SERP Tracking

Overview

SERP Tracking captures search engine result pages alongside your AI snapshots. It's how you correlate "what AI engines say about you" with "what shows up in classic search," because most AI engines pull from the same SERP sources. If a page ranks page 3 in Google, it's unlikely to be cited by Perplexity or Gemini either.

Plan gate: Native Google AI Overview and AI Mode capture needs only the serp_tracking feature, which turns on at Pro-Individual and above — AEO Optima captures these surfaces with its own browser, so no connector is required. A SERP provider connector (Serper or DataForSEO) is only needed for Bing Copilot or as an alternative source, and connectors are available from Pro-SME and above.

What gets captured

For each tracked keyword, on each scheduled run, the platform captures:

Configuration

Open Settings → SERP Tracking to configure capture.

Provider

A SERP provider is optional — native Google AI Overview / AI Mode capture is the default and needs no connector. Connect a provider only for Bing Copilot, or if you already subscribe to one and prefer it as an alternative source. Supported:

• DataForSEO — returns the full AI Overview citation list, has a dedicated AI Mode endpoint, and covers Bing organic SERP; granular country/language coverage. AI Overview / AI Mode use the Advanced endpoint (~2× the standard per-query cost).
• Serper — fast, flat per-query pricing, US/EU regions. Best for organic SERP; AI Overview is best-effort only (answer-box fallback) and there is no AI Mode.

When a provider is connected it takes precedence over native capture for AI Overview / AI Mode (your account, your billing), and the pipeline prefers DataForSEO for those surfaces and uses either for plain organic.

Add credentials at Settings → Connectors. Without credentials configured, native Google AI Overview / AI Mode capture still runs — only Bing Copilot and connector-only sources are skipped.

Locations

Add the geographic locations you want to track. Each location has:

• Country code (e.g., US, GB, DE)
• City (optional, for local SERPs)
• Language (e.g., en, es, fr)

Most providers charge per query and per location separately, so adding more locations multiplies your SERP capture cost. See Locations.

Devices

Toggle desktop, mobile, or both. Mobile SERPs often differ significantly from desktop and tend to be what AI engines actually index, so we recommend tracking mobile by default.

Keyword sets

A keyword set is a list of queries to track. You can:

• Add keywords manually (one per line)
• Import from a CSV
• Auto-generate from your prompts via the Query Universe export

Each keyword in each (location × device) combination uses one query credit per cycle.

Schedule

SERP captures run on the same schedule as your snapshots — see Schedules. You can set them to daily, weekly, or custom cadence per project.

The native Google surfaces follow that same schedule. AI Overview and AI Mode are captured with our own browser rather than through a connector, and that capture is retried shortly after your scheduled run to recover any surface the first attempt could not reach — a Google block, or a residential IP that could not be trusted. The retry is part of your scheduled capture, not a second one: it runs only on the days your schedule runs, it skips anything already captured that day, and a project whose schedules are all switched off is not captured at all.

So a weekly project is captured once a week on every surface, native ones included. If you pause a project, it stays paused.

To run a one-off capture, use the Capture now button on the SERP Tracking page or trigger it via the API.

Cost considerations

SERP capture has a cost per query that varies by provider. The math for budgeting:

queries_per_run = keywords × locations × devices
runs_per_month = depends on schedule (daily = ~30, weekly = ~4)
monthly_cost = queries_per_run × runs_per_month × per_query_cost

The platform tracks SERP costs in Cost Tracking under the serp source type. Watch this number — it's the easiest line item to accidentally blow up by adding "just one more location."

Best practices

• Start narrow. Pick the 20-30 keywords that matter most before scaling up. A small, well-tuned set is more useful than a sprawling one you don't review.
• Track mobile, not desktop. Mobile SERPs are closer to what AI engines see, especially for Google.
• Don't duplicate locations unnecessarily. Tracking US and New York, US is rarely worth the extra cost — pick one.
• Use Query Universe exports for keyword sets. The Query Universe knows what your prompts are about; let it pick the keywords for you instead of guessing.
• Audit costs weekly. SERP costs can grow silently if someone adds a new location or doubles the keyword count.

Related docs

• Schedules — when SERP captures run
• Locations — geographic targeting
• Connectors — adding Serper / DataForSEO credentials
• Cost Tracking — monitoring SERP spend