Google Maps Review Intelligence API | Ratings, Snippets & Place Data

Private / frozen actor: this actor is not part of public Wave 1. Keep it in private testing only and assume blocked, partial, or snippet-only output can occur.

Extract critical data points directly from Google Maps pages to fuel your local search engine optimization strategy and reputation management workflows. This scraper bypasses the need for an expensive Google Places API key by directly extracting structured data from the initial HTML of a Google Maps place page. Local SEO professionals and digital marketing teams use this powerful tool to closely monitor client reputation, track competitor ratings across Google, and build comprehensive datasets for managing hundreds of local store locations or branches.

By scheduling a daily or weekly run, you can automate a robust review intelligence pipeline that keeps your local search results data perfectly synced. The scraper uses advanced web parsing techniques to capture highly reliable fields from meta tags, embedded JSON-LD schema, and raw URL coordinates. Concrete outputs include precise details like og:title, og:description, exact geographic coordinates, aggregate review counts, and public review snippets. Whether you need to scrape local search results for enterprise scale store locations or extract details for a single competitor listing, this tool delivers the exact business details and rating metrics required to maintain a dominant local presence. By extracting these key metrics without heavy browser overhead, users gain rapid insights into their brand visibility. Gather crucial review metrics instantly and feed them into your own internal business dashboards or client reporting tools.

Private Testing Quickstart

• Start with 1–3 full Google Maps place URLs and keep reviewLimit around 25.
• Use dataset delivery first so you can inspect warnings, dataSources, and review availability.
• Treat review snippets as best-effort: Google often withholds full review text in initial HTML.
• After the first useful run, move to the recurring multi-location template, then use the webhook handoff template for action-needed review alerts.

Data Strategy

This actor fetches Google Maps place pages via HTTP and extracts structured data from multiple tiers:

1. Meta tags (high reliability): og:title, og:description, og:image
2. JSON-LD structured data (high reliability): Embedded LocalBusiness schema
3. Embedded script blocks (medium reliability): AF_initDataCallback data arrays
4. URL components (high reliability): Coordinates, place name from URL path
5. Inline text patterns (medium reliability): Rating/review patterns in page text

Limitations

• Individual reviews: Full review text is typically not available without JavaScript rendering or the Google Places API. The actor returns any review snippets embedded in the initial HTML (often from JSON-LD) and explicitly warns when full reviews are unavailable.
• Rate limiting: Requests are throttled (2s minimum between requests) to be polite. Heavy use may trigger Google's bot detection.
• Page structure changes: Google may change their HTML structure at any time. The multi-tier extraction approach provides resilience — if one source breaks, others continue working.

Use Cases

Who	Why
Local SEO teams	Benchmark ratings, review counts, and category fit across locations
Franchise operators	Compare multiple stores or branches with one normalized schema
Agencies	Build lightweight review-monitoring datasets without Google Places API keys
Competitive analysts	Pair Maps reputation signals with Trustpilot or app-review data

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
placeUrls	string[]	(required)	Google Maps place URLs or share links
reviewLimit	integer	200	Max review snippets per place
delivery	string	"dataset"	"dataset" or "webhook"
webhookUrl	string		Webhook URL for delivery
dryRun	boolean	false	Extract without saving results

Supported URL formats

• https://www.google.com/maps/place/Place+Name/
• https://www.google.com/maps/place/Place+Name/@lat,lng,zoom
• https://maps.google.com/maps?q=...
• https://goo.gl/maps/... (short links — auto-resolved)
• https://maps.app.goo.gl/... (app share links — auto-resolved)

Output

Each place returns:

• Normalized place metadata: name, address, coordinates, category, phone, website, etc.
• Review intelligence: aggregate rating, review count, review snippets (when available)
• Data provenance: which extraction tiers provided data
• Explicit warnings: what data couldn't be extracted and why

Local run

npm start        # Run with input.json
npm test         # Run test suite

Example output

{
  "meta": {
    "implementationStatus": "live",
    "dataStrategy": "public_html",
    "totalSources": 1,
    "succeeded": 1,
    "failed": 0
  },
  "places": [{
    "status": "ok",
    "dataSources": ["meta_tags", "json_ld", "url_components"],
    "place": {
      "name": "Tokyo Station",
      "address": "1 Chome Marunouchi, Chiyoda City, Tokyo",
      "rating": null,
      "coordinates": { "lat": 35.6812, "lng": 139.7671 }
    },
    "reviewIntelligence": {
      "rating": 4.3,
      "reviewCount": 12456,
      "snippetCount": 1,
      "fullReviewsAvailable": false
    }
  }]
}

Related Actors

Pair this actor with other flagship intelligence APIs in the same portfolio:

• Trustpilot Review Intelligence API — add broader brand-level review and reply data beyond location pages.
• G2 & Capterra Review Intelligence API — compare location sentiment with B2B software review proof points.
• Google Play Intelligence API — pair location data with Android app feedback for mobile-first brands.
• Apple App Store Intelligence API — mirror the same workflow for iOS storefronts.

Pricing & Cost Control

Apify Store pricing is usage-based, so total cost mainly follows how many placeUrls you process. Check the Store pricing card for the current per-event rates.

• Start with a few placeUrls while validating the schema.
• Keep reviewLimit low because Google often exposes only snippets anyway.
• Use dataset delivery first so blocked or partial cases are easy to inspect.
• Use dryRun: true before larger location batches or webhook handoffs.

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