SERP & Keyword Research — Keyword Ideas + SERP API (No API Key · DataForSEO / Ahrefs Alternative)

One keyword in, hundreds of keyword ideas out — plus the live SERP and the questions people actually ask. SERP & Keyword Research is a fast, keyless keyword research API built for SEO workflows and AI agents. Give it a seed keyword and get back real keyword ideas from Google autocomplete, the current organic SERP, People Also Ask questions, and related searches — all in one structured record. A practical DataForSEO / Ahrefs / SEMrush alternative for the core "keyword ideas + SERP + questions" job — no API key, no seat license, no browser.

🏆 Why this keyword research API?

4 data sources in 1 row (autocomplete ideas + SERP + People Also Ask + related) · 100+ real long-tail ideas per seed · batch up to 100 keywords · fully keyless (no DataForSEO/Ahrefs/SEMrush/SerpAPI account) · agent-native pay-per-result. A drop-in SEO MCP tool an AI agent can call mid-task — with no API key.

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✨ What this Actor does / Key features

• 💡 Real keyword ideas — Google autocomplete (the same suggestion engine behind the search box): the queries real users type — the gold standard for long-tail discovery.
• 🔁 Idea expansion modes — standard (seed + question prefixes + modifiers = 100+ ideas), deep (also appends a–z, answer-the-public style), or off (seed suggestions only).
• 🔎 Live SERP — the organic results ranking right now: rank, title, url, snippet, source — a lightweight built-in SERP API.
• ❓ People Also Ask — question-style results for FAQ sections, topic clusters and content briefs.
• 🕸️ Related searches — expand a single seed into a whole topic map for content planning.
• 🤖 Agent-native (SEO MCP) — pay-per-result pricing means an AI agent can research a keyword, pay per result, and reason over the output.
• 📦 Batch — research up to 100 keywords in one run with configurable concurrency.
• 🛡️ Resilient — every source is best-effort and independently guarded; if one returns nothing the others still fill the row, and the Actor never crashes on a single keyword.
• 💾 Export anywhere — download as JSON, CSV or Excel, or read live via the Apify API.

🚀 Quick start (3 steps)

1. Configure — type one or more seed keywords into Keywords (or a single keyword into the Single keyword field), pick a Region / language and toggle what to collect.
2. Run — click Start. Each keyword becomes one dataset row with its ideas, SERP, questions and related searches.
3. Get your data — open the Output tab and export to JSON, CSV or Excel, or read it live via the Apify API.

📥 Input

Give the Actor one or more seed keywords. Everything else has sensible defaults.

Example — single keyword, full research

{
  "keywords": ["mcp server"],
  "maxSerpResults": 10,
  "expansion": "standard",
  "region": "us-en"
}

Example — batch, deep long-tail, German region

{
  "keywords": ["kaffeevollautomat", "espressomaschine", "milchaufschäumer"],
  "expansion": "deep",
  "maxSerpResults": 15,
  "region": "de-de",
  "concurrency": 5
}

Example — ideas + questions only (no SERP), for content briefs

{
  "keyword": "ai agent framework",
  "includeSerp": false,
  "includePaa": true,
  "includeRelated": true,
  "expansion": "standard"
}

Field	Type	Description	Default
keywords	array	One or more seed keywords (batch up to 100). Each becomes one dataset row.	[]
keyword	string	A single seed keyword (use this or keywords).	–
maxSerpResults	integer	Organic results to return per keyword (1–30).	10
includeAutocomplete	boolean	Fetch Google autocomplete keyword ideas.	true
expansion	string	off, standard (seed + questions + modifiers), or deep (also a–z long-tail).	standard
includeSerp	boolean	Return the live organic SERP.	true
includePaa	boolean	Collect People Also Ask questions (best-effort).	true
includeRelated	boolean	Collect related searches for topic expansion.	true
region	string	Region/language code (us-en, uk-en, de-de, fr-fr, es-es…).	us-en
concurrency	integer	Keywords researched in parallel (1–10).	3
useApifyProxy	boolean	Route through Apify datacenter proxy to avoid per-IP rate limits.	true
proxyGroups	array	Override proxy group, e.g. ["RESIDENTIAL"]. Empty = datacenter (AUTO).	[]

📤 Output

One clean dataset row per keyword. Here is a trimmed sample record:

{
  "keyword": "mcp server",
  "region": "us-en",
  "autocompleteSuggestions": [
    "mcp server list",
    "mcp server python",
    "mcp server example",
    "mcp server claude desktop"
  ],
  "serpResults": [
    {
      "rank": 1,
      "title": "Model Context Protocol — Example Servers",
      "url": "https://modelcontextprotocol.io/examples",
      "snippet": "A collection of reference MCP server implementations...",
      "source": "modelcontextprotocol.io"
    }
  ],
  "peopleAlsoAsk": [
    "What is an MCP server?",
    "How do I build an MCP server?"
  ],
  "relatedKeywords": ["mcp client", "mcp tools", "model context protocol"],
  "suggestionCount": 4,
  "serpCount": 10,
  "fetchedAt": "2026-07-06T12:00:00.000Z"
}

Where the data comes from

• Keyword ideas — Google autocomplete (Suggest) JSON. This is the keyword-ideas engine.
• SERP — DuckDuckGo HTML organic results.
• People Also Ask — question blocks parsed from the Bing SERP (best-effort).
• Related keywords — Bing related searches + DuckDuckGo related, merged and deduped.

Every source is best-effort and independently guarded: if one returns nothing, the others still fill the row.

💡 Use cases

• SEO keyword research — turn one seed into hundreds of long-tail keyword ideas in seconds.
• Content briefs & FAQ pages — mine People Also Ask questions and related searches for structure.
• Topic clustering — expand a niche into a full content map for a pillar-and-cluster strategy.
• Rank tracking & SERP analysis — capture who ranks for a term today and how the SERP looks.
• AI agents & automation — a "research this keyword" tool an agent can call mid-task and pay per result.
• Programmatic SEO — feed thousands of seeds and build data-driven landing pages at scale.

👥 Who uses it

SEO specialists & content strategists · programmatic-SEO and affiliate teams · content marketers building briefs and FAQs · growth teams doing topic research · AI-agent builders wiring a keyless keyword/SERP tool · founders validating niches.

💰 Pricing

This Actor runs on a simple pay-per-result model — one charge per keyword that returns data; keywords that return nothing are still saved but never charged. No monthly fee, no seat license, no idle cost. Try it on the free tier first, then scale up. See the Pricing tab on this page for the current rate.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

Is this a DataForSEO / Ahrefs / SEMrush alternative? Yes. It covers the core "keyword ideas + SERP + People Also Ask" job those keyword-research tools are used for, without their API keys or subscriptions. You run it on Apify and pay per result.

Do I need an API key? No. It is fully keyless and works out of the box with Apify's datacenter proxy — no DataForSEO, Ahrefs, SEMrush, Moz or SerpAPI account required.

Where do the keyword ideas come from? From Google autocomplete — the same suggestion engine behind Google's search box. Those are real queries people type, which makes them ideal for long-tail keyword research.

Does it return search volume or keyword difficulty? No. This Actor focuses on keyword ideas, the live SERP and questions — the discovery side of keyword research. It does not estimate monthly search volume or difficulty scores.

Can I get the SERP too? Yes. Each keyword includes the live organic SERP (rank, title, URL, snippet, source) as a built-in SERP API, capped by your maxSerpResults.

Can it find People Also Ask questions? Yes — enable Include People Also Ask and the Actor collects question-style results, ideal for FAQ content and topic clusters. It's best-effort, so it returns an empty list when none are surfaced.

Can I research keywords in other languages / regions? Yes. Set the Region / language field, e.g. uk-en, de-de, fr-fr, es-es. It controls both the autocomplete language and the SERP region.

Can I use it as an AI agent / MCP tool? Yes. It's designed for AI agents via the Apify MCP server — a keyless SEO MCP tool an agent can call to research keywords and analyze the SERP autonomously, paying per result.

How much data can I get? Batch up to 100 seeds per run, each returning 100+ ideas (in standard/deep expansion) plus SERP, questions and related searches.

How do I export the data to CSV or JSON? Run the Actor and download the dataset as JSON, CSV or Excel from the Output tab, or read it live via the Apify API.

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👉 Browse all logiover scrapers on Apify Store — 180+ actors across real estate, jobs, crypto, social media & B2B data.

⏰ Scheduling & integration

Schedule this Actor on Apify to refresh keyword and SERP snapshots daily or weekly. Export results to JSON, CSV or Excel, sync to Google Sheets, or push to your database, BI tools and webhooks through the Apify API. Wire it into Claude, Cursor or any MCP client to let an agent do live keyword research on demand, or connect Make, n8n or Zapier for automated SEO pipelines.

⭐ Support & feedback

Found a bug or need an extra field or region? Open an issue on the Issues tab — response is usually fast. If this Actor saves you time, a ★★★★★ review on the Store page genuinely helps and is hugely appreciated. 🙏

⚖️ Legal

This Actor queries publicly available search suggestions and organic results and is intended for legitimate SEO research, content and analytics use. You are responsible for complying with the underlying search engines' terms and any applicable local laws.

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📝 Changelog

2026-07-06

• ✨ README overhaul: added shields badges, a green "why" callout, a fuller input table (expansion modes, concurrency, proxy), extra ready-to-run example scenarios, an SEO/AI cross-promo grid, and a clearer quick-start.

2026-07-01

• Initial release: keyless keyword ideas (Google autocomplete) + live SERP + People Also Ask + related searches in one record; batch, region/language control, pay-per-result for AI agents.