# Business Opportunity Scanner (`moving_beacon-owner1/business-opportunity-scanner`) Actor

Discover local businesses and automatically identify **publicly observable growth opportunities** such as no website, weak SEO, missing booking/contact forms, poor reviews, and limited social presence. Rank leads with an **auditable opportunity score backed by real evidence**.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/moving\_beacon-owner1/business-opportunity-scanner.md
- **Developed by:** [Jamshaid Arif](https://apify.com/moving_beacon-owner1) (community)
- **Categories:** Lead generation, SEO tools, Other
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $9.99 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

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

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
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.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## 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.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Business Opportunity Scanner

Discover local businesses for any keyword and location, then automatically detect **publicly observable growth opportunities** — no website, no online booking, weak SEO metadata, missing contact form, thin social presence, or poor review signals — and rank them with an **auditable opportunity score**. Every opportunity is backed by a concrete, cited signal; the Actor never invents conclusions.

### What does this Actor do?

It combines three stages into one intelligence tool:

1. **Discovery** — finds businesses via Bing Maps (worldwide) and/or Yellow Pages (US).
2. **Website analysis** *(optional)* — fetches each business website and inspects HTTPS, page title/meta, contact form, booking widget, e‑commerce, CMS/technologies, social links and basic SEO.
3. **Opportunity scoring** — turns the observed gaps into a scored, prioritised list of sales/marketing opportunities.

Runs on the Apify platform with proxy rotation, scheduling, API access and dataset export built in.

### Why use it?

- Agencies and freelancers selling web design, SEO, reputation management or booking systems get a **qualified, pre‑scored lead list** instead of a raw scrape.
- Every lead ships with the *evidence* behind each opportunity, so your outreach can reference a real, checkable fact.

### How to use it

1. Enter a **keyword** (e.g. `plumbers`) and a **location** (e.g. `Austin, TX`).
2. Pick your discovery **sources** and whether to **analyze websites**.
3. Optionally set a **minimum opportunity score** to only keep the hottest leads.
4. Run the Actor and download the dataset as JSON, CSV or Excel.

### Input

| Field | Type | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `keyword` | string (required) | Business category/keyword to search. |
| `location` / `city` / `state` / `country` | string | Where to search. |
| `sources` | array | `bing_maps`, `yellowpages`. |
| `maxResults` | integer | Max businesses to return (default 50). |
| `analyzeWebsite` | boolean | Fetch & analyze each website (default true). |
| `minOpportunityScore` | integer | Only keep businesses scoring ≥ this (default 0). |
| `proxyConfiguration` | object | Proxy settings (residential US recommended for Yellow Pages). |

#### Input example

```json
{
  "keyword": "dentist",
  "location": "Austin, TX",
  "sources": ["bing_maps"],
  "maxResults": 50,
  "analyzeWebsite": true,
  "minOpportunityScore": 20
}
```

### Output

One record per business. Fields include business identity (name, category, address, city/state/country, phone, email, website, rating, reviewCount, coordinates), website signals (`websiteAvailable`, `cms`, `technologies`, `hasContactForm`, `hasBooking`, `ecommerce`, `socialLinks`, `seoSignals`), and the scored opportunities.

#### Output example

```json
{
  "name": "NoWeb Plumbing",
  "category": "plumbers",
  "phone": "(512) 555-0100",
  "address": "1 Main St, Austin, TX",
  "rating": 3.0,
  "reviewCount": 2,
  "websiteAvailable": false,
  "detectedOpportunities": ["no_website", "low_rating", "low_review_count"],
  "opportunitySignals": [
    { "id": "no_website", "label": "No website detected", "points": 40, "severity": "high",
      "evidence": "Business listing has no website URL",
      "recommendation": "Offer website design / online presence services" }
  ],
  "opportunityScore": 75,
  "priority": "HIGH"
}
```

You can download the dataset in various formats such as JSON, HTML, CSV, or Excel.

### Detected opportunities

`no_website`, `social_only_website`, `no_reviews`, `low_review_count`, `low_rating`, `moderate_rating`, `no_phone`, `no_https`, `missing_title`, `missing_meta_description`, `weak_title`, `no_h1`, `not_mobile_ready`, `no_contact_form`, `no_public_email`, `no_booking`, `no_social_presence`, `no_analytics`, `no_structured_data`.

### Sources & configuration

- **Bing Maps** — worldwide, no browser, fast. Works without a proxy for light use.
- **Yellow Pages** — US only; needs a **US residential proxy** in practice (DataDome).
- **Environment variables** — none required. Apify Proxy password is injected by the platform.

# Actor input Schema

## `keyword` (type: `string`):

Business category or keyword to search for, e.g. 'plumbers' or 'dentist'.

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

Free-text location, e.g. 'Austin, TX'. You can use this instead of the city/state/country fields.

## `city` (type: `string`):

City to search within (optional, combined with state/country).

## `state` (type: `string`):

State or region (optional).

## `country` (type: `string`):

Country (optional).

## `sources` (type: `array`):

Which business-discovery sources to query.

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

Maximum number of businesses to return.

## `analyzeWebsite` (type: `boolean`):

Fetch and analyze each business website for opportunity signals (HTTPS, forms, booking, SEO, social).

## `minOpportunityScore` (type: `integer`):

Only return businesses whose opportunity score is at least this value (0 = return all).

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

Proxy settings. Residential US proxies are recommended for Yellow Pages.

## `cookies` (type: `string`):

Optional Cookie header string to replay on every request (for sites behind a challenge).

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "keyword": "plumbers",
  "location": "Austin, TX",
  "sources": [
    "bing_maps"
  ],
  "maxResults": 50,
  "analyzeWebsite": false,
  "minOpportunityScore": 0,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `businessOpportunities` (type: `string`):

No description

# 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 = {
    "keyword": "plumbers",
    "location": "Austin, TX"
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("moving_beacon-owner1/business-opportunity-scanner").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 = {
    "keyword": "plumbers",
    "location": "Austin, TX",
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("moving_beacon-owner1/business-opportunity-scanner").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 '{
  "keyword": "plumbers",
  "location": "Austin, TX"
}' |
apify call moving_beacon-owner1/business-opportunity-scanner --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,moving_beacon-owner1/business-opportunity-scanner"
        }
    }
}

```

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/1W9Zn0FfgufGUpuly/builds/A7zxJP2o6ZZN5Wlki/openapi.json