Universal Business Directory Intelligence

Find, verify, enrich, qualify, and export businesses across multiple industries and locations using public directories, open business data, and official company websites.

Universal Business Directory Intelligence (UBDIP) supports three workflows:

• Automatic source selection — provide industries and locations, and UBDIP selects suitable available sources.
• Specified-source discovery — provide industries, locations, directory platforms, and exact public directory URLs.
• Direct-directory extraction — provide one public directory URL and extract its available business listings and profiles.

Results are normalized, deduplicated, qualified, and delivered as an Apify dataset, CSV file, and structured XLSX workbook with request context, source attribution, and transparent diagnostics.

What you receive

Depending on what the selected public sources publish, records can include:

• business name and category;
• products and services;
• street address, city, state or region, postal code, and country;
• phone numbers and email addresses;
• official website;
• LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and X/Twitter profiles;
• business hours;
• directory page and business profile URLs;
• requested industry and location assignment;
• relevance, qualification, and contact-readiness indicators;
• missing-information indicators;
• source attribution and field-level provenance.

CSV and XLSX exports are created when enabled in the input.

Choose a workflow

Workflow	What you provide	What UBDIP does
Automatic source selection	Industries, locations, country, and maximum results	Selects suitable available sources and searches the complete industry × location matrix
Specified-source discovery	Industries, locations, requested platforms, and scoped directory URLs	Searches only the sources you explicitly supply
Direct-directory extraction	One public directory URL and result limits	Discovers listings, follows available profile pages, and exports directory businesses

Quick start: automatic business search

Use this small public example for a fast first run. Replace the industry and location with your own request.

{
  "mode": "auto",
  "sourceStrategy": "automatic",
  "search": {
    "industryCount": 1,
    "keyword": [
      "accounting firms"
    ],
    "locationCount": 1,
    "location": [
      "Austin, TX"
    ],
    "country": "USA",
    "maxResults": 10,
    "maxResultsPerSearch": 10,
    "maxCombinations": 1
  },
  "enableProfileEnrichment": true,
  "maxProfilePages": 10,
  "enableWebsiteEnrichment": false,
  "confidenceThreshold": 0,
  "outputCsv": true,
  "outputXlsx": true,
  "outputColumnsMode": "default",
  "outputBaseName": "business_directory_intelligence",
  "debug": false
}

This request creates one search combination:

1 industry × 1 location = 1 search combination

Workflow 1: automatic source selection

Use sourceStrategy: "automatic" when you want UBDIP to select suitable available sources for the requested industries and locations.

For a multi-industry and multi-location search, supply the corresponding counts and lists:

{
  "mode": "auto",
  "sourceStrategy": "automatic",
  "search": {
    "industryCount": 3,
    "keyword": [
      "accounting firms",
      "digital marketing agencies",
      "real estate"
    ],
    "locationCount": 3,
    "location": [
      "Rochester, NY",
      "Poughkeepsie, NY",
      "Austin, TX"
    ],
    "country": "USA",
    "maxResults": 45,
    "maxResultsPerSearch": 10,
    "maxCombinations": 9
  },
  "enableProfileEnrichment": true,
  "maxProfilePages": 45,
  "enableWebsiteEnrichment": false,
  "confidenceThreshold": 0,
  "outputCsv": true,
  "outputXlsx": true,
  "outputColumnsMode": "default",
  "outputBaseName": "automatic_business_search",
  "debug": false
}

UBDIP validates the declared counts and creates nine search combinations.

Workflow 2: specified-source discovery

Use sourceStrategy: "specified" when you want UBDIP to search only the public directory sources you provide. Each target can be scoped to a location and country.

{
  "mode": "auto",
  "sourceStrategy": "specified",
  "search": {
    "industryCount": 2,
    "keyword": [
      "accounting firms",
      "digital marketing agencies"
    ],
    "locationCount": 2,
    "location": [
      "Rochester, NY",
      "Poughkeepsie, NY"
    ],
    "country": "USA",
    "directories": [
      "growthzone",
      "chambermaster"
    ],
    "maxResults": 20,
    "maxResultsPerSearch": 10,
    "maxCombinations": 4
  },
  "directoryTargets": [
    {
      "directory": "growthzone",
      "url": "https://greaterrochesterchamber.growthzoneapp.com/memberdirectory/Index/4458",
      "location": "Rochester, NY",
      "country": "USA"
    },
    {
      "directory": "chambermaster",
      "url": "https://dutchesscountyregionalchamberny.chambermaster.com/list/",
      "location": "Poughkeepsie, NY",
      "country": "USA"
    }
  ],
  "enableProfileEnrichment": true,
  "maxProfilePages": 20,
  "enableWebsiteEnrichment": false,
  "confidenceThreshold": 0,
  "outputCsv": true,
  "outputXlsx": true,
  "outputColumnsMode": "default",
  "outputBaseName": "specified_source_business_search",
  "debug": false
}

Specified-source mode does not expand the request to unrelated sources. A result shortfall can therefore be valid when the selected directories do not contain enough relevant businesses.

Workflow 3: direct-directory extraction

Use direct-directory mode when you want to process a supplied public business directory without requesting keyword and location qualification.

{
  "mode": "generic_directory",
  "startUrls": [
    {
      "url": "https://kingsleydda.com/dda-business-directory/"
    }
  ],
  "maxListings": 10,
  "maxPages": 1,
  "enableProfileEnrichment": true,
  "maxProfilePages": 10,
  "enableWebsiteEnrichment": false,
  "confidenceThreshold": 0,
  "outputCsv": true,
  "outputXlsx": true,
  "outputColumnsMode": "all",
  "outputBaseName": "direct_directory_intelligence",
  "debug": false
}

UBDIP discovers available listing links, follows business profiles within the configured limit, extracts published information, and retains the supplied directory URL as request provenance.

Request validation

For business-search requests, the declared counts must match the supplied lists:

industryCount = number of keyword entries
locationCount = number of location entries
search combinations = industryCount × locationCount

For example, three industries and four locations create twelve combinations. maxCombinations must be at least twelve for that request.

Mismatched counts or an insufficient combination limit are rejected with a clear validation error. Direct-directory requests remain valid without a search object.

Source strategies

sourceStrategy accepts:

• automatic — UBDIP selects suitable available sources.
• specified — UBDIP uses only the supplied platforms and scoped directory targets.

Depending on the request and deployment configuration, available providers can include open places data, OpenStreetMap, ChamberMaster, GrowthZone, BBB integrations, and specialized public industry directories.

Source availability varies by geography, access policy, live website behavior, and the information published by each source.

Enrichment

Directory profile enrichment

When enableProfileEnrichment is enabled, UBDIP follows available directory profile pages up to maxProfilePages. This can add addresses, phone numbers, emails, websites, social profiles, products, services, hours, and profile-level source evidence.

Official website enrichment

When enableWebsiteEnrichment is enabled, UBDIP can visit official company websites to improve publicly available contact and company information.

Website enrichment increases runtime and can be limited by website availability, access restrictions, timeouts, or identity verification. It is disabled in the quick-start example to keep the first run small and predictable.

Outputs

Apify dataset

The dataset contains normalized business records with request context, qualification, contact readiness, matrix assignment, and source provenance. The Business Results view presents the primary customer-facing fields.

CSV

The CSV export is a flat table suitable for analysis, databases, spreadsheet applications, and CRM import.

XLSX workbook

Depending on the workflow and results, the workbook can contain:

• Request Details — effective request, declared counts, locations, industries, source strategy, limits, and calculated combinations;
• Qualified Businesses — strongest relevant and location-qualified results;
• Additional Relevant Matches — relevant records requiring additional review;
• Directory Businesses — direct-directory results when keyword and location qualification were not requested;
• Source Diagnostics — source execution status, access outcomes, records returned, and attribution;
• Run Summary — fulfillment, matrix coverage, contributing sources, result quality, contact completeness, and source issues.

outputColumnsMode accepts:

• default — customer-focused business and provenance fields;
• all — default fields plus advanced technical, spatial, enrichment, and processing fields.

Understanding result counts

maxResults is a request-wide ceiling, not a guarantee that every source contains that number of qualified businesses.

UBDIP reports:

• Businesses requested — the requested maximum;
• Relevant businesses available — valid businesses found after processing;
• Businesses exported — final unique records delivered;
• Result shortfall — requested businesses minus exported businesses;
• Matrix quota fulfillment — how evenly initial quotas were filled across combinations;
• Results redistributed — unused capacity reassigned to combinations with additional valid supply.

Matrix fairness diagnostics do not replace the final request-wide shortfall.

Source attribution and transparency

Each exported record preserves the most precise available evidence:

1. business profile URL;
2. directory page URL when no profile is available;
3. additional source URLs and field-level provenance when available.

UBDIP does not present blocked, unavailable, or unsupported sources as successful business results. Access limitations remain visible in Source Diagnostics.

Missing contact information is reported as missing rather than invented.

Runtime and cost expectations

Runtime and cost depend on:

• number of industries and locations;
• calculated search combinations;
• maximum requested businesses;
• number and behavior of selected sources;
• profile-page enrichment limits;
• whether official website enrichment is enabled;
• live access restrictions and timeouts.

For the fastest first run, use one industry, one location, ten maximum results, profile enrichment enabled, and website enrichment disabled.

Current usage pricing is displayed on the Actor's Apify Store page before the run.

Run through Apify MCP

When the Actor is publicly available in Apify Store, MCP-compatible clients can discover it, submit an input, monitor the run, and retrieve the resulting dataset through the Apify MCP Server.

Example prompts:

• Find 10 accounting firms in Austin, Texas.
• Find roofing contractors in Phoenix using automatically selected sources.
• Search these GrowthZone and ChamberMaster directories for accounting firms.
• Extract and enrich up to 20 businesses from this public directory URL.
• Return source-attributed business records with CSV and XLSX exports.

See the Apify MCP Server documentation for client configuration and available tools.

Responsible use

Use UBDIP only with lawful, publicly accessible business information and in accordance with applicable website terms, robots directives, access controls, privacy requirements, and local laws.

The Actor records access restrictions rather than attempting to bypass them. Users are responsible for the lawful use, retention, and outreach application of exported information.

Automated validation

UBDIP is covered by automated regression and acceptance tests for:

• automatic, specified-source, and direct-directory workflows;
• declared-count and search-matrix validation;
• fair result allocation and redistribution;
• output limits and request-shortfall accounting;
• request provenance and source attribution;
• profile and website enrichment integrity;
• CSV and XLSX output integrity.

License

This repository does not currently declare an open-source license. Unless a separate license is added, all rights are reserved by the project owner.