Google update makes SERPs hard to crawl – here’s what to do
How to adapt to Google's new anti-scraping updates and keep your SERP data flowing.
In January 2025, Google rolled out updates to its Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) that threw a wrench in traditional scraping methods. These changes, designed to combat scraping, are causing headaches for anyone relying on SERP data for SEO insights or analytics.
What’s changed?
Google now requires JavaScript rendering to display search results. This means the simple days of being able to grab raw HTML are over. Scrapers must simulate a real browser to load and access the Google SERP data.
On top of that, Google has stepped up its bot detection game. It’s monitoring request patterns, flagging unusual behavior, and throwing CAPTCHAs at anything that doesn’t seem human. This means more blocked requests and scrambled data for anyone trying to scrape.
The Web Scraping Club observes: “The first losers of this move will be companies that sell products based on SERP data: SEO tools, SERP data providers, and similar services will see their margins get thinner.”
How to handle the new SERPs
If you’re dealing with Google’s tougher anti-scraping measures, here are two main ways to stay in the game:
Dust off your fleet of headless browsers: Tools like Puppeteer or Playwright will help with JavaScript rendering. Costs will be the key issue here, so watch out. Aside from costs to maintain headless browsers, you need to also consider any time spent to work on managing anti scraping mechanisms that might come up as Google ramps up their defenses.
Use SERP APIs: Look into Google’s official APIs or third-party services offering SERP APIs to get the structured data you need. The Google Custom Search JSON API, for example, is a legitimate option that avoids compliance headaches. Coincidentally, Proxyway recently published its list of the five best SERP APIs in 2025.
Or let a Web Scraping API do all the work
A good Web Scraping API can handle all of this for you. On top of crawling and extracting search result pages, it takes care of browser rendering and manages anti-bot measures for you. When Google makes changes, you won’t need to rebuild your approach—it’s already built to adapt. It’s a no-brainer if you have developers to own and manage it.
Good luck scraping, and let me know if you have questions!
Helpful resources:
The Best SERP Scraping APIs of 2025 from Proxyway
The Guide to Web Scraping APIs from Zyte
The Scriptwall: Why Google is hiding its SERP content behind Javascript from The Web Scraping Club