Rank tracking proxies: View SERPs with city-targeted residential IPs
Search ranking tracking proxies allow you to collect search engine results pages (SERP) from users in various countries and cities. With IPKite rotating residential proxies, you can specify cities to check local search rankings as if you were searching from that location.
Why You Need Proxies for Search Ranking Tracking
Search engines display different results based on the user’s location. The same keyword can show varying rankings, map results, and ads in New York, London, and Tokyo. Searching from a single office location limits results to that area, so local IPs are essential for accurate overseas market rankings.
Rank tracking involves repeatedly checking multiple search terms daily. Distributing search requests across multiple residential IPs ensures consistent results, even with a large number of keywords.
For industries like local businesses, delivery, and travel where location matters, rankings vary significantly by city. Choosing IPs by city lets you accurately see how each location appears to local customers.
IPKite Proxies for Search Ranking Tracking
Rotating residential proxies are best for SERP scraping. Use a new IP per query and append country and city to the username for localized results. For searches with significant city variations, like local business map rankings, always specify the city value.
For mobile search rankings, try mobile proxies. Check mobile search results using cellular IPs.
For large keyword lists, splitting them by country and city into multiple tasks is efficient. With no connection limits, increasing tasks reduces collection time.
Recommended SERP Proxy Settings
Adding language and region values to the search URL and matching the IP location to the same country yields the most accurate results. For consistent comparison, check the same keyword daily with the same city list.
| Item | Recommended value | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| IP method | Rotating | Dividing Requests with a New IP per Keyword |
| Country | Tracking markets | Receive search results by country |
| City | Specify Regional Search Terms | Check city-specific rankings and map results |
| Language Settings | With Language and Region Values in the Search URL | Improve accuracy by matching IP location and language |
| Confirmation cycle | Once a Day, Same Time | Compare ranking changes using the same criteria. |
Rank tracking setup example
Example code showing how to fetch search results separately for New York and Los Angeles IPs. City names should be lowercase English.
Requests multiply based on city and keyword lists. For large keyword lists, dividing tasks by country reduces scraping time.
import requests
serp_url = "https://search.example.com/search?q=coffee+shop&hl=en"
for city in ["newyork", "losangeles"]:
proxy = "http://USERNAME-cc-us-city-" + city + ":PASSWORD@gw.ipkite.com:7000"
r = requests.get(serp_url, proxies={"http": proxy, "https": proxy}, timeout=30)
print(city, r.status_code)Rank tracking cost example
One search results page is about 150KB of HTML. Checking 500 keywords in 10 cities every day comes to 150,000 searches a month and about 22.5GB of traffic. Buying 25GB (10GB+ price, $3.30 per GB) costs $82.50.
Search terms checked weekly see traffic reduced to about 1/7. By dividing important keywords (checked daily) from others (checked weekly), you can track more keywords with the same GB allowance.
| Keywords x Region | Monthly Search Count | Monthly Traffic | Purchase Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 x 5 locations | 15,000 | Approx. 2.3GB | 5GB $18.75 |
| 500 x 10 locations | 150,000 | Approx. 22.5GB | 25GB $82.50 |
| 2,000 x 10 locations | 600,000 times | Approx. 90GB | 100GB $330.00 |
SERP Scraping Items
Search result pages contain more than rankings. Recording these additional elements helps better understand regional search environments:
- Organic Rankings: Track your page vs competitors per keyword
- Address and Title: The URL, title, and description of the result page
- Map Results: List and order of local businesses
- Ad Position: Number and Location of Ads Displayed Above/Below Results
- Additional sections: visibility of images, videos, news, recommended questions
- Scraping conditions: date, country, city, language, device type
Buy SERP Proxies
To purchase SERP proxies, multiply the number of keywords, cities, and check frequency to determine monthly searches, then multiply by the page size to calculate the required GB. For mobile rankings, purchase mobile proxy ports as well.
The purchase process involves topping up balance, selecting products and quantities, and receiving connection details. Connection details appear immediately on the member screen post-purchase.
- Small-scale Tracking: 5GB~10GB
- City-level tracking: 25GB~50GB
- Agency scale: 100GB+
Best practices for rank tracking
Ranking data becomes more valuable the longer it’s accumulated under the same conditions.
- Maintain consistent conditions: Check daily at same time, city, and language settings
- Optimal intervals: Space out search requests evenly
- Check Terms: Review the search service's terms of use and record only public results
- Saving Only Results: Extracting and storing essential data like rankings, URLs, and titles.