Can you retrieve your SERP position via API?
 

Or is scraping the only way it works?

I have no idea.

What do you mean? Sorry I'm maybe tired but can't understand what you mean, retrieving lost SERP standing via API...

Huh?

:D

Best way to do it is to scrape from what I know, then log updates. Rumor has it some people some how pay for a commercial key to the api but it doesn't sound any more reliable - maybe people are using a mixture.

A commercial key would be fine (depending on the cost I suppose) if it worked. I mean scraping is fine too, but I am looking at tracking a large number of keywords, and in this case you're a little limited by IP restrictions. So I'd have to assume that those tracking a large number of terms are doing so across a large number of IPs.

Just starting to try and piece together some ideas for some custom research software I want to get put together. I know a lot of what I want to do can be handled via APIs, but it seems like scraping is the only method that will really do for this.

If that is the case are private proxies the way to go, or is it possible to get ARIN justification for this type of purpose? Any hosting out there that you can easily dig up a large block of IPs with? I'd be looking at needing international IPs too, so I'd have to assume private proxies would be the best bet.

Yes, I want to make a direct call to Google and plop my site at #1 for all the terms I'm competing for. :upsidedow

The problem is your result appears differently depending on which data centre you're hitting and where you're searching from (ie: Canada vs USA). So even determining your SERP is rather difficult as it varies widely.
WG

lol, that would save me countless hours :)
WG

Thus the need for a range of international IPs. Besides that, what does it really matter where I stand in the UK, when I'm promoting on offer that only pays on US leads, or vice versa. My focus is predominately placed on US traffic anyways, and for the most part things being perfect" are not a concern. The concern is that I am trending upward, not exactly what spot I am sitting at.

Exactly. The best bet is to use proxies from US since you want to retrieve results from US.

So we've established that Google has more than one datacenter, determining SERP rank isn't always perfect, and that US proxies will determine US results. Derp derp derp...

Based on the above, getting results from an API is pretty damn difficult and you'll probably never get very accurate results...
WG

Any idea if the same IP restrictions apply to searches performed through the Custom Search API? I'd assume so, but some verification would be sweet. If anyone experienced with this sort of thing is down for a brief ICQ chat on the subject, I've got some questions. Don't be shy...