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

{
  "searchQuery": "coffee shops in San Francisco",
  "maxResults": 50,
  "language": "en",
  "includeReviews": false,
  "maxReviews": 5,
  "includeImages": false
}

Output Format

Each business listing includes:

{
  "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

   $cd google-maps-scraper
   

2. Install dependencies (this will take 2-3 minutes as it downloads Chromium)

   $npm install
   

3. Edit INPUT.json with your search query

   {
     "searchQuery": "coffee shops in San Francisco",
     "maxResults": 20,
     "language": "en",
     "includeReviews": false,
     "maxReviews": 5,
     "includeImages": false
   }
   

4. Run the scraper locally

   $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)

   $npm install -g apify-cli
   

2. Login to your Apify account

   $apify login
   

   • This will open your browser to authenticate
   • Copy your API token from Apify Console

3. Initialize the actor (if not already done)

   $apify init
   

   • Follow the prompts or press Enter to accept defaults

4. Push to Apify platform

   $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

# 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.

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