Which Google API do you use to creat a rank checking tool?

[therealmarkhall]

I can't seem to work this one out.

Basically I want to make a very simple rank checker tool something similar to http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/ranking-reports/ where a user simply type in a domain and a keyword and in return is shown the position within the results.

The problem is I can’t work out which API's I need in order to build it, does anyone know what I need to poke about with?

It must work with Google and ideally with Bing and the rest

[Entrusteddev]

Hi Mark,

Google doesn't take kindly to automated tools querying SERPs. You may find that if you make a tool for querying serps, it will only work for a number of times before you get the "Prove your human" captcha.

In Google's TOS it says: You specifically agree not to access (or attempt to access) any of the Services through any automated means (including use of scripts or web crawlers).

There are ways around it such as masking IPs and using several differing API keys_, however you would be breaking TOS._

Personally, I'm in the business of keeping Google happy, so I'd steer clear.

Cheers

Aran

[therealmarkhall]

How does any rank checker tool work then? Say the report you can run on SEO moz.

Or any of the ones that you see here

http://goo.gl/2fWd5

[Entrusteddev]

I'm just saying its frown upon, not down right illegal. As i said, there are ways around it.

I happen to know the RankTracker does use the Google API, after a few uses it requires manual input for passing the prove your human captcha.

As for SEOmoz, its a good question, I have no idea how SEOmoz track SERPs, probably a trade secret though!

[Entrusteddev]

not sure if thats the correct tinyurl you have posted in! lol.

http://tinyurl.com/5s2ks2

[therealmarkhall]

http://goo.gl/2fWd5   here we go

[gmellak]

We did some tests with the Google API, but weren't really satisfied with it ... you might want to try scraping results "directly" via a series of different proxies and see if you get better results this way.

[Dan-Petrovic]

Google Webmaster Tools provides rankings, though averaged they can be tweaked to a near accurate value. Their API does not support rankings at this stage, but if enough people kick and scream about it - they may! hint hint

[therealmarkhall]

Which API do you use though? The SOAP is not around anymore and this page http://code.google.com/more/ doesn't have anything that jumps out at me

[therealmarkhall]

I need to create somethng that works on the fly, without any analytics or webmaster account

[Dan-Petrovic]

To my knowledge what you seek does not exist. If you do dig it up please share with the rest of us!

[Entrusteddev]

As gmellak says, you may want to try the scrape approach. However, Its a dirty approach and if you submit too many requests you will get Captchas.

[AaronSchinke]

Has anyone used authoritylabs? They seem to do a decent job...

[JaspalX]

Traffic Travis has a nice  and easy to use free windows app that does what you want (for low volumes). http://www.traffictravis.com/  you'd be better off using a proxy service with it though.