# SEO Service Area Visibility Checker (`crawlerbros/seo-service-area-visibility`) Actor

Check a target domain's Google SERP visibility across multiple cities and keywords. Returns per-(keyword,city) rank and top competitors, plus a summary visibility score.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/crawlerbros/seo-service-area-visibility.md
- **Developed by:** [Crawler Bros](https://apify.com/crawlerbros) (community)
- **Categories:** SEO tools, Developer tools, Other
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 0 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $5.00 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event and usage. You are charged both the fixed price for specific events and for Apify platform usage.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## SEO Service Area Visibility Checker

Track a target domain's Google SERP rank across multiple keywords × cities. Emits one row per (keyword, city) pair plus a summary row with visibility score and top competitors.

### What this actor extracts

**Per (keyword, city) row** (`type="visibility_row"`):

- `keyword`, `city`, `country`, `targetDomain`
- `rank` (1-based; `0` if not in top N)
- `inTopResults`, `resultCount`
- `serpRows` (list of `{rank, domain, title, url}`)
- `scrapedAt`

**Summary row** (`type="visibility_summary"`, emitted once at end):

- `targetDomain`, `totalQueries`, `successfulQueries`, `failedQueries`, `rankedQueries`
- `visibilityScore` (% — higher is better; `sum(1/rank) / successful * 100`)
- `citiesCovered`, `citiesMissing` (sorted lists)
- `topCompetitors` (top 10 domains by appearance count)
- `scrapedAt`

### Input

| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| `targetDomain` | string | Domain to track (e.g. "example.com"). Required. |
| `keywords` | string\[] | List of service keywords (e.g. "plumber"). Required. |
| `cities` | string\[] | Service area cities. Required. |
| `country` | enum | Google `gl` code (default `us`). |
| `language` | enum | Google `hl` code (default `en`). |
| `maxResults` | integer | Organic results per query (1-20, default 10). |
| `includeCompetitors` | boolean | Include top competitors in summary row. |

### How it works

For each (keyword, city) pair the actor:

1. Builds a UULE-encoded Google Search URL with the city as location context.
2. Fetches the SERP via `curl_cffi` (Chrome TLS fingerprint) through a fresh Apify RESIDENTIAL proxy session.
3. Parses organic results from `div#rso > div.MjjYud` / `div.g` with BeautifulSoup.
4. Finds the target domain's rank (1-based) among organic results.
5. Tracks competitors across all queries.

At the end it emits one summary row with the overall visibility score and city coverage.

- Hardcoded RESIDENTIAL proxy pool; country follows the `country` input.
- No cookies or login required.
- 1024 MB memory.

### Limitations

- **UULE coverage**: Google respects UULE for most cities in supported countries. Small / ambiguous city names may fall back to the country-level SERP.
- **Rate limits**: Google rate-limits aggressively. Each query rotates proxy session.
- **20 results max**: Google's `num` param caps at 20 results per page.
- **SERP shape drift**: If Google changes its card CSS classes the parser may return zero results per query. Report a drift and we'll update.

### FAQ

**Do I need a Google API key?** No — we scrape public HTML SERPs directly.

**Does it respect `robots.txt`?** Google's `robots.txt` disallows `/search`. This actor is for legitimate SEO tracking of your own domains.

**How is `visibilityScore` calculated?** `sum(1/rank for each ranked query) / successfulQueries * 100`. A domain ranked #1 on every query gets 100; #2 everywhere gets 50; not-ranked queries contribute 0.

# Actor input Schema

## `targetDomain` (type: `string`):

Your domain to track (e.g. 'example.com'). No protocol, no trailing slash.

## `keywords` (type: `array`):

List of service keywords to check (e.g. 'plumber', 'bakery').

## `cities` (type: `array`):

List of city names. Each keyword is queried once per city with location context.

## `country` (type: `string`):

Two-letter Google country code.

## `language` (type: `string`):

Two-letter Google language code.

## `maxResults` (type: `integer`):

How many organic results to parse per query (Google caps at 100).

## `maxQueryRetries` (type: `integer`):

How many times to retry a single (keyword, city) query on failure.

## `retryBackoffMs` (type: `integer`):

Wait time between retries in milliseconds.

## `includeCompetitors` (type: `boolean`):

Include top competitor domains in the summary row.

## `perQuerySession` (type: `boolean`):

Rotate the Apify GOOGLE\_SERP proxy session on every (keyword, city) to minimise soft-blocks. Default on.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "targetDomain": "wikipedia.org",
  "keywords": [
    "albert einstein biography"
  ],
  "cities": [
    "New York"
  ],
  "country": "us",
  "language": "en",
  "maxResults": 10,
  "maxQueryRetries": 2,
  "retryBackoffMs": 2000,
  "includeCompetitors": true,
  "perQuerySession": true
}
```

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "targetDomain": "wikipedia.org",
    "keywords": [
        "albert einstein biography"
    ],
    "cities": [
        "New York"
    ],
    "maxResults": 10
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("crawlerbros/seo-service-area-visibility").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "targetDomain": "wikipedia.org",
    "keywords": ["albert einstein biography"],
    "cities": ["New York"],
    "maxResults": 10,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("crawlerbros/seo-service-area-visibility").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"])
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "targetDomain": "wikipedia.org",
  "keywords": [
    "albert einstein biography"
  ],
  "cities": [
    "New York"
  ],
  "maxResults": 10
}' |
apify call crawlerbros/seo-service-area-visibility --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=crawlerbros/seo-service-area-visibility",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/AZJsdcjOO0eWqU9AU/builds/uzwORmCNv4SL3H8Bw/openapi.json