# Yell.com Scraper — UK Business Directory | No Login (`bovi/yell-businesses`) Actor

Scrape UK business listings from Yell.com: name, phone, website, address, category, rating. Apify Residential proxy auto-configured (buyer-paid). Pay per business.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/bovi/yell-businesses.md
- **Developed by:** [Vitalii Bondarev](https://apify.com/bovi) (community)
- **Categories:** Lead generation, Marketing, MCP servers
- **Stats:** 9 total users, 5 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 1 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $3.49 / 1,000 yell.com scraper — uk business directory | no logins

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Yell.com Scraper — UK Business Directory

**Pay-per-result: $1.50/1K businesses. Phone contacts included. No monthly fee, no minimum.**

Yell.com has 5 million+ UK business listings. Whether you're building a local prospecting list, auditing local competitors, or enriching a CRM — this actor gives you clean, structured data at $1.50 per 1,000 records.

Scrape UK business listings from [Yell.com](https://www.yell.com) — the UK's leading online business directory. Ideal for B2B lead generation, local business research, and market intelligence.

This actor uses Apify Residential proxy (auto-configured, billed to your Apify account — zero external setup).

### What you get

| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| `business_id` | Yell internal numeric ID |
| `name` | Business display name |
| `category` | Business category (e.g. "Plumbers") |
| `schema_type` | schema.org type (e.g. "Plumber") |
| `phone` | Primary phone number |
| `website` | External website URL (when listed) |
| `address` | Address text from listing card |
| `yell_url` | Full Yell.com business page URL |
| `search_keywords` | Your search query |
| `search_location` | Your location query |
| `parse_confidence` | 0–1 quality score per record |
| `warnings` | Machine-readable quality flags |

### Input

```json
{
  "keywords": "plumber",
  "location": "London",
  "maxResults": 100,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]
  }
}
```

- **keywords** — business type or service (e.g. "dentist", "electrician")
- **location** — UK city or area (e.g. "Manchester", "Birmingham")
- **maxResults** — max businesses to return (0 = no limit, ~25/page)
- **proxyConfiguration** — **required**: use Apify Proxy RESIDENTIAL group

### Pricing example

| Run size | Cost |
|---|---|
| 100 businesses | $0.15 |
| 500 businesses | $0.75 |
| 1,000 businesses | $1.50 |
| 5,000 businesses | $7.50 |

Apify RESIDENTIAL proxy is billed separately to your Apify account at standard proxy rates — no extra subscription.

### Output sample

```json
{
  "business_id": "90123456",
  "name": "City Plumbers Ltd",
  "category": "Plumbers",
  "schema_type": "Plumber",
  "phone": "020 7946 0123",
  "website": "https://cityplumbers.co.uk",
  "address": "14 Baker Street, London W1U 3BW",
  "yell_url": "https://www.yell.com/biz/city-plumbers-ltd-london-90123456/",
  "search_keywords": "plumber",
  "search_location": "London",
  "parse_confidence": 0.9,
  "warnings": []
}
```

### FAQ

**Do I need a proxy or API key?** No external proxy subscription needed. Apify RESIDENTIAL proxy is pre-configured in the input — Yell.com requires residential IPs and this is handled automatically. Proxy costs are billed to your Apify account at standard rates.

**What export formats are available?** JSON, CSV, Excel, and XML — all downloadable from the dataset page or via the Apify REST API.

**Can I schedule regular runs?** Yes. Use Apify Scheduler (or n8n/Zapier) to run on a cadence and push new results to Google Sheets, a database, or a webhook automatically.

**What if the actor returns no results?** Verify that `keywords` and `location` match Yell's search terms (e.g. "London" not "London, UK"). If you see a blocked/empty response without proxy, the pre-configured RESIDENTIAL proxy resolves this.

### Why this beats the competition

| | This actor | Typical Yell scrapers |
|---|---|---|
| Parse method | schema.org itemprop (resilient) | CSS class names (breaks on deploy) |
| parse_confidence score | Yes — per record | No |
| Phone included | Yes (in base event) | Often missing |
| Proxy setup | Auto (Apify RESIDENTIAL) | Manual proxy required |
| Price | $1.50/1K | $3-5/1K or flat fee |

Every record ships a `parse_confidence` score (0.0–1.0). Below 0.7 is a machine-readable signal that the page structure has drifted — your data pipeline can filter automatically.

### Use with AI agents (MCP)

This scraper is callable as a **tool by AI agents** (Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code, n8n, LangGraph, CrewAI, or any MCP-compatible client) via Apify's hosted Model Context Protocol server. An agent uses it to **look up UK local businesses with phone numbers and addresses mid-conversation** — e.g. "find plumbers in Manchester", "list electricians in Birmingham for our outreach".

Point your MCP client at this tool:

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "mcp-remote",
        "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=bovi/yell-businesses",
        "--header",
        "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>"
      ]
    }
  }
}
```

### Technical notes

- Data parsed from schema.org microdata (itemprop attributes) — structural and resilient to layout changes.
- 25 businesses per page, up to 5,000+ results per query.
- Address availability varies — some listings show "We serve \[area]" rather than a street address.
- **Not affiliated with Yell.com.**

### Integrations

Built for B2B lead-gen teams and local-SEO agencies building UK prospect lists by category and location — the JSON/dataset output drops into the tools you already run, no glue code:

- **n8n / Make / Zapier** — trigger a run or pipe every new dataset item into 500+ apps (Google Sheets, Airtable, Slack, HubSpot, your database) with no code: [n8n](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/n8n), [Make](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/make), [Zapier](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/zapier).
- **Webhooks** — fire your own endpoint the moment a run finishes, to push results straight into your pipeline ([docs](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/webhooks)).
- **MCP server** — expose this actor as a tool to Claude, Cursor, or any [MCP client](https://mcp.apify.com) so an AI agent can pull this data mid-conversation ([guide](https://blog.apify.com/how-to-use-mcp/)).
- **API & SDKs** — fetch the dataset as JSON, CSV, or Excel through the Apify REST API or the Python / JS SDKs.

See all [Apify integrations](https://apify.com/integrations).

### Usage statistics

This Actor creates a small, content-free summary at the end of each run. It is used only to monitor reliability and improve this Actor. A copy is saved as `USAGE_STATS` in your own Apify key-value store, so you can see the exact record created for your run.

Set `disableUsageStats` to `true` in the input to opt out. Nothing is sent then; your `USAGE_STATS` record only says that statistics were disabled.

Only these fields are recorded:

- schema version, Actor name and build number;
- UTC start and finish hour (not a precise timestamp);
- run duration, number of results and time to the first result, each as a coarse range;
- whether the result was empty, the end status, and an error type from a fixed list;
- memory setting and counts of charged events;
- names of the input fields you set, never their values;
- the selected option for input fields that offer a fixed list of choices (for example a sort order).

We do not collect input text, search terms, URLs, domains, usernames, email addresses, names, proxy credentials, tokens, scraped records, output items, raw error messages, stack traces, or hashes of any of those values. Records are kept for no longer than 13 months, used only as aggregated operational statistics, and never sold or shared.

#### Additional fields (Phase 2)

This Actor also records your Apify user ID, whether Apify marks the account as paying, the size range of list inputs, the selected country when the input offers a fixed list of countries, and one category from a fixed Actor taxonomy. We use these fields only for aggregate reliability, repeat-use and cross-Actor analysis; reports suppress any cell with fewer than five distinct users.

The same `disableUsageStats: true` input flag turns these fields off too. The user ID is removed after 13 months; we do not export, sell, share, or attempt to re-identify this data.

#### Run-outcome signals (v2)

To learn whether a run did what it was asked to do, the record also holds a few more coarse ranges and yes/no flags. None of them contains content:

- the result limit you asked for (a range, when the input has one) and what share of it was delivered;
- results delivered per input item you listed (a range);
- output quality as ranges: how fully the result fields were filled, the share of rows that look like errors, the share of duplicate rows, and how many different fields appeared. These are counted in memory while results are saved; no result content is kept;
- how the run was started (console, API, schedule, webhook, another Actor);
- how it ended: stopped by you, timed out, reached the requested limit, stopped by the charge limit, and how many times the platform moved the run;
- if this Actor reports it: how many items to process worked or failed (ranges) and one failure reason from a fixed list;
- a short code made from the names of the input fields you set, never their values.

#### Repeat-run fingerprint (v2)

When your Apify user ID is recorded (see above), the record also holds an 8-character one-way code made from your input (proxy settings left out) and this Actor's name. It only lets us see that the same account ran the same input again soon after an unsatisfying run; we never see the input itself. It is stored only in the database, never published, and reports use it in aggregate with the same five-user minimum. It is the one exception to the statement above that no hashes are collected, and `disableUsageStats: true` turns it off.

# Actor input Schema

## `keywords` (type: `string`):

Business type or service to search for. Example: 'plumber', 'dentist', 'electrician', 'solicitor'.

## `location` (type: `string`):

UK city or area to search in. Example: 'London', 'Manchester', 'Birmingham', 'Edinburgh'.

## `maxResults` (type: `integer`):

Maximum total business records to return. Each returned record costs one PPE charge ($1.50/1K). Set 0 for no limit (~25 records per page). Default: 100.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Yell.com requires a residential proxy. Apify RESIDENTIAL proxy is pre-configured — costs are billed to your Apify account (not an extra subscription). Do not change unless you have a specific proxy requirement.

## `disableUsageStats` (type: `boolean`):

See the README Usage statistics section for details.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "keywords": "plumber",
  "location": "London",
  "maxResults": 100,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ]
  },
  "disableUsageStats": false
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

Dataset containing Yell Businesses records (business_id, name, category, phone, website, address, yell_url, search_keywords, search_location, scraped_at, parse_confidence, warnings).

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "keywords": "plumber",
    "location": "London",
    "maxResults": 100
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("bovi/yell-businesses").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "keywords": "plumber",
    "location": "London",
    "maxResults": 100,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("bovi/yell-businesses").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "keywords": "plumber",
  "location": "London",
  "maxResults": 100
}' |
apify call bovi/yell-businesses --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,bovi/yell-businesses"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/qlecAwR24iLDdenAa/builds/EUJfQmAfejHZKajKH/openapi.json