Google Maps Scraper

A professional Apify Actor that extracts comprehensive business data from Google Maps, including names, addresses, phone numbers, websites, ratings, reviews, opening hours, photos, and coordinates.

Features

• 🔍 Search by Query & Location: Search for businesses using keywords and location
• 📍 Complete Business Data: Extract name, address, phone, website, ratings, reviews, hours, photos, and coordinates
• ⭐ Reviews Extraction: Optional detailed reviews with ratings, text, author, and date
• 🌍 Multi-language Support: Configure language for results
• 🔄 Pagination Support: Automatically scrolls and loads more results
• 🚀 High Performance: Efficient scraping with proper error handling and retries
• 🔒 Proxy Support: Built-in Apify Proxy support for reliable scraping

Input

Field	Type	Required	Description
searchQuery	String	Yes	Search query for businesses (e.g., "restaurants in New York", "dentists near me")
location	String	No	Location for the search (e.g., "New York, NY" or "coordinates: 40.7128,-74.0060")
maxResults	Number	No	Maximum number of results to extract (default: 20, max: 500)
includeReviews	Boolean	No	Whether to include reviews for each business (default: false)
maxReviews	Number	No	Maximum number of reviews per business if includeReviews is true (default: 5, max: 50)
language	String	No	Language code for results (default: "en")
startUrls	Array	No	Direct Google Maps URLs to scrape (if provided, searchQuery and location are ignored)

Example Input

{
  "searchQuery": "restaurants in Manhattan",
  "location": "New York, NY",
  "maxResults": 50,
  "includeReviews": true,
  "maxReviews": 10,
  "language": "en"
}

Output

The actor saves results to the Apify Dataset. Each business entry includes:

{
  "name": "Example Restaurant",
  "rating": 4.5,
  "reviewsCount": 1234,
  "address": "123 Main St, New York, NY 10001",
  "phone": "+1 212-555-1234",
  "website": "https://example.com",
  "category": "Restaurant",
  "openingHours": "Mon-Fri: 10:00 AM - 10:00 PM",
  "latitude": 40.7128,
  "longitude": -74.0060,
  "photoUrl": "https://maps.googleapis.com/...",
  "reviews": [
    {
      "author": "John Doe",
      "rating": "5",
      "text": "Great food and service!",
      "date": "2 weeks ago"
    }
  ],
  "timestamp": "2024-01-10T12:00:00.000Z"
}

Usage

Local Development

1. Install dependencies:

$npm install

2. Run the actor:

$npm start

Apify Platform

1. Create a new actor on Apify
2. Upload the actor files
3. Configure input parameters
4. Run the actor

Using Apify CLI

apify create google-maps-scraper
cd google-maps-scraper
# Copy files to the actor directory
apify push
apify call --memory=4096

Output Dataset

Results are saved to the Apify Dataset with the following schema:

• name: Business name
• rating: Average rating (number)
• reviewsCount: Total number of reviews
• address: Full address
• phone: Phone number
• website: Business website URL
• category: Business category/type
• openingHours: Opening hours information
• latitude: GPS latitude coordinate
• longitude: GPS longitude coordinate
• photoUrl: URL to business photo
• reviews: Array of review objects (if includeReviews is true)
• timestamp: ISO timestamp of extraction

Best Practices

1. Rate Limiting: The actor includes built-in delays to respect Google Maps. For high-volume scraping, consider using Apify Proxy.

2. Max Results: Start with smaller values (20-50) to test before scaling up.

3. Reviews: Enabling reviews increases scraping time significantly. Use only when necessary.

4. Language: Set the language parameter to match your target audience for better results.

5. Error Handling: The actor includes comprehensive error handling. Check the actor logs for any issues.

Limitations

• Google Maps may implement rate limiting or CAPTCHA challenges for high-volume requests
• The actor respects Google Maps' structure and may need updates if Google changes their UI
• Reviews extraction requires additional page interactions and may slow down scraping
• Maximum 500 results per run (configurable via maxResults)

Troubleshooting

No results found

• Verify the searchQuery is correct and returns results on Google Maps
• Check if the location parameter is valid
• Try increasing wait times if pages load slowly

Missing data fields

• Some businesses may not have all fields (e.g., phone, website)
• Google Maps structure may vary by region
• Check actor logs for extraction warnings

Scraping too slow

• Reduce maxResults
• Disable includeReviews if not needed
• Check your internet connection and Apify platform resources

Changelog

Version 1.0.0

• Initial release
• Basic business data extraction
• Reviews extraction support
• Multi-language support
• Pagination handling

License

ISC

Support

For issues, questions, or contributions, please visit the actor's page on Apify Store.