Web scraping services are in great demand in the market. Web scraping is used by both individuals and businesses so there is no surprise that there are many automated tools that can help users to gather all types of data from websites. But it gets a bit more tricky when it comes to scraping search engines (e.g. Google) and for that, it is important to find the most efficient tool that would help execute such a task. For this exact reason, I've tried a new tool called SERPMaster and will review it in this article.
Scraping Google - what you should know
Google scraping can be very beneficial and give businesses an advantage in the competition for a bigger market share. Additionally, it can help complete big-scale market research projects and find the best solutions to adapt for business growth. But Google scraping is not so easy and here are some reasons why:
- Google is using a complex system of request rate limitation which is different for each Language, Country, User-Agent as well as depending on the keyword and keyword search parameters. The rate limitation can make it unpredictable when accessing a search engine automated as the behavior patterns are not known to the outside developer or user.
- Network and IP limitations are part of the scraping defense systems as well. Search engines can not as easily be tricked by changing to another IP, yet using proxies is still a very important part of successful scraping but the diversity and abuse history of an IP is important as well.
- HTML markup changes, depending on the methods used to harvest the content, of a website can render a scraping tool broken until it is updated.
- In the past years, search engines have continuously tightened their detection systems nearly month by month making it more difficult to reliably scrape as developers need to experiment and adapt their code regularly.
These are just several examples of what makes scraping Google difficult and why you should look for high-quality scraping services if you want to succeed. Because of these reasons I've begun looking for a tool that would be able to go around various obstacles when scraping Google. I've been looking for something that is simple to understand and work with. This is how SERPMaster became one of those tools.
What is SERPMaster?
SERPMaster is a Google Search Engine Result Page (SERP) scraper that helps anyone in need to gather various types of information from this search engine. It offers:
- Google Image API;
- Google News API;
- Google Search API;
- Google Scholar API;
- Google Shopping API.
While working with SERPMaster, I wanted to be sure that the services are reliable and can get around various possible obstacles. SERPMaster proved that it is capable of delivering public data from each category (mentioned above) from any location, device, and browser in real-time with an impressive data extraction success rate.
Since I used this tool for SEO purposes, I was able to confirm that SERPMaster gives you a wide range of custom keywords and requests to send that makes the work very efficient and at the same time saves you money, since many similar tools offer you less but for a bigger price. I tested this tool several times by sending various different requests and I can confirm that not only SERPMaster is legit, it definitely works the way you would want your web scraper to work. What was also great - it delivered requested data in both HTML and JSON formats, so you can easily choose what is best for you.
Scraping with SERPMasterSERPMaster features, price and additional information
SERPMaster offers Desktop SERPs (can deliver a wide variety of results from desktop-based search engine result pages) and Mobile SERPs (can deliver mobile and tablet specific SERPs).
You can also choose 3 options for integration:
- Browser - works best for those who haven't done any web scraping so far or those who want a quick way to acquire data. This integration truncates the entire job request into one URL and can be used in a browser.
- Real-time - it is a simple integration method that requires keeping an open HTTPS connection for data transfers All data is delivered automatically. Take note that if the connection is closed before the job is completed, the data is lost.
- Callback - with the Callback data delivery method, you don't have to keep an open connection or check your task status. You simply send the request with what data you want to be extracted and you wait for the notification when the required data is ready. This method is intended for intensive and consistent scraping (e.g. 5+ SERPs per second) or for those looking to maximize efficiency. If you are familiar with Webhook, integrating through Callback will be easy. If not, you can just try downloading your results in about 10 seconds after request submission.
SERPMaster offers you a free trial of its services where you get 250 requests and can try all the functions and features the tool has. The only downside that I found of SERPMaster is that at the moment it does not offer a way to track data usage which can be important in some of the cases. Apart from that, I haven't found any other issues that could prevent you from purchasing this tool.
As for the advantages, other than the fact that this tool is very flexible and capable of working with complex and dynamic data, SERPMaster is also one of the cheapest tools out there in the market. It can definitely be used by individuals and companies who want to pay a small price and still get very reliable services for data gathering. You can check SERPMaster's pricing in the picture below.
The final word
I've had a great experience while working with SERPMaster and I believe this tool has the potential to become the #1 solution when you need to scrape Google. It's pretty easy to use this tool and the existing features are more than enough and you can get all the data with a very high success rate. Since they have a free trial version with 250 requests, you can easily try this tool for yourself with no commitment and check how it works before making a final decision.
Originally this article was published on Medium
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