SERP & AEO/GEO Landscape - Q3 2026
Search used to mean one market. Now it's two.
Reading search results at scale is the mature half, with plenty of M&A, while new entrants raise gobs of money to sell what Google won't: bulk API access to a current web index. Oxylabs bought ScrapingBee, Adobe closed on Semrush in April, Nebius bought Tavily and Microsoft retired the Bing Web Search API outright.
Measuring whether ChatGPT and Perplexity mention your brand is the other market. It already has dozens of companies, including a unicorn in Profound and an exit in Scrunch AI at around $225M to Sitecore.
To map it, we split the ecosystem into 11 layers: core Google SERP APIs, multi-engine SERP APIs, AI search and answer APIs, structured and vertical SERP, rank trackers, SEO and AEO suites, AEO/GEO visibility and monitoring, GEO/AEO technical tools, agencies, proxy and IP infrastructure and the data and media layer underneath all of it.
Highlights:
Core Google SERP APIs: SerpApi, Serper, HasData, Traject Data
Multi-Engine SERP APIs: Brave Search API, ScraperAPI, Crawlbase, Scrapingdog
AI Search & Answer APIs: Exa, Tavily, Parallel Web Systems, Firecrawl, Linkup
Structured SERP & Vertical: DataForSEO, Apify, Zyte, Scrapfly
Rank Trackers: AccuRanker, SE Ranking, Dragon Metrics, Nightwatch
SEO & AEO Suites: Semrush, Ahrefs, Conductor, BrightEdge, Maintouch
AEO/GEO Visibility: Profound, AthenaHQ, Peec AI, Brandlight, Evertune AI
GEO/AEO Technical Tools: inLinks, WordLift, Yext, Schema App
SEO & GEO Agencies: iPullRank, NoGood, Siege Media, Omniscient Digital
Proxy / IP Infrastructure: Massive, Oxylabs.io, Bright Data, IPXO
Data, Media & Intelligence: Similarweb, Datarade, Search Engine Land
The two halves need each other more than either side admits. You can't measure AI visibility without querying AI engines at scale from real locations, which is the same infrastructure problem the left side of this map spent a decade solving.
Massive sits on both sides. Proxy and IP infrastructure underneath, Web Render for the query layer on top.
Corrections and additions welcome. I'll update the next one.
Search used to mean one market. Now it's two.
Reading search results at scale is the mature half, with plenty of M&A, while new entrants raise gobs of money to sell what Google won't: bulk API access to a current web index. Oxylabs bought ScrapingBee, Adobe closed on Semrush in April, Nebius bought Tavily and Microsoft retired the Bing Web Search API outright.
Measuring whether ChatGPT and Perplexity mention your brand is the other market. It already has dozens of companies, including a unicorn in Profound and an exit in Scrunch AI at around $225M to Sitecore.
To map it, we split the ecosystem into 11 layers: core Google SERP APIs, multi-engine SERP APIs, AI search and answer APIs, structured and vertical SERP, rank trackers, SEO and AEO suites, AEO/GEO visibility and monitoring, GEO/AEO technical tools, agencies, proxy and IP infrastructure and the data and media layer underneath all of it.
Highlights:
Core Google SERP APIs: SerpApi, Serper, HasData, Traject Data
Multi-Engine SERP APIs: Brave Search API, ScraperAPI, Crawlbase, Scrapingdog
AI Search & Answer APIs: Exa, Tavily, Parallel Web Systems, Firecrawl, Linkup
Structured SERP & Vertical: DataForSEO, Apify, Zyte, Scrapfly
Rank Trackers: AccuRanker, SE Ranking, Dragon Metrics, Nightwatch
SEO & AEO Suites: Semrush, Ahrefs, Conductor, BrightEdge, Maintouch
AEO/GEO Visibility: Profound, AthenaHQ, Peec AI, Brandlight, Evertune AI
GEO/AEO Technical Tools: inLinks, WordLift, Yext, Schema App
SEO & GEO Agencies: iPullRank, NoGood, Siege Media, Omniscient Digital
Proxy / IP Infrastructure: Massive, Oxylabs.io, Bright Data, IPXO
Data, Media & Intelligence: Similarweb, Datarade, Search Engine Land
The two halves need each other more than either side admits. You can't measure AI visibility without querying AI engines at scale from real locations, which is the same infrastructure problem the left side of this map spent a decade solving.
Massive sits on both sides. Proxy and IP infrastructure underneath, Web Render for the query layer on top.
Corrections and additions welcome. I'll update the next one.
As posted by Jason Grad on LinkedIn.