Public Business Directory Leads Extractor

What this Actor does

Extract structured public business information from allowed directory and listing pages for lead workflows.

It processes user-provided public URLs, prioritizes JSON-LD/schema.org structured data, normalizes the useful fields, deduplicates rows, and saves structured records to the Apify dataset.

Why this Actor is useful

Teams pay for this kind of extraction when it saves manual research, creates repeatable monitoring, feeds spreadsheets or CRMs, and turns public pages into clean API-ready datasets.

Who this is for

• Lead generation agencies
• Local SEO agencies
• B2B sales teams
• Data enrichment teams
• CRM builders
• Market researchers

Common use cases

• Build public business lead lists from allowed pages
• Normalize business names, categories, locations, and public contact fields
• Feed CRM enrichment workflows
• Research local service markets
• Audit public business directory coverage

Input

• startUrls: Public URLs to extract from. Use only pages you are allowed to access without login or bypassing access controls.
• maxItems: Maximum number of rows to save.
• maxConcurrency: Number of pages processed in parallel. The default is intentionally conservative.
• includeRawStructuredData: Adds the original JSON-LD object for audit/debugging.
• proxyConfiguration: Optional Apify proxy configuration where permitted by your source review.

Output

• businessName: Public business name.
• category: Business category or schema type.
• website: Public website URL when listed.
• publicPhone: Public business phone number when displayed.
• publicEmail: Public business email when displayed and allowed.
• address: Formatted public business address.
• city: City or locality.
• region: Region/state.
• country: Country.
• rating: Public aggregate rating when available.
• reviewCount: Public aggregate review count when available.
• sourceUrl: URL where the data was extracted.
• extractedAt: Extraction timestamp.
• confidenceScore: Heuristic confidence score based on structured data availability.

Sample input

{
  "startUrls": [
    {
      "url": "https://example.com/"
    }
  ],
  "maxItems": 25,
  "maxConcurrency": 3,
  "includeRawStructuredData": false
}

Sample output

{
  "businessName": "Example Plumbing Co.",
  "category": "Plumber",
  "website": "https://example-plumbing.test",
  "publicPhone": "+1-555-0104",
  "publicEmail": "service@example-plumbing.test",
  "address": "120 Market Street",
  "city": "Denver",
  "region": "CO",
  "country": "US",
  "rating": "4.7",
  "reviewCount": 238,
  "sourceUrl": "https://example.com/",
  "extractedAt": "2026-06-12T00:00:00.000Z",
  "confidenceScore": 0.9
}

How to use

Run this Actor on Apify with public URLs, export the dataset as JSON, CSV, Excel, or through the Apify API, then connect the output to Google Sheets, Make, Zapier, a webhook, your CRM, or an internal dashboard. For monitoring, save the input as an Apify task and schedule recurring runs.

Best practices

• Start with a small set of reviewed public URLs.
• Prefer pages with schema.org JSON-LD structured data.
• Keep maxConcurrency low for smaller websites.
• Review source website rules before scheduling recurring runs.
• Keep includeRawStructuredData off unless you need audit details.

Compliance and responsible use

This Actor is for public data only. It must not be used to bypass logins, paywalls, CAPTCHAs, or security systems, collect private data, gather sensitive personal data, or support spam or abuse. You are responsible for following applicable laws and source website rules.

Limitations

• Output quality depends on public structured data available on the source pages.
• Some fields may be empty when the source does not publish them.
• The Actor does not claim support for any specific third-party platform.
• Website markup and access policies can change.

Troubleshooting

• Empty output usually means the page has little or no JSON-LD/schema.org data.
• Invalid URL errors mean one or more input URLs are malformed.
• Slow runs can usually be improved by lowering maxConcurrency.
• Missing fields are source-data limitations, not inferred values.

Changelog

• v0.2.0: Production-readiness pass with improved positioning, samples, schema descriptions, and responsible-use notes.
• v0.1.0: Initial dry-run factory generated MVP.