Live SERP Data for AI Agents: How We Added Real-Time Search Intelligence to TeamDay

February 2026. Your AI agent says you rank #3 for a keyword. But when did it last check?

Historical data is great for trends. But SEO moves fast. Google rolls out AI Overviews, competitors launch new pages, featured snippets shuffle daily. You need to see what the SERP looks like right now.

So we built an MCP server that gives AI agents live SERP data.

The Gap in Our SEO Stack

TeamDay already had powerful SEO tools:

• Ahrefs — backlinks, domain rating, keyword difficulty, competitive analysis
• SE Ranking — keyword tracking, site audits, rank monitoring over time
• Google Search Console — your actual click and impression data

But none of these show you what the search results page looks like right now. Ahrefs gives you keyword metrics. SE Ranking tracks your position over time. Search Console shows clicks from yesterday.

What they don't tell you: Is there a featured snippet? Did Google add an AI Overview? Are there local pack results pushing organic down? Is your competitor running ads on your brand?

That's live SERP data. And now TeamDay agents have it.

What We Built: DataForSEO SERP MCP Server

We wrapped the DataForSEO SERP API into an MCP server — the standard protocol that connects tools to AI agents. Six tools that cover everything you need:

The Tools

The cost is negligible. A full SERP lookup costs $0.0025. That's 400 lookups per dollar. New DataForSEO accounts get $1 free credit — enough to run 400+ searches while evaluating.

What You Get Back

When an agent queries google_serp_live, it gets every element on the results page:

• Organic results — rank, title, URL, domain, description
• Featured snippets — the answer box at the top
• Knowledge graph — the info panel on the right
• AI Overview — Google's AI-generated summary
• People Also Ask — related questions
• Local pack — map results with business listings
• Paid ads — who's bidding on the keyword
• Images, videos, news — media carousels

All trimmed to essential fields so your agent doesn't drown in tokens.

How It Works in TeamDay

Setup: 2 Minutes

1. Go to Settings → Integrations in your TeamDay space
2. Find DataForSEO SERP in the marketplace
3. Enter your DataForSEO login email and API password
4. Done — your AI agents now have live SERP access

Real Workflows

Here's what your agents can actually do with this:

1. Competitive SERP Audit

"Show me who ranks for 'ai project management' and what SERP features appear."

Your agent calls google_serp_live and gets back the complete picture: organic rankings, whether there's a featured snippet (and who has it), if Google shows an AI Overview, and what ads are running. In seconds, not hours of manual checking.

2. Content Gap Analysis

"Compare our rankings on Google vs Bing for our top 10 keywords."

The agent queries both google_serp_live and bing_serp_live for each keyword, then summarizes where your rankings differ. Bing often shows different results — and its growing market share (especially through Copilot) makes this worth monitoring.

3. Mobile vs Desktop Comparison

"Check if our rankings differ between mobile and desktop for 'team collaboration tools'."

Pass device: "mobile" vs device: "desktop" and the agent reports the differences. Mobile SERPs often look very different — fewer organic slots, more local results, different featured snippets.

4. YouTube SEO

"What ranks on YouTube for 'claude code tutorial'? Where do our videos appear?"

youtube_serp_live returns video rankings, channels, and playlist results. Essential for video content strategy.

5. Local SERP Monitoring

"What do search results look like for 'ai consulting' in San Francisco vs New York?"

Use google_locations to find the location codes, then run SERP queries for each city. Local results can vary dramatically by geography.

The Full SEO Intelligence Stack

With DataForSEO SERP added, TeamDay agents now have a complete SEO intelligence pipeline:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  1. SERP Snapshot (DataForSEO)                          │
│     What does the results page look like RIGHT NOW?     │
│     → Rankings, features, ads, AI overviews             │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  2. Keyword Intelligence (Ahrefs)                       │
│     How hard is this keyword? What's the traffic?       │
│     → Volume, difficulty, traffic potential, CPC        │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  3. Historical Tracking (SE Ranking)                    │
│     How has our position changed over time?             │
│     → Daily rank tracking, competitor monitoring        │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  4. Real Performance (Search Console)                   │
│     What clicks and impressions did we actually get?    │
│     → CTR, impressions, actual search queries           │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  5. User Behavior (Google Analytics)                    │
│     Do visitors from search actually engage?            │
│     → Bounce rate, time on page, conversions           │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Each tool answers a different question. An AI agent with all five can run a comprehensive SEO analysis autonomously — from SERP analysis to keyword research to performance validation.

Technical Details (For the Curious)

Architecture

The MCP server is a lightweight Node.js process that communicates via stdio (standard input/output):

Claude Agent ←→ MCP Protocol (stdio) ←→ DataForSEO SERP Server ←→ DataForSEO API v3

No dependencies beyond the MCP SDK. Uses native fetch for HTTP, Basic Auth for the API. The server starts instantly and has zero memory footprint when idle.

Response Trimming

DataForSEO returns very detailed SERP data. A single query can produce 50KB+ of JSON with deeply nested element structures. We trim every result to the fields agents actually need:

• type — organic, featured_snippet, knowledge_graph, local_pack, etc.
• rank_group and rank_absolute — position on the page
• title, url, domain, description — the content
• rating, price, snippet — included when present

This keeps token costs reasonable while preserving all actionable information.

Live vs Task-Based

DataForSEO offers both live (synchronous) and task-based (asynchronous) endpoints. We use live endpoints exclusively because:

1. Instant results — no polling, no waiting
2. Stateless — MCP stdio servers don't persist between calls
3. Simpler — one request, one response
4. Covers 95% of use cases — task-based is only needed for bulk operations

Getting Started

If You're Already on TeamDay

1. Open your space's Settings → Integrations
2. Search for "DataForSEO"
3. Add your credentials (sign up here — $1 free credit)
4. Ask your agent: "What does the Google SERP look like for your keyword?"

If You're Using Claude Code Directly

Add to your .mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dataforseo-serp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@teamday/mcp-dataforseo-serp"],
      "env": {
        "DATAFORSEO_LOGIN": "[email protected]",
        "DATAFORSEO_PASSWORD": "your_api_password"
      }
    }
  }
}

Then use tools like:

mcp__dataforseo-serp__google_serp_live(keyword="your keyword", location_code=2840)

Common Location Codes

Use google_locations with a query to find any location code you need.

What's Next

This is v1 — live endpoints covering the most common use cases. Future additions could include:

• SERP screenshots — visual snapshots of search results pages
• Scheduled SERP monitoring — automatic daily checks via TeamDay missions
• SERP diff reports — "what changed since last week?"
• Multi-keyword batch analysis — check 50 keywords in one go

The MCP server is open source in the TeamDay agents repository. Pull requests welcome.

DataForSEO SERP is available now in all TeamDay spaces. Add it from Settings → Integrations, or install directly via npx -y @teamday/mcp-dataforseo-serp.