Google is the numero uno when it comes to search engines as most users prefer it over other options. Due to this, businesses are always looking at ways to scrape data from these search results. One of the ways of capturing it is by using the Google search API.
Why use Google Search API?
Businesses do SEO of their website as a way to organically reach the top rank. To reach that keeping a track of the keywords used for search queries is essential. That further helps in optimizing your website to get more hits. Using Google Search API helps you achieve this and more. Here are some of the benefits of using it:
- Integration: One of the major advantages of using it is that it can quickly integrate with the other content, applications, etc in the website.
- Adapt to technology quickly: Using API helps to get equipped with the latest features quickly and easily. So any technological changes can be implemented quickly to stay up to date.
- Automation: One of the key advantages of using APIs like Google JSON API is that nothing is manual. It can be used to update workflows easily which means more productivity.
Capture and Record Search Results
Get access to google search API
To start using the API it needs to be first downloaded and installed. One can sign up for a developer account from any API marketplace. That can help in getting access to APIs as well as get help from the developer community. Once you have signed up to the account then you can check for any subscription options that are available for Google Search API. Now you have access to the API console, it can then be used to build your applications.
Using the search API
Web developers, once they learn how to add google search bar, can then use the API to scrape for data. Here is how it is done:
- Using the endpoints
The interface has two endpoints where various input parameters can be used to get the search data. The ‘Get get search’ is one endpoint where the input is the search string and the output is the search results. The search results are in the JSON array format which then needs to be customized. The other endpoint is the ‘POST post search’ where the JSON object (search query + the maximum results that should be displayed) as input and search results as output.
- Build a script to collect the results
Utilizing the Google Search API a script can be written so that it can record the results. The script can be used to keep track of the rankings of the keywords or any other input of your choice. It can further be automated to run as and when you need to reduce manual effort. When the script is run, it will create an HTML file that contains the results.
- Prerequisites for building the script
Depending on the language being used to build the script libraries and runtime environment needs to be set up. For example, if you are writing a Python script a templating engine needs to be installed. Libraries have to be downloaded to convert the request and response into a readable format.
The google search API allows you to get and display search results programmatically. With this, it can be used to get a text search or image search results. Irrespective of the end result, the script that you write will have a lot of data that can be leveraged for making the right marketing decisions.
