What data does it return?
The exact fields depend on the search engine and result type. A web search commonly includes a title, destination URL, snippet and position. Other result types can return image URLs, news items, product listings, videos or place details. A response may also contain page-level metadata and request information. Always check the API schema for the selected engine and type.
SERP API versus scraping
A SERP API gives your application a defined request and response format. With a general-purpose scraper, you are responsible for fetching pages, parsing markup, handling layout changes and normalizing the output. An API can reduce that integration work, but it does not make search results fixed: results can vary by query, location, language, device, time and the search engine itself.
A typical workflow
Choose the search context
Set the query and, where supported, the engine, search type, country, language and device. Keep these inputs with collected results so later comparisons use the same context.
Request structured results
Send an authenticated HTTP request and parse the JSON response. In Serqo, search requests use the /v1/search endpoint. See the API docs for authentication, accepted parameters, supported combinations and error handling.
Store and use a snapshot
Save the query, parameters, collection time and results if you need history. A SERP API returns a response for a request; your application handles scheduling, long-term storage, comparisons, alerting and downstream analysis.
Example request
This example requests a Google web search. Replace YOUR_API_KEY with an API key and use only parameters supported by the chosen engine.
curl -X POST https://api.serqo.io/v1/search \
-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"query":"SERP API","engine":"google","type":"web","gl":"us","hl":"en"}' What a SERP API does not tell you
A result page is a snapshot of what the selected search engine returned for specific inputs at a specific time. It does not by itself prove why a result ranked, guarantee that every user sees the same page, or provide a historical ranking trend. To analyze change, collect comparable snapshots and account for changes in query, location, language and device.
Using Serqo as a SERP API
Serqo exposes Google and Bing search results through an HTTP API and returns JSON. Available result types and parameters depend on the engine; consult the live engine list and API reference before building around a specific type. Successful requests consume credits according to the configured rate rules; cache hits are free under the default rates, while failed searches and timeouts release reserved credits.