Yellow Pages Scraper - Most Comprehensive

Get every field that Yellow Pages has for a business, or find businesses by search term and location. Each business comes with its phones, emails, links, address, coordinates, and hours. It also has its categories, services, brands, payment methods, ratings by star, TripAdvisor data, and more. Add every photo and video, and every review and star-only rating, in the same record.

It covers three countries: the United States (yellowpages.com), the United Kingdom (yell.com), and Canada (yellowpages.ca). Pick one with the Country option.

Look up one business or search a whole city. In local tests, a US search of 60 businesses with all their reviews took 12 seconds. 300 businesses took 25 to 28 seconds. Start with a Yellow Pages link, a listing ID, or a search term and a location.

Countries

Set Country to the Yellow Pages you want. Each is a different company, so your links, IDs, and locations must match the country you pick.

• United States (us, the default): yellowpages.com. Covers the 50 states and Washington, DC. Links look like https://www.yellowpages.com/austin-tx/mip/iii-forks-467675667.
• United Kingdom (uk): yell.com. Links look like https://www.yell.com/biz/the-himalaya-london-901780159/. Yell returns up to about 20 reviews per business.
• Canada (ca): yellowpages.ca. Links look like https://www.yellowpages.ca/bus/Ontario/Toronto/Bardi-s-Steak-House/156059.html. pagesjaunes.ca links work too. A search needs a place name, not coordinates. Canada records have their own fields; see Canada records. The Actor reads web pages for Canada, so it is slower. At the default 256 MB, 150 businesses with all reviews took about 3 minutes. More memory gives more CPU, so the run is faster.

What can you do with it?

• Local lead lists. Search a trade in a city, such as plumbers in Austin. Each business comes with its phones, emails, website, address, categories, hours, and rating.
• Email and contact enrichment. In a sample of 200 businesses, 117 had at least one email. 198 had a website or another link.
• Market research. Count the businesses of a category in a city or a ZIP code. Sort them by distance, rating, or name.
• Competitor benchmarking. Compare ratings, ratings by star, years in business, services, brands, and payment methods across nearby businesses.
• Listing audits. Compare the name, address, phones, hours, and categories on Yellow Pages with your own records.
• Reputation monitoring. Collect the reviews and ratings of your places on a schedule. Use the review id to skip reviews that you already have.
• Advertiser research. See which businesses pay for a listing, with their ad text, coupons, and years with Yellow Pages.

What data does it extract?

Yellow Pages does not have every field for every business. A field that Yellow Pages does not send is not in the record. Some fields are empty text or [].

Quick start

1. Pick a Country (US, UK, or Canada). Enter a Yellow Pages link or a listing ID in Listing links or IDs, or a Search term and a Location to search.
2. Turn on Include reviews if you want reviews, and set Max reviews per business. Use 0 to get all reviews.
3. Click Start. Download the results as JSON, CSV, Excel, or HTML.

The same input as JSON:

{
  "businesses": ["https://www.yellowpages.com/austin-tx/mip/iii-forks-467675667"],
  "includeReviews": true,
  "maxReviewsPerBusiness": 20
}

Examples by use case

One business with its profile and photos. Photos and videos are on by default:

{
  "businesses": ["467675667"]
}

A profile without the full gallery. This skips the separate photo and video request:

{
  "businesses": ["467675667"],
  "includeMedia": false
}

A lead list. The 200 best-rated plumbers in Austin:

{
  "searchTerm": "plumbers",
  "location": "Austin, TX",
  "searchSort": "average_rating",
  "maxSearchResults": 200
}

Businesses in a ZIP code:

{
  "searchTerm": "roofing contractors",
  "location": "30301",
  "maxSearchResults": 100
}

Competitors near a site. Coffee shops around a point, nearest first:

{
  "searchTerm": "coffee",
  "latitude": 40.7128,
  "longitude": -74.006,
  "searchSort": "distance",
  "maxSearchResults": 50
}

Businesses and their reviews in one run. 20 pizza places with up to 10 reviews each:

{
  "searchTerm": "pizza",
  "location": "Chicago, IL",
  "maxSearchResults": 20,
  "includeReviews": true,
  "maxReviewsPerBusiness": 10
}

Every review of a place:

{
  "businesses": ["https://www.yellowpages.com/new-york-ny/mip/nello-4654897"],
  "includeReviews": true,
  "maxReviewsPerBusiness": 0
}

A paid listing in one category. Keep the lid part of the link:

{
  "businesses": [
    "https://www.yellowpages.com/austin-tx/mip/ars-rescue-rooter-473194899?lid=1002194107214"
  ]
}

A search and known businesses in one run:

{
  "searchTerm": "plumbers",
  "location": "Austin, TX",
  "maxSearchResults": 20,
  "businesses": ["467675667", "4654897"]
}

Choose the businesses

Use one or both ways in the same run. Direct lookup reads the businesses that you list. Search finds businesses for you.

When you set both, the dataset has the search results first, in search order. The businesses from your list follow, in your order. A listed business that the search already found is saved once.

Look up businesses

Put one or more entries in businesses. You can mix links and IDs in one run.

• Link. A business page link, such as https://www.yellowpages.com/austin-tx/mip/iii-forks-467675667. These forms work too:
  • The business profile pages, with /bpp/ or /bp/ in place of /mip/.
  • m.yp.com links.
  • A link without https://.
  • A link with ?lid=. Keep it. It picks the category listing of a paid business. See "What is lid?" below.
• Listing ID. The number at the end of the link, such as 467675667. Each record has it in the ypid field.

The Actor reads the businesses in your order, so the dataset keeps that order. A repeated business is read again and saved again. A business that fails does not stop the others. A listing ID that does not exist shows

does not exist on Yellow Pages

Not a Yellow Pages listing link or ID

Search for businesses

• What. searchTerm is required for a search. Use a trade, a category, or a business name, such as plumbers, pizza, or dentists.
• Where. Set location to a US city and state, a ZIP code, or an address. Or set latitude and longitude together. If you set both, the Actor uses location. A location that Yellow Pages cannot find stops the run with Yellow Pages cannot find the location.
• US only. Yellow Pages covers the 50 states and Washington, DC. A place outside the US can match a US town with the same name, so check the log line Yellow Pages searched near ... before a large run.
• Canada. Set location to a city, a city and province, or a postal code, such as Toronto, ON or M5J 1S8. Coordinates stop the run, because yellowpages.ca reads them as the whole province. A place that yellowpages.ca does not know gives an empty dataset. A city search can include paid listings from far away: a Toronto search had one 503 km away.
• How many. maxSearchResults is 50 by default. Yellow Pages serves about 3,000 results for one search, so the maximum is 3,000.
• Order. searchSort is relevance (best match), distance, average_rating, or name.

The Actor saves each business of a search once. A search can count more matches than it serves. For example, Yellow Pages counted 24,454 restaurants in New York but served about 3,000. To get more businesses, split the area into ZIP codes or use more specific terms. A search with no matches ends as succeeded with an empty dataset, and the log shows No businesses to collect.

Add reviews and media

Reviews are a list in the businessReviews field of each business. businessReviewsTotal is the number of reviews that Yellow Pages serves for the business. The record also has the Yellow Pages fields reviews (the newest review), ratings (up to 5 ratings), and reviewSnippets. These come with every business, also when includeReviews is off.

With includeMedia on, media holds every photo and video. With it off, media holds the part of the gallery that the business details carry. In a sample of 200 businesses, the full gallery had more items for 35 of them.

Input reference

Give businesses, or a searchTerm with a location or a coordinate pair, or both.

These inputs stop the run at the start, with the message in quotes:

Unknown input fields are ignored. A value with the wrong type, such as a text maxSearchResults, fails before the run starts.

Output

Each item in the dataset is one business. The Overview table shows the name, listing ID, phone, emails, website, and address. It also shows the coordinates, categories, rating, rating count, year established, claimed flag, and the Yellow Pages link.

The record keeps every field that Yellow Pages sends, with the field names in camelCase. So phone_number becomes phoneNumber, and 1_star_count becomes 1StarCount. Nested fields are converted too. When Yellow Pages adds a field, the record has it without an Actor update.

The Actor adds these fields:

Fields by topic

• Identity. Listing ID, category listing ID, name, other names, claimed flag, paid listing flag, year established, and years with Yellow Pages.
• Contact. Phone, extra phones, fax and toll-free numbers, emails, website, other links, and a custom link.
• Location. Address, city, state, ZIP code, coordinates, time zone, neighborhoods, and a location description.
• Hours. Hours as text and for each day, open-now and open-24-hours flags, and the time of the next change.
• Classification. The main category, all categories, display categories, category codes, and category breadcrumbs.
• Business details. Description, slogan, services, brands, amenities, accreditations, associations, languages, payment methods, price range, and extra information.
• Features. An open set of attributes, such as ownership, free estimates, services, and the TripAdvisor good-for categories.
• Ratings. Rating, precise rating, rating and review counts, ratings by star, rating attributes, the newest review, up to 5 ratings, review snippets, and TripAdvisor data.
• Advertising. Ad text and images, the sponsor block, tier, coupons, and the advertising start date.
• Media. Photos and videos, covers, logos, and thumbnails.
• Search. The whole search result, with the distance and the listing type.
• Reviews. Every review and star-only rating, when you ask for them.
• Run. The UTC time at which the Actor read the business.

Business example

This example is Texan Water from a search for plumbers in Austin, TX, with two reviews. It is shortened. It shows 47 of the 136 fields of this business. Long lists keep one or two items, and the rating in ratings shows 12 of its 37 fields. Square brackets mark values removed from the documentation.

Field groups

The record has more fields than these groups list, such as listingScore, hotlistScore, and rhinoTimestamp. The Actor keeps them too.

Field notes

• ypid is the business ID. Use it to remove repeated rows when you join the results of two runs. listingId is the listing of the business in one category. It was the same as ypid for 123 of 200 sampled businesses. A paid business has a listing for each category.
• phoneNumber is the formatted phone, such as (512) 823-0000. phone is the same number as digits.
• email is rare: 3 of 200 sampled businesses had it. Read additionalEmails too, which 115 of 200 had.
• url is the website of the business. additionalUrls holds the other links.
• hoursXltd.default.standardHours gives the hours for each day as 24-hour ranges, such as 0000-2359. opHours gives the same hours as text.
• openNow and nextHourStateChange describe the time of the run.
• averageRating is the shown rating. preciseAverageRating is the exact average. 1StarCount to 5StarCount give the ratings for each star level.
• ratingCount can be higher than businessReviewsTotal. Some ratings exist only as counts. Yellow Pages does not serve them as reviews.
• features is an open set. In the sample, details had 89 different feature keys and search results had 138. The Actor copies the object whole.
• searchListing holds values that the details do not have, such as distance and listingType. distance is about the straight-line distance in miles from the search center. Some values differ from the details, such as averageRating. The Actor keeps both.
• businessReviews[].body is empty text for a star-only rating. In a sample of 1,952 reviews, 14 had no text.
• businessReviews[].reviewSource is YP.com, YPmobile, or null.
• businessReviews keep the order of Yellow Pages. It is mostly newest first, but not always.
• reviews is the newest review that the details carry. It is not the full list.

Canada records

yellowpages.ca has no app API, so Canada records come from its website. They have their own fields:

FAQ

How many reviews can I get?

In the US there is no fixed limit. Set maxReviewsPerBusiness to 0 to get all the reviews that Yellow Pages serves. In a sample of 200 businesses, 135 had no reviews, and the most was 305. In the UK, Yell serves up to about 20 reviews per business; businessReviewsTotal still reports the true count. In Canada, yellowpages.ca serves every written review. Its star-only ratings count in ratingCount, but the site does not serve them.

Why did I get fewer reviews than ratingCount?

maxReviewsPerBusiness is an upper limit, and it is 20 by default. Also, some ratings exist only as counts. For example, ARS Rescue Rooter shows 113 ratings, but Yellow Pages serves no reviews for it. The Yellow Pages app shows the same empty list. businessReviewsTotal is the number that Yellow Pages serves.

Why do some reviews have no text?

They are star-only ratings. The Actor saves them with the reviews, so you get every rating that Yellow Pages serves.

Why do some businesses have no address or coordinates?

Some businesses go to their customers, such as plumbers. They hide their address on Yellow Pages. For them, mappable is false and omitAddress is Y or S. In a search for plumbers in Austin, 11 of 60 businesses were like this. 9 had no coordinates, and 2 had the placeholder -10, -10. 5 had an approximate point in assumedLat and assumedLon. The Actor keeps these values as Yellow Pages sends them.

How many businesses can one search return?

Yellow Pages serves about 3,000 results for one search, even when it counts more. To get more, split the area into ZIP codes or cities, or use more specific search terms. Then remove the repeats with the ypid field.

Can I search outside the United States?

Yes, in the United Kingdom and Canada. Set Country to uk to search yell.com, or to ca to search yellowpages.ca. No other country is covered yet.

With Country us, Yellow Pages covers the 50 states and Washington, DC only. It has no Canada, Puerto Rico, or other US territories. Some places outside the US stop the run with Yellow Pages cannot find the location, such as Toronto, Canada. Others match a US town with the same name: Toronto, ON searched Toronto, Ohio. The log shows the place it searched. For Canada, set Country to ca.

What is lid?

A paid business has one listing for each category, such as "Plumbers" and "Water Heaters". lid in a link picks one of these listings. Keep it in the link, because the category fields come from that listing. A search sends it for you. A link without lid gets the listing that Yellow Pages chooses.

What happens when I misspell the search term?

In our tests, Yellow Pages still returned results for "resturants" and "plumbr". It corrected "resturants" to "restaurants" and suggested "plumber" for "plumbr". The log shows the suggestion, so check it before a large run.

How do I find the link or listing ID?

Open the business on yellowpages.com. Copy the link from the address bar. The listing ID is the number at the end of the link, and every record has it in ypid.

Can I search and look up businesses in one run?

Yes. Set searchTerm with a location and businesses in the same input. The dataset has the search results first, then your list.

Why do I see the same business twice?

One search saves each business once. A business can show twice when your businesses list has it twice. It can also show twice when you join two runs. Remove the repeats with the ypid field.

What happens if a business fails?

The Actor saves the other businesses. The log shows Failed to collect business or does not exist on Yellow Pages with the listing ID. The run still ends as succeeded. The last log line gives the number of saved and failed businesses.

A feature or field that I need is missing. What can I do?

Tell us in the Issues tab. Describe what you need and give an example business.

Where can I report a problem?

Open an issue in the Issues tab. Include the run ID and the input, so that we can reproduce it.

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