Google Competitor Research Fails With Working Proxies in GSA Keyword Research v4.43

September 14

Hi Sven,

I am using GSA Keyword Research v4.43 and I have a repeatable issue with Google Competitor Research when proxies are enabled.

The important part is that Google works normally without proxies, and the proxies themselves also work outside GSA.

My setup and tests:

GSA Keyword Research v4.43
Search engine: Google
Country: United States
Language: English
Competitor Research (quick)
Example keyword: weight loss

Without proxy

Competitor Research works normally.

GSA returns the Google Top 10 and calculates the SEO Score correctly.

For example:

weight loss

returned a normal SERP and approximately 94% SEO Score.

Proxy provider tested

I am using IPBurger.

I tested both their:

Rotating Residential Proxies
Static ISP / Static Residential Proxy

IPBurger Rotating Residential

Endpoint:

residential.ipb.cloud:7777

Protocol provided by IPBurger:

HTTP

Sticky sessions:

30 minutes

I tested multiple US residential ISP / ASN pools, including:

General / No ISP Selection
Comcast
AT&T Services
Qwest
Sprint
T-Mobile
Time Warner
Cellco

Multiple different sticky session IDs and different residential exit IPs were tested.

Inside GSA, these proxies can pass the built-in Google proxy test.

However, when running:

Tools → Competitor Research (quick)

GSA returns:

Sorry, no search results to parse.
Please check your proxy setup.

IPBurger Static ISP / Static Residential

I also tested a dedicated US Static ISP proxy from IPBurger.

Static ISP address:

217.138.208.66

I tested both proxy modes provided by IPBurger:

HTTP Proxy

Port: 9080
GSA detects/uses it as CONNECT

and:

SOCKSv5 Proxy

Port: 8040
GSA detects it correctly as SOCKS5

In both cases:

GSA built-in Google proxy test passes successfully
proxy connectivity test passes
anonymity/private proxy test passes

But Competitor Research (quick) still returns:

Sorry, no search results to parse.
Please check your proxy setup.

Important control test

The exact same Static ISP proxy works correctly in a normal Chrome browser.

I launched Chrome through the proxy and manually searched Google for:

water damage restoration Aguila AZ

Google returned the complete normal SERP with no CAPTCHA and no unusual traffic page.

So the test matrix is:

Test	Result
GSA Competitor Research without proxy	Works
Chrome through IPBurger Static ISP proxy	Works
GSA built-in Google proxy test	Passes
GSA Competitor Research through HTTP/CONNECT proxy	Fails
GSA Competitor Research through SOCKS5 proxy	Fails

This makes me think the issue may be specific to how GSA Keyword Research sends or parses Google requests when a proxy is enabled, rather than the proxy itself.

The proxy is capable of accessing and searching Google normally in Chrome, and GSA itself marks the proxy as Google-compatible.

Could you please check whether there is any difference in the request/parser used by:

Test Proxies → Google

versus:

Competitor Research (quick) → Google

or whether there is a setting I am missing for authenticated residential/static ISP proxies?

If useful, I can also provide screenshots of:

successful Google SERP in Chrome through the Static ISP proxy
successful GSA Google proxy test
failed Competitor Research result
CONNECT and SOCKS5 proxy configurations

GreenCloud Private Dedicated Proxies

I also tested 15 private dedicated datacenter proxies from GreenCloud.

Setup:

15 private dedicated proxies
Datacenter IPs
Used specifically for Google/Search Engine requests
GSA built-in Google proxy test showed the majority of them as working
I tested with only 2 threads
Automatic delay and additional delays were also tested

However, during actual Competitor Research / SEO Score resolving, GSA quickly started returning:

IP/Proxy banned

and/or:

Sorry, no search results to parse.
Please check your proxy setup.

So I have now reproduced similar Google SERP issues across three different proxy types/providers:

GreenCloud – 15 Private Dedicated Datacenter Proxies
IPBurger – Rotating Residential Proxies
IPBurger – Static ISP / Static Residential Proxy

The GreenCloud dedicated proxies behave somewhat differently from IPBurger: they tend to get marked as banned during sustained Google queries, while IPBurger residential/static proxies usually pass the GSA Google proxy test but still fail when Competitor Research attempts to retrieve/parse the real SERP.

This is why I suspect there may be a difference between the request used by the built-in Google proxy test and the request used by Competitor Research / SEO Score resolving.