Organic search resultsRun the same searches regularly and see which sites appear. Compare rankings, titles and snippets to find gaps in your content and competitors you hadn't considered.
Try these examples for marketing, growth and competitor research.
For a B2B team, follow ten searches such as best CRM for small teams each week in the same market. Note new competitors, ranking changes and the promises in result titles.
Keep a weekly SERP review with your site's observed rank and competitor movements.
Group recurring titles by intent, such as comparisons, pricing, tutorials or alternatives. Check where your content is missing or answers a different question.
Prioritize content ideas and link each one to the results that prompted it.
Search a narrow category and review the domains in the results. Check the websites, then send the shortlist to Website Contacts for further account research.
Keep a company list with search sources and manually checked websites.
FROM FIRST RUN TO REPEATABLE WORKFLOW
{
"queries": ["web scraping tools"],
"country": "US",
"language": "en",
"maxItems": 20
}Paste this into the Actor’s JSON input editor. Replace the example targets with yours before running.
Check the current input form on ApifyThis scraper returns organic Google results. Use normal queries or search operators, and keep the country, language and result limit consistent when comparing runs. It does not collect paid ads or AI Overviews.
| Search method | When to use it | What changes |
|---|---|---|
| Keyword discovery | When to use itYou want to find relevant results before choosing specific targets. | What changesEnter search queries as separate list items. Quoted phrases, site: filters and minus terms work. A pasted Google search URL contributes its query text, not every URL filter. |
| Search page URLs | When to use itYou already configured the search on the source website. | What changesOne search query alongside or instead of queries. For several topics, use queries so each search keeps its own ranking context. |
| Market selection | When to use itYou need a view of a particular country or market. | What changesSearch market as a two-letter code or country name. This changes geographic ranking; it is separate from language and from the proxy’s exit country. |
Maximum organic results per query, not across the entire run. Two queries with maxItems 20 can return up to 40 rows. Google serves 10 results per page.
Compare the related scraperUse the exact field names below in JSON. In Apify’s form, enter list items separately, choose filters, and keep numbers and booleans in their proper types.
Default and prefill are different. A default applies when you omit a setting; a prefill is an example already entered in Apify’s form. Review prefilled targets and limits before every run. Some settings have no schema default. You still need to supply at least one supported target.
queriesEnter search queries as separate list items. Quoted phrases, site: filters and minus terms work. A pasted Google search URL contributes its query text, not every URL filter.
queryOne search query alongside or instead of queries. For several topics, use queries so each search keeps its own ranking context.
countrySearch market as a two-letter code or country name. This changes geographic ranking; it is separate from language and from the proxy’s exit country.
languageGoogle’s interface language, using a code such as en, de or pt-BR. It does not guarantee every returned page is written in that language.
timeRangeFilters Google’s indexed recency window: hour, day, week, month, year or any. It is not a historical SERP snapshot and does not reconstruct rankings from the past.
any hour day week month yearsafeSearchEnables Google’s SafeSearch filter. Keep it consistent between scheduled runs so changes in filtering do not look like ranking changes.
maxItemsMaximum organic results per query, not across the entire run. Two queries with maxItems 20 can return up to 40 rows. Google serves 10 results per page.
maxConcurrency1-10 queries run in parallel. Each query’s pages remain sequential. Start with 3 and a small number of results per query.
delayMsPause between page requests, in milliseconds. Increase it when the source throttles you; reducing it does not remove network delays or the source’s rate limits.
maxPagesPerQueryPage limit for each query. One page is 10 organic results. maxItems 100 with maxPagesPerQuery 2 can collect at most about 20 results per query.
proxyConfigurationThis Actor forces Apify’s GOOGLE_SERP group; other groups do not return usable results. Only the proxy country is honored. Your Apify plan must provide access to that group.
proxyRotationsRetries refused work with a new proxy session. More retries can recover temporary blocks but add time and traffic. Keep the default until the log shows a reason to change it.
resumeSaves progress about every 30 seconds so an Apify restart or migration can continue the current run. Leave it on for normal use.
continueFromLastRunContinues unfinished work from the previous run with matching input. Earlier results remain in that run’s dataset. Keep false for a fresh collection or a recurring snapshot.
impersonateThe browser identity used for requests. Keep the Actor’s default unless you are diagnosing immediate blocks. It changes the request fingerprint, not the data you ask for.
This reference follows the Actor’s published input fields. Check the live form before changing a production workflow. Check the current input form on Apify.
Each example is a separate run. Start small, inspect the results, then increase coverage. Update the targets, countries and dates to match your question.
Three queries with maxItems 20 can return up to 60 rows. Run the same configuration weekly and store query, position and collection time. Use a separate run with another country to compare markets.
{
"queries": [
"web scraping tools",
"competitor ad tracking",
"marketing data pipeline"
],
"country": "US",
"language": "en",
"maxItems": 20,
"safeSearch": false
}Use site: and quoted phrases to find indexed pages on a particular domain. These results reflect Google’s index, not a complete crawl of that website. Replace apify.com and the phrases with your research targets.
{
"queries": ["site:apify.com \"ad library\"", "site:apify.com \"google search\""],
"country": "GB",
"language": "en",
"maxItems": 10
}Use the week filter to find recent material for a content review. It filters indexed recency; it does not recreate last week’s rankings or prove when a page was first published.
{
"queries": ["dbt BigQuery tutorial", "marketing analytics SQL"],
"country": "US",
"language": "en",
"timeRange": "week",
"maxItems": 20
}Each row belongs to a query and position. A URL may be reconstructed from Google’s displayed breadcrumbs; inspect url_is_exact and verify uncertain addresses before crawling or joining them to an exact page. Save a dated snapshot for ranking comparisons. This dataset does not contain search volume, paid ads or historical rankings.
resume protects the current run if Apify restarts it. continueFromLastRun continues an earlier run with the same configuration; earlier records stay in the earlier dataset. Combine both datasets for the complete collection, and raise a previously reached result cap when continuing. Start fresh when you want to see what changed today.
Save one configuration above as input.json. Set APIFY_TOKEN to your Apify API token in your terminal, then send the file as the request body.
curl --fail-with-body --request POST \
--url "https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/jmlp~google-search-scraper/runs" \
--header "Authorization: Bearer $APIFY_TOKEN" \
--header "Content-Type: application/json" \
--data-binary @input.jsonThe response contains a run ID and defaultDatasetId, not finished results. Wait for the run to succeed, set DATASET_ID to that dataset ID, then fetch its items. For large datasets, use limit and offset to page through the export.
curl --fail-with-body \
--url "https://api.apify.com/v2/datasets/$DATASET_ID/items?format=json" \
--header "Authorization: Bearer $APIFY_TOKEN"Change one setting at a time, keep a small cap, and check the run summary before scaling up.
This Actor forces Apify’s GOOGLE_SERP group; other groups do not return usable results. Only the proxy country is honored. Your Apify plan must provide access to that group.
Each row belongs to a query and position. A URL may be reconstructed from Google’s displayed breadcrumbs; inspect url_is_exact and verify uncertain addresses before crawling or joining them to an exact page. Save a dated snapshot for ranking comparisons. This dataset does not contain search volume, paid ads or historical rankings.
Search market as a two-letter code or country name. This changes geographic ranking; it is separate from language and from the proxy’s exit country.
Success means the Actor finished handling the request, not that the source returned data. Check SUMMARY.inputProblem, SUMMARY.problem and the log for missing targets, unsupported filters or refused requests. Test one known target with fewer filters.
Check the global limit, per-search or per-page limits, platform coverage and deduplication. Several searches can find the same record. A source’s headline count can include records the public endpoint does not return. Review unfinished jobs before treating the dataset as complete.
Append query, position, title, url, url_is_exact and collected_at. Parse the domain into its own column, then filter for your site and recurring competitors.
Read the setupAsk Claude to group search intent and compare title themes, citing the query and position. It needs more than search results to judge the full contents or quality of a page.
Read the setupUse a sheet of dated observations to track your rank and how often competitors appear. Keep the country and language the same across runs.
Read the setupPartition observations by collection date and keep query, country and language. Compare ranks for verified domains in SQL. Check reconstructed URLs before treating them as exact page IDs.
Read the setup
Inspect jmlp/google-search-scraper and collect up to 20 organic results for best CRM for small teams in US English. Group headline themes and recurring domains, cite query and position, flag reconstructed URLs, and suggest content questions to research. Do not invent search volumes.Keep the collection time and original IDs with your records. You’ll need them to check where a result came from or compare it with a later run.
The scraper returns organic results. Search volume and paid keyword data need another source. Google results can vary by market and time. Some URLs are reconstructed from breadcrumbs, so check url_is_exact and validate links before crawling them or joining data by page.
No. Its core output contains organic results, rank, title, URL and snippet. Use a separate data source for search volume or keyword difficulty.
No. When Google displays a breadcrumb path, the scraper may reconstruct it. The url_is_exact flag makes that distinction explicit.
Source and current product details: JMLP’s Google Search Actor on Apify.
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