Local Business Change Monitor

Track local businesses on Google Maps and get alerted when something changes — a new listing opens, a business closes permanently, a closed one reopens, a rating drops, or a phone number, website, or address gets edited. Search by area and category, then run it on a schedule and receive only the changes.

What you get

One dataset record per detected change:

• Change type: new_business, closed, reopened, rating_drop, or details_changed
• Severity: high for closures and reopenings, medium for new listings and rating drops, low for detail edits
• Before and after snapshots: the full listing on both sides of the change, so you can see exactly what moved
• Changed fields: which of address, website, phone, or rating actually differed
• Listing details: place ID, name, address, rating, review count, business status, website, and phone
• Full current snapshot (in the key-value store) of every business monitored, ready to feed into the next run
• Export to JSON, CSV, Excel, or Google Sheets directly from the Apify console

Use cases

• Lead generation — catch new businesses in your area the week they appear on the map
• Local SEO and agency reporting — monitor client listings for rating drops and unauthorized detail edits
• Reputation monitoring — get flagged when a rating falls by 0.3 stars or more
• Franchise and multi-location auditing — verify phone numbers, websites, and addresses stay correct across every location
• Market research — measure openings and closures in a category or neighbourhood over time

How to use

1. Enter your Search queries — the same phrases you'd type into Google Maps, like cafes in Sydney or dentists in Austin
2. Run the actor once — this establishes your baseline; every listing is reported as new_business
3. Open the Key-value store tab and copy the SNAPSHOTS record
4. On the next run, paste it into Previous snapshots — from then on the dataset contains only what actually changed
5. Put it on a schedule and repeat step 3–4 each run to build a continuous change feed

{
  "queries": ["cafes in Sydney", "coffee roasters in Sydney"],
  "previousSnapshots": []
}

Listings are matched across runs by their Google place ID, so renames and address edits are tracked as changes rather than mistaken for new businesses.

Output format

Dataset — one record per change:

{
  "placeId": "ChIJN1t_tDeuEmsRUsoyG83frY4",
  "name": "Example Coffee Co",
  "changeType": "rating_drop",
  "severity": "medium",
  "changedFields": ["rating"],
  "before": {
    "placeId": "ChIJN1t_tDeuEmsRUsoyG83frY4",
    "name": "Example Coffee Co",
    "address": "1 Example St, Sydney NSW 2000",
    "rating": 4.6,
    "reviewCount": 812,
    "businessStatus": "OPERATIONAL",
    "website": "https://example.com",
    "phone": "(02) 9999 0000",
    "capturedAt": "2026-08-05T02:00:00.000Z"
  },
  "after": {
    "placeId": "ChIJN1t_tDeuEmsRUsoyG83frY4",
    "name": "Example Coffee Co",
    "address": "1 Example St, Sydney NSW 2000",
    "rating": 4.2,
    "reviewCount": 848,
    "businessStatus": "OPERATIONAL",
    "website": "https://example.com",
    "phone": "(02) 9999 0000",
    "capturedAt": "2026-08-12T02:00:00.000Z"
  }
}

SNAPSHOTS key-value store record — the current state of every business monitored, to pass into your next run.

FAQ

Why was my first run all new_business? There was nothing to compare against yet. Feed that run's SNAPSHOTS back in as Previous snapshots and the next run reports only real changes.

What counts as a rating drop? A fall of 0.3 stars or more between runs.

Where do I find the snapshots? In the Key-value store tab of the run, under the SNAPSHOTS record.

Can I monitor a specific list of businesses? Yes — use narrow queries (business name plus suburb) and each resolves to the listings you care about.

Can I run it on a schedule? Yes — daily or weekly works well. Pair it with a webhook or Slack integration to get changes pushed to you.

How is it billed? Per search query run and per unique business monitored. Detected changes themselves are not charged separately.