are ranking for.

Here is a minimal example that takes a seed keyword, fetches related ideas, and filters to those with at least 100 monthly searches:

const response = await fetch(
  'https://api.dataforseo.com/v3/dataforseo_labs/google/keyword_ideas/live',
  {
    method: 'POST',
    headers: {
      Authorization: 'Basic ' + btoa('YOUR_LOGIN:YOUR_PASSWORD'),
      'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    },
    body: JSON.stringify([{
      keyword: 'rank tracking tool',
      location_code: 2840,   // United States
      language_code: 'en',
      limit: 100,
    }]),
  }
);
const { tasks } = await response.json();
const ideas = tasks[0].result[0].items;

// Filter to keywords with real search volume
const trackable = ideas
  .filter(k => k.keyword_info.search_volume >= 100)
  .map(k => ({ keyword: k.keyword, volume: k.keyword_info.search_volume }))
  .sort((a, b) => b.volume - a.volume);

console.log('Keywords to track:', trackable);
// Pass trackable.map(k => k.keyword) directly into the scraper's queries field

Once you have filtered your list down to keywords with meaningful volume, paste them into the scraper's queries field in Step 3. This way every run measures positions for queries that real users are actually typing.

STEP 2

Open the Google Search Scraper

After signing in you are on the actor's page. The Information tab shows pricing, output field descriptions, and example inputs. The Input tab is where you enter your keyword list.

STEP 3

Build your keyword list

Click Input in the left sidebar. Enter one keyword per line in the Search Queries field. Each keyword runs as a separate Google search and produces one dataset row per SERP page.

Copy

{
  "queries": [
    "best seo rank tracking tool",
    "google search position checker",
    "keyword rank tracker free"
  ],
  "countryCode": "us",
  "languageCode": "en",
  "resultsPerPage": 10,
  "maxPagesPerQuery": 1
}

Key input settings for rank tracking:

• queries: your keyword list. Use the exact phrasing your audience types into Google.
• countryCode: ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code for the country whose results you want (e.g. us, gb, de). Determines which regional index Google uses.
• languageCode: ISO 639-1 code for the SERP language (e.g. en, de, fr). Default is en.
• resultsPerPage: how many organic results to request per page. Default 10 gives the richest output including pre-rendered PAA answers and AI Overview details. Set to 100 if you want more results per request and don't need full feature data.
• maxPagesPerQuery: how many SERP pages to fetch per keyword. Set to 1 for position-1-to-10 tracking. Increase to 2 or 3 to also track positions 11 to 30.
• mobileResults: set to true to check mobile rankings instead of desktop.
• forceExactMatch: wraps the keyword in quotes for verbatim matching. Leave off for normal rank tracking.

For a first test, start with 5 to 10 keywords. A run with 10 keywords and 1 page per keyword completes in under 30 seconds and uses only 10 SERP page credits ($0.015).

STEP 4

Run and find your domain in the results

1. Click Start at the bottom of the Input tab.
2. The run opens automatically. The Log tab shows one line per SERP page fetched.
3. When you see Status: SUCCEEDED, click Dataset in the left sidebar.
4. In the Dataset table, open any row. Look at the organicResults array. Each entry has a url and a position field.
5. Search for your domain name in the url values. The matching entry's position is your current rank for that keyword.

To automate the position lookup, export the dataset as JSON and filter with a script. Here is a minimal example that prints your domain's rank for each keyword:

Copy

const data = require('./dataset.json');
const myDomain = 'yoursite.com';

for (const row of data) {
  const keyword = row.searchQuery.term;
  const match = row.organicResults.find(r => r.url.includes(myDomain));
  const rank = match ? match.position : 'not in top results';
  console.log(`${keyword}: position ${rank}`);
}

If your domain is not in the top 10 results for a keyword, it means you are not on page 1. Increase maxPagesPerQuery to 3 to also check positions 11 to 30.

# List recent runs with their dataset IDs
curl -s "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/santamaria-automations~google-search-scraper/runs?token=YOUR_TOKEN&limit=7" \
  | jq '.data.items[] | {startedAt, defaultDatasetId, status}'

Advanced: multi-country and competitive tracking

The actor supports two patterns for more advanced rank tracking scenarios.

Multi-country tracking

To track the same keyword in multiple countries, run the actor once per country with the appropriate countryCode and languageCode. You can also pass raw Google search URLs via searchUrls to preserve any additional filters or parameters already in the URL:

{
  "searchUrls": [
    "https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=project+management+software&gl=gb&hl=en",
    "https://www.google.de/search?q=project+management+software&gl=de&hl=de"
  ],
  "resultsPerPage": 10,
  "maxPagesPerQuery": 1
}

Competitive tracking

To monitor competitors, use the same approach as for your own domain. Run the actor against your target keywords, then search the organicResults for each competitor's domain. You can also enable extractAds to see which competitors are bidding on paid placements for the same queries:

{
  "queries": [
    "best project management software",
    "project management tool for teams"
  ],
  "countryCode": "us",
  "extractAds": true
}

With extractAds: true, the actor runs each query with rotated proxy sessions to maximize ad discovery. Paid results appear in paidResults[] (text ads) and paidProducts[] (shopping carousel cards).

Connect to AI agents via MCP

The actor works as a Model Context Protocol (MCP) tool. Paste this server URL into any MCP-compatible client (Claude Desktop, Claude.ai, Cursor, VS Code, LangChain, LlamaIndex):

https://mcp.apify.com?tools=santamaria-automations/google-search-scraper

Once connected, prompt your AI agent in plain English and it calls the actor with the right parameters:

Check where our domain example.com ranks for 'project management software' and 'team collaboration tool' in the US.

Clients that support dynamic tool discovery receive the full input schema automatically, so the model fills in all fields without you specifying parameters manually.

Key input and output fields

Input fields

• queries: array of keyword strings. Each runs as a separate Google search.
• searchUrls: optional array of raw Google search URLs. All filters in the URL are preserved.
• countryCode: ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code (default us). Controls which regional index Google uses.
• languageCode: ISO 639-1 language code (default en). Controls the SERP interface language.
• resultsPerPage: number of results per page, 10 to 100 (default 10). Stick with 10 for the richest feature data.
• maxPagesPerQuery: how many SERP pages to fetch per keyword, 1 to 10 (default 1).
• mobileResults: boolean. Use Google's mobile interface (default false).
• forceExactMatch: boolean. Wrap queries in quotes for verbatim matching (default false).
• includePeopleAlsoAsk: boolean. Include PAA questions in the output (default true).
• includeRelatedSearches: boolean. Include related search suggestions (default true).
• extractAds: boolean. Extract paid text ads and shopping carousel cards with session rotation (default false).
• saveHtmlToKeyValueStore: boolean. Save raw HTML of each SERP to the Key-Value Store (default false).

Output fields per row

• searchQuery: object with the original query term, constructed URL, device type, page number, domain, country code, and language code.
• organicResults: array of {position, title, url, displayedUrl, description, websiteTitle, emphasizedKeywords, siteLinks}. Position starts at 1.
• paidResults: array of text ads with destination URL (not Google's redirect), description, and ad position. Present when extractAds: true.
• paidProducts: array of shopping carousel cards with title, merchant, price, URL, and image URL.
• featuredSnippet: the highlighted answer box object, or null when absent.
• peopleAlsoAsk: array of {question, answer, title, url, date}. Answer text is present when Google pre-renders it.
• relatedQueries: array of {title, url} related search suggestions.
• aiOverview: object with the AI Overview body text and citation cards, or null when absent.
• resultsTotal: the approximate total result count Google displays.
• hasNextPage: boolean, whether a page 2 exists.
• scrapedAt: ISO 8601 timestamp of when this row was collected.

What it costs

The actor charges per SERP page scraped, not per run or per keyword.

• Actor start: $0.001 per run (a flat one-time fee).
• SERP page scraped: $0.0015 per page ($1.50 per 1,000). Each keyword with maxPagesPerQuery: 1 counts as one SERP page.
• Paid ads add-on: $0.0015 per SERP page when extractAds: true. This doubles the cost for those pages since the actor re-queries with rotated sessions.

The Apify free tier gives $5 of credit every month. At $0.0015 per SERP page that covers about 3,300 keyword checks per month at no cost. For 100 keywords checked daily that is about 3,000 pages per month, within the free tier.

FAQ

Related resources

• Google Search Scraper actor page: Full specs, all input parameters, output field reference, and pricing details.
• Reddit Sentiment Analysis: Track how people talk about your brand or competitors on Reddit alongside your SERP data.
• Extract Emails from Websites in Bulk: After pulling ranking URLs from SERPs, use this to extract contact emails from those sites for lead generation.
• Google Search Scraper on Apify: Full actor documentation, all input parameters, and the complete field reference.
• All NanoScrape tutorials: Step-by-step guides for scraping Instagram, Reddit, YouTube, Amazon, and more.