Google Maps Business Scraper A powerful and beginner-friendly Apify actor for scraping business listings from Google Maps. Extract business names, ratings, reviews, addresses, phone numbers, and more for lead generation, market research, and competitive analysis. ## Features - Easy to use: Simple search query input - Comprehensive data: Name, rating, reviews, address, phone, category - Flexible: Customizable result limits and language options - Optional extras: Extract reviews and images - Fast & reliable: Built with Crawlee and Puppeteer - Scalable: Run on Apify's cloud infrastructure ## Use Cases - Lead Generation: Find potential customers in specific locations - Market Research: Analyze competitors and market trends - Business Intelligence: Build databases of local businesses - SEO Analysis: Gather data for local SEO strategies - Directory Building: Create comprehensive business directories ## Input Parameters | Parameter | Type | Required | Default | Description | |-----------|------|----------|---------|-------------| | searchQuery | String | Yes | - | What to search for (e.g., "restaurants in New York") | | maxResults | Integer | No | 20 | Maximum number of businesses to scrape (1-500) | | language | String | No | "en" | Google Maps interface language | | includeReviews | Boolean | No | false | Extract reviews for each business | | maxReviews | Integer | No | 5 | Max reviews per business (1-50) | | includeImages | Boolean | No | false | Extract image URLs | ## Example Input json { "searchQuery": "coffee shops in San Francisco", "maxResults": 50, "language": "en", "includeReviews": false, "maxReviews": 5, "includeImages": false } ## Output Format Each business listing includes: json { "name": "Blue Bottle Coffee", "rating": 4.5, "reviewCount": 1234, "category": "Coffee shop", "address": "315 Linden St, San Francisco, CA 94102", "phone": "(510) 653-3394", "url": "https://www.google.com/maps/place/...", "searchQuery": "coffee shops in San Francisco", "scrapedAt": "2025-01-15T10:30:00.000Z" } ## Getting Started - Step by Step ### Step 1: Prerequisites Before you begin, make sure you have: - Node.js 18+ installed (Download here) - An Apify account (free tier available at apify.com) - Git installed (optional, for version control) ### Step 2: Set Up Locally 1. Navigate to the project folder bash cd google-maps-scraper 2. Install dependencies (this will take 2-3 minutes as it downloads Chromium) bash npm install 3. Edit INPUT.json with your search query json { "searchQuery": "coffee shops in San Francisco", "maxResults": 20, "language": "en", "includeReviews": false, "maxReviews": 5, "includeImages": false } 4. Run the scraper locally bash npm start 5. View results in storage/datasets/default/ folder (JSON files) ### Step 3: Deploy to Apify Platform 1. Install Apify CLI (one-time setup) bash npm install -g apify-cli 2. Login to your Apify account bash apify login - This will open your browser to authenticate - Copy your API token from Apify Console 3. Initialize the actor (if not already done) bash apify init - Follow the prompts or press Enter to accept defaults 4. Push to Apify platform bash apify push - This uploads your code to Apify - Takes 1-2 minutes for first deployment 5. Test on Apify platform - Go to console.apify.com - Find your actor under "Actors" - Click "Try it" and enter your search query - Click "Start" and watch it run! ### Step 4: Publish & Monetize (Start Earning!) 1. Prepare your actor for publication - Add screenshots (run locally and capture results) - Write a clear description - Test thoroughly with different search queries 2. Set actor visibility to Public - Go to your actor settings in Apify Console - Change "Visibility" from Private to Public - Your actor will appear in Apify Store! 3. Configure pricing (Optional - for paid actors) - Go to "Settings" → "Monetization" - Enable "Paid runs" - Set price per compute unit (recommended: $0.50-$2.00 per 1000 results) - Or offer free tier with paid upgrades 4. Optimize your actor listing - Add a compelling title: "Google Maps Scraper - Fast Business Data Extraction" - Write detailed description with use cases - Add 3-5 screenshots showing: - Input configuration - Running actor - Output results - Use cases - Add relevant tags: lead-generation, google-maps, scraper, business-data 5. Market your actor - Share on social media (LinkedIn, Twitter, Reddit) - Write a blog post about use cases - Create a YouTube tutorial - Join Apify Discord/Slack community - Respond to user questions quickly 6. Monitor and improve - Check analytics in Apify Console - Read user feedback and ratings - Fix bugs quickly - Add requested features - Keep it updated when Google Maps changes ### Step 5: Advanced Features (Increase Value) To earn more, consider adding: 1. More data points - Business hours - Website URLs - Popular times - Place IDs - Coordinates (latitude/longitude) 2. Bulk processing - Multiple search queries at once - City-wide scanning - Export to different formats (CSV, Excel, Google Sheets) 3. Smart features - Email finder integration - Duplicate detection - Data validation - Auto-categorization 4. Premium options - Deep review extraction - Competitor analysis - Change tracking (monitor price/rating changes) - API access ### Quick Start Commands bash # Clone and setup cd google-maps-scraper npm install # Test locally npm start # Deploy to Apify apify login apify push # Update existing actor apify push ## Tips for Best Results 1. Be specific with queries: "Italian restaurants in Manhattan" works better than "restaurants" 2. Use location names: Include city, neighborhood, or zip code 3. Start small: Test with 20-50 results before scaling up 4. Check rate limits: Google may throttle excessive requests 5. Verify data: Always validate extracted data for accuracy ## Limitations - Google Maps may change their layout, requiring updates - Very high volumes may trigger rate limiting - Some businesses may have incomplete information - Review and image extraction adds processing time ## Pricing on Apify Running costs depend on: - Number of results scraped - Whether reviews/images are included - Platform compute units used Estimated cost: $0.01-0.05 per 100 results (varies by complexity) ## Monetization Strategy - How to Earn Money ### Pricing Models Option 1: Free with Premium Features - Free tier: Up to 100 results per run - Premium: Unlimited results, reviews, images ($5-20/month subscription) Option 2: Pay-per-Use - $0.50-$1.00 per 1000 results - $0.10-$0.25 per 100 reviews extracted - Bulk discounts for large volumes Option 3: Freemium - 100 free credits per month - Additional usage charged per compute unit ### Revenue Expectations (Realistic Estimates) Month 1-3: $0-$100/month - Building reputation - Getting first users - Collecting reviews Month 4-6: $100-$500/month - Established presence - Regular users - Good ratings (4.5+) Month 7-12: $500-$2000/month - Popular in store - Word of mouth - Featured placement potential Year 2+: $2000-$5000+/month - Top performer status - Enterprise clients - Strong brand recognition ### Success Factors 1. Quality - Fast, accurate, reliable 2. Support - Respond within 24 hours 3. Updates - Fix issues within 1 week 4. Marketing - Active promotion 5. Features - Regular improvements 6. Documentation - Clear guides and examples ### Marketing Checklist - [ ] Create Apify Store listing with great screenshots - [ ] Write blog post on Medium/Dev.to about use cases - [ ] Share on LinkedIn with case study - [ ] Post on Reddit (r/entrepreneur, r/sales, r/SaaS) - [ ] Create YouTube tutorial (screen recording) - [ ] Join Apify community and help users - [ ] Add to Product Hunt - [ ] Create Twitter thread about the tool - [ ] Reach out to lead generation companies - [ ] Guest post on marketing blogs ### Support & Help For Users - Documentation: This README - Issues: Report on GitHub - Apify Docs: docs.apify.com - Community: Apify Discord For Developers - Apify SDK Docs: crawlee.dev - Actor Examples: apify.com/store - Best Practices: docs.apify.com/academy ## Technical Details - Platform: Apify - Framework: Crawlee 3.x - Browser: Puppeteer with Chromium - Language: Node.js (ES modules) - License: Apache-2.0 ## Legal & Ethical Use - For personal and commercial use - Respect Google's Terms of Service - Use reasonable rate limits - Don't scrape personal/private data - Follow data protection laws (GDPR, CCPA) ## Version History - 1.0.0 - Initial release with core scraping functionality ## Contributing Contributions welcome! Feel free to submit issues and pull requests. --- Built with ❤️ for the Apify community