Proxies & SERM Services: How Proxies Help Reputation Management

According to Reputation X, more than 86% of consumers lose trust in a brand when negative materials appear at the top of search results. For businesses, this translates into direct losses: lower conversion rates and higher marketing costs, which makes SERM activities a critical part of a reputation strategy. Implementation, however, has become far more complex: query limits, CAPTCHAs, and Google’s discontinuation of the &num=100 parameter have sharply reduced the capabilities of standard data collection systems. In this context, using proxies in SERM is not just a technical tweak, but a strategic layer for protecting reputation and a company’s financial resilience.

This article covers:

• how proxies & SERM services integrated;
• which tools are used in practice;
• how technical solutions improve the effectiveness of online reputation management.

What Is SERM?

Search Engine Reputation Management (SERM) is a systematic process for shaping the brand’s information environment in search engines – sometimes referred to as a brand’s search‑engine reputation. The goal is to build a results structure where positive and neutral materials consistently hold the top positions.

Unlike SEO, which focuses exclusively on promoting a specific site, reputation management operates across the broader ecosystem of information sources: search results, review platforms, the press, blogs, and social media – everything that shapes how a brand is perceived online.

How Does SERM SEO Work?

Execution follows staged steps: an audit, brand‑mention analysis, SERM strategy planning, creation and placement of SEO content, and ongoing monitoring and control of search results.

To do this, teams rely on SERM tools such as Google Alerts, Ahrefs, Semrush, Sistrix, Serpstat, Topvisor, media‑monitoring systems, and more. Using these tools is far less costly than dealing with a full‑blown reputation crisis. At the same time, outside factors can make the job substantially harder. In 2024, for example, Google tightened Search Console API usage by introducing per‑second and daily quotas. Even with technical access, companies ran into barriers when they tried to scale data collection. Then, in 2025, Google dropped the &num=100 parameter – confirming that you cannot base brand‑reputation control solely on current search‑engine conditions.

Google Drops num=100: New Challenges for Reputation Management

After Google’s algorithm changes, analytics tools and SERM service platforms could extract a maximum of 10 links per request instead of the previous 100. This constraint multiplied the number of calls required to the search engine. As a result, infrastructure load, quota consumption, and analytical costs all increased.

The effects were immediate. Tyler Gargula (LOCOMOTIVE Agency) reported that 87.7% of sites saw impressions decline in Google Search Console, and 77.6% lost unique search queries.

For businesses, that means higher operating expenses and new technical risks: frequent requests to search engines trigger CAPTCHAs and can lead to temporary access restrictions. Budgets for SEO and SERM rise, and monitoring itself gets harder. Search‑result reputation management has shifted from a supporting activity into a fully fledged operational challenge.

In these conditions, companies need to retool processes:

• deploy proxies to distribute load;
• use asynchronous data‑processing methods;
• revisit budgets for SERM marketing tools.

Only those who adapt to the new rules will keep control over how they appear in search.

How Do Proxies Help SERM?

Effective search‑reputation work requires stable access to data and the ability to scale monitoring without sacrificing accuracy. Proxies have become a cornerstone of SERM infrastructure.

They help solve several problems at once:

• Stable data collection. IP rotation enables high‑frequency requests that remain within platform safeguards.
• Localized results. Residential proxies let teams see what users in different countries and regions actually see – critical for SERM because negative materials are often promoted locally and can go unnoticed otherwise.
• Expanded analytics. With intermediary nodes, you can collect full ranking data, track snippets that mention the brand, verify multilingual site versions, and analyze competitors’ SEO and PR tactics.
• Speed optimization. Routing requests through servers closer to the target region reduces latency and accelerates data retrieval – especially important when working with large data volumes.

In short, proxies & SERM services are a foundational element of the technical stack for reputation management. Without them, companies run up against search‑engine limits, access restrictions, and the inability to observe local markets accurately.

Proxies & SERM Service Tools: A New Approach to Reputation Control

Below are SERM services and their counterparts that integrate well with proxy servers and enable businesses to maintain monitoring accuracy, control the SERP, and achieve durable results even under strict limits and evolving search‑engine policies.

Popular Search Engine Reputation Management Platforms

Ahrefs, Semrush, Sistrix, Serpstat, and Topvisor continue to provide comprehensive analytics on rankings, mentions, and snippet dynamics. However, after &num=100 was removed, the effectiveness of these tools depends heavily on their ability to perform repeated requests without running into CAPTCHAs or other friction.

A practical adjustment is to revisit the depth of monitoring. For companies that already rank near the top, tracking the Top‑10 or Top‑30 is often sufficient, since over 90% of users don’t go past the third page.

Custom Monitoring Solutions

When an analysis must span deeper result sets, it’s more effective to combine residential and mobile proxies (with authentication, IP rotation, and geo‑selection) with custom solutions. This approach scales data collection and yields a representative SERP picture with these advantages:

• With in‑house parsers plus proxies, you can collect the full depth of results (Top‑50, Top‑100, and beyond), not just the first 10–30 positions that many SaaS platforms cap.
• You can analyze snippet dynamics and SERP features (knowledge panels, People Also Ask, review blocks) that SaaS tools often truncate or surface with delays.
• You can tune monitoring frequency and depth to the task at hand: daily Top‑10 control for branded queries or weekly Top‑1000 collection for a large keyword pool.

Custom solutions may be your own parsers or open‑source frameworks, detailed below.

Open‑Source Frameworks and SERP Parsers

For teams with limited budgets that still need complete search results, open‑source scripts and frameworks are often the best fit.

• Playwright and Puppeteer (Node.js / Python). Headless browsers for rendering dynamic pages and handling cookie‑consent flows. Combined with clustering (e.g., puppeteer‑cluster), they allow parallel processing of up to 10 requests (pages 1–10) per keyword, assigning a separate proxy to each tab. This delivers stable, scalable parsing when you have many keywords.
• Scrapy (Python). A robust framework for systematic search‑data collection with built‑in IP rotation, proxy integration, and request‑interval control. Suitable for SERM systems that require regular mention monitoring: it queues tasks, automatically retries failed requests, and saves results in structured formats (JSON, CSV, databases).
• se‑scraper (Node.js). A ready‑made solution based on Puppeteer, purpose‑built for scraping search results. It supports proxy pools, parallel jobs, and exports structured data (URLs, titles, snippets, positions). Ideal for spinning up a SERM parser quickly without writing everything from scratch.
• Search‑Engines‑Scraper (Python). A lightweight library that integrates with Google, Bing, and other engines. It works through connected proxies, supports parameterized queries, and automates result handling–well suited to small companies and pilot projects.
• Helium Scraper. A GUI tool for building parsers visually, without coding. It combines ease of use with the capabilities of advanced scrapers: teams can visually configure search‑engine traversal, set result depth (up to 10 pages), and control request frequency. This is especially helpful for SMBs without a dedicated engineering team but with an ongoing SERM‑monitoring need.

Proxy Types Suited to SERM

Choosing the right intermediary server has a direct impact on analytical quality and stability. SERM typically uses four proxy types: residential, mobile, ISP, and datacenter. At Proxy‑Seller, we work with all of them and tailor configurations to specific SERM tasks–from local monitoring to large‑scale reputation programs.

• Residential proxies are dynamic and ideal for regular SERP parsing, snippet‑dynamics analysis, and regional queries. Average pricing starts at $3.5 per 1 GB in a pay‑as‑you‑go model, which makes them a flexible option for agencies and teams with variable load.
• Mobile dynamic IPs are used for discreet SERM activities: testing reviews, publishing expert materials, or analyzing behavioral signals. Average pricing starts at $55 for two weeks, with rotation by time and by URL supported.
• ISP ones are static and provide stable connections, high speed, and minimal risk of access issues. They’re particularly effective for corporate SERM systems where stable sessions and precise geotargeting are important. IPs can be chosen by the target region. Pricing starts at $1.05 per IP, with large pools–tens of thousands of addresses – available at better rates in bundled offers.
• Datacenter proxies are the fastest and most economical, but less reliable for reputation‑management tasks due to a higher risk of access challenges from search engines. They use IP addresses belonging to hosting providers, which makes them convenient for supporting tasks: testing, internal analytics, and benchmarking. Average pricing starts at $0.82 for IPv4 and $0.08 for IPv6, making them the most affordable option for high‑volume querying.

Conclusion

Modern SERM analysis goes far beyond reviews and SEO. With constant algorithm changes, API constraints, and stricter anti‑bot policies, process resilience depends directly on technical infrastructure. Proxy networks aren’t just an auxiliary tool–they’re the backbone of a reliable, successful strategy.

For specialists handling large data volumes across geographically distributed markets, the optimal setup is a mix of residential and mobile dynamic proxies. Together, they keep analytics accurate, operate within platform conditions, and allow you to scale monitoring.

Integrating proxies into SERM workflows is an investment in resilient analytics and the ability to get a complete, trustworthy view of the SERP – even as search‑engine rules keep changing.

FAQ

How do you collect full results without &num=100?

Use parsers and frameworks such as Playwright, Puppeteer, Scrapy, and se‑scraper. Configure proxy rotation for 10 sequential requests (pages 1–10). Employ clustering and asynchronous scripts for automation.

How do you obtain accurate regional results with custom parsing?

Use proxies from the target region so the SERP matches what a local user sees. This is critical when negative materials are pushed in specific countries or cities.

How do you keep parsing stable?

Work within platform limits by rotating IPs and User‑Agents, adding request delays, and distributing load across an IP pool.