Extract Search Data Like a Pro: Use SERPHouse API with PHP & cURL Today

5 min readApr 2, 2024

Understanding (SERPs) is crucial for SEO success. Extracting valuable insights like top rankings, competitor analysis, and keyword trends allows you to refine your SEO strategy and stay ahead of the curve.

This is where SERP APIs like SERPHouse come in, offering a programmatic way to access rich SERP data.

This comprehensive guide dives into how to leverage the power of SERPHouse’s SERP API with PHP and cURL.

We’ll walk you through the process step-by-step, from acquiring your API key to parsing the retrieved data. Buckle up and get ready to unlock the secrets hidden within SERPs!

Step 1: Setting Up Your SERPHouse Account

Before embarking on your SERP data exploration journey, you’ll need a SERPHouse account.

Head over to SERPHouse:

Sign up for a free plan (paid plans offer increased quotas and features). Once registered, navigate to your account dashboard and locate your API key.

This key acts as your unique identifier for accessing SERPHouse’s API functionalities.

Pro Tip: SERPHouse offers various pricing plans. Explore the options to find one that best suits your data needs and budget.

Step 2: Understanding the SERPHouse API

SERPHouse provides a robust API that allows you to retrieve SERP data for various search engines, including Google, Bing, and Yahoo.

It offers a variety of endpoints catering to specific search types like web, image, and news. Let’s delve into the core concepts:

Endpoints: These are specific URLs within the SERPHouse API that cater to different search functionalities. For instance, the /serp/live endpoint retrieves live SERP data for a given search query.
Parameters: Each endpoint accepts specific parameters that customize your search. These parameters typically include your API key, search query, desired search engine, and additional filters like location and language.

SERPHouse API parameters

Exploring the Documentation: SERPHouse offers comprehensive API documentation that serves as your guide.

This documentation provides detailed information on available endpoints, parameters, and response formats.

Refer to the documentation for the latest updates and a deeper understanding of the API’s capabilities.

SERP API Documentation

Step 3: Grasping cURL and PHP Fundamentals

To interact with the SERPHouse API programmatically, we’ll leverage cURL, a powerful library in PHP for making HTTP requests. If you’re new to cURL, fret not! We’ll break down the basics:

cURL Functions: We’ll primarily utilize functions like curl_init to initialize a cURL session, curl_setopt to set various options like the target URL and request method, and curl_exec to execute the request and retrieve the response.
PHP Variables: We’ll use PHP variables to store parameters like your API key, search query, and desired search engine.

Learning Resources: If you’re unfamiliar with cURL or PHP, there are plenty of excellent online resources that provide tutorials and examples. A quick web search for “cURL tutorial PHP” will point you in the right direction.

Step 4: Building Your PHP Script

Now comes the exciting part of crafting your PHP script to interact with the SERPHouse API! Here’s a breakdown of the steps involved:

Initialization: Begin by initializing a cURL session using curl_init().
Setting the URL: Construct the target URL for the desired SERPHouse API endpoint. Remember to incorporate your API key, search query, and other relevant parameters using the http_build_query function.
Setting Options: Utilize curl_setopt to specify additional options such as the request method (typically GET) and the desired response format (usually JSON).
Executing the Request: Execute the cURL request with curl_exec and store the response in a variable.
Error Handling: Always implement error handling to gracefully handle potential issues like network errors or invalid API keys. Check for errors using curl_errno and retrieve error messages with curl_error.
Closing the Session: Finally, close the cURL session using curl_close to release system resources.

Code Example: Here’s a basic example script demonstrating how to retrieve SERP data for a search query on Google:

<?php

// Replace with your actual API key
$apiKey = "YOUR_API_KEY";

// Define your search query
$searchQuery = "SEO best practices";

// Construct the API URL
$url = "https://api.serphouse.com/serp/live?api_key=" . $apiKey . "&q=" . urlencode($searchQuery) . "&engine=google";

// Initialize cURL session
$ch = curl_init($url);

// Set cURL options
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false); // For demonstration purposes only. Consider enabling SSL verification in production.
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, false);

// Execute the request and store the response
$response = curl_exec($ch);

// Check for errors
if(curl_errno($ch)) {
  echo 'Error: ' . curl_error($ch);
} else {
  // Decode the JSON response
  $data = json_decode($response, true);

  // Process the retrieved data (See Step 5)
  if (isset($data['organic_results'])) {
    $rank = 1;
    foreach ($data['organic_results'] as $result) {
      echo "Rank: " . $rank . " - Title: " . $result['title'] . " - URL: " . $result['link'] . "\n";
      $rank++;
    }
  } else {
    echo "No results found.";
  }
}

// Close cURL session
curl_close($ch);

?>

Explanation:

We replace placeholders with your actual API key and search query.
The urlencode function ensures proper encoding of the search query for the API call.
We set cURL options CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER to capture the response data and CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER to disable SSL verification (replace with proper SSL verification in production).
We decode the JSON response json_decode for easier processing.
The script iterates through the organic_results array (if available) to display the ranking, title, and URL for each search result.

Step 5: Parsing and Utilizing the Data

The SERPHouse API returns data in JSON format. Once you retrieve the response using your PHP script, you can leverage various PHP functions to parse and utilize the data. Here are some examples:

Looping through search results: You can iterate through arrays like organic_results to access individual results and extract relevant information like title, URL, and ranking.

Analyzing SERP features: The API provides data on various SERP features like featured snippets and related searches. You can extract and analyze this data to gain insights into user search intent and content optimization strategies.

Monitoring keyword rankings: By periodically querying the API for your target keywords, you can track your ranking position over time and assess the effectiveness of your SEO efforts.

Remember: The specific data extraction and utilization will depend on your unique needs and goals. Explore the SERPHouse API documentation for a comprehensive breakdown of the available data fields.

Conclusion

By leveraging the SERPHouse SERP API with PHP and cURL, you unlock a powerful tool for extracting valuable insights from search results.

This empowers you to refine your SEO strategy, stay ahead of the competition, and ultimately, achieve greater online visibility.

Remember to adapt the provided script to your specific needs and explore the vast possibilities offered by SERP data analysis.

Bonus Tip: Explore SERPHouse’s additional functionalities like image and news search APIs to gather a holistic view of the search landscape for your target keywords.
This guide equips you with the knowledge to get started. With practice and exploration, you’ll be well on your way to harnessing the power of SERP data for SEO success!