Yellow Pages Business Scraper Worldwide

Quick Start

1. Select country (US, Canada, UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Romania, Australia, Brazil)
2. Enter search query (e.g., restaurants Toronto)
3. Set number of results (1-1000)
4. Optional: Enable email extraction
5. Run

Input

Country - Which Yellow Pages site to scrape

• USA (us): yellowpages.com
• Canada (ca): yellowpages.ca
• UK (uk): yell.com
• Germany (de): gelbeseiten.de
• France (fr): pagesjaunes.fr
• Spain (es): paginasamarillas.es
• Italy (it): paginegialle.it
• Romania (ro): paginiaurii.ro
• Australia (au): yellowpages.com.au
• Brazil (br): guiamais.com.br

Search Query - What to search for

• Example: restaurants Toronto
• Example: installateure Berlin (plumbers in German)
• Example: hotels Paris

Number of Results - How many businesses (1-1000)

Extract Emails - Optional checkbox

• OFF (default): Fast mode, Yellow Pages data only
• ON: Scrapes websites for emails (slower)

Output Data

Every result includes:

• Business name
• Full address
• City name
• Country code
• Phone number
• Website URL
• Email address (if extraction enabled)
• Business category
• Status label
• Source URL

Export as CSV, JSON, or Excel.

Two Modes

Fast Mode (default)

• ~1.4 seconds per business
• Yellow Pages data only
• No email extraction

Complete Mode (enable checkbox)

• ~20-30 seconds per business
• Includes email extraction from websites
• Scans homepage, contact page, legal pages

Examples

Basic Usage

{
  "targetSite": "de",
  "searchQuery": "restaurants Berlin",
  "maxResults": 50,
  "scanForEmails": false
}

Time: ~1-2 minutes Note: "restaurants" works internationally, or use "gaststätten Berlin" for German

With Email Extraction

{
  "targetSite": "ca",
  "searchQuery": "hotels Toronto",
  "maxResults": 25,
  "scanForEmails": true
}

Time: ~10-15 minutes

Large Dataset

{
  "targetSite": "us",
  "searchQuery": "lawyers New York",
  "maxResults": 500,
  "scanForEmails": false
}

Time: ~10-12 minutes

Performance

Mode	Results	Time	RAM
Fast	50	1-2 min	4GB
Fast	200	4-6 min	8GB
Fast	500	10-12 min	8GB
Complete	25	10-15 min	8GB
Complete	50	20-30 min	16GB
Complete	100	40-60 min	16GB

Recommended: 16GB RAM for email extraction

Email Extraction Features

When enabled, the scraper:

• Scans homepage, contact pages, impressum, legal pages
• Detects obfuscated emails (contact[at]domain[dot]com)
• Decodes HTML entities and Unicode
• Validates domain matching with website
• Filters placeholder emails (info@example.com, noreply@)
• Supports 60+ languages
• Uses residential proxies

Email Success Rates by Country

Country	Success Rate	Why
Germany	60-75%	Impressum law requires contact info
Canada	55-70%	Good business transparency
USA	50-65%	Large database
Australia	50-65%	Quality listings
UK	45-60%	Strong B2B presence
France	45-60%	Comprehensive directory
Italy	45-60%	Well-maintained
Spain	40-55%	Growing coverage
Romania	40-55%	Local focus
Brazil	40-55%	Latin America leader

Use Cases

• Lead generation with verified contact details
• B2B sales prospecting and outreach
• Email marketing database building
• Market research and competitor analysis
• CRM data enrichment

Troubleshooting

No results found?

• Verify query works on Yellow Pages website manually
• Check spelling and location format
• Try broader search terms

Too few results?

• Increase maxResults parameter
• Use broader category (e.g., restaurants instead of vegan restaurants)

Missing emails?

• Enable "Extract Emails" checkbox
• Not all businesses have websites listed
• Some websites hide contact info or use forms only
• Germany has highest success rate due to Impressum requirements

Actor timing out?

• Reduce maxResults
• Disable email extraction for faster runs
• Split into multiple smaller runs

Getting ERROR status?

• Usually proxy or rate limiting issues
• Actor automatically retries failed requests
• Check if Yellow Pages site is accessible from your location

Tips

• Start small: Test with 10-20 results first before large runs
• Germany = best emails: German sites (.de) have mandatory Impressum with contact info
• Fast mode first: Run without emails first, then re-run specific results with email extraction
• Location matters: Include city name in query for better targeting
• Business hours: Some sites have stricter rate limits during business hours
• Split large runs: Better to run 5x 100 results than 1x 500 results

Limitations

• Only extracts data from Yellow Pages listing pages
• Only scans websites if listed on business profile
• Cannot extract emails if no website exists or uses contact forms only
• Some websites block scraping or use JavaScript protection
• Email success depends on website structure and country regulations
• Rate limiting may slow down very large extractions (500+ results)

Technical Details

• Built with Apify SDK and Crawlee framework
• Uses Playwright for headless browser automation
• Residential proxies with automatic rotation
• Form-based search mimicking human behavior
• 5-7 fallback selectors per field for reliability
• Session persistence and browser fingerprint randomization
• Smart caching to avoid duplicate requests
• Automatic retry logic with exponential backoff
• Memory optimization with garbage collection
• All infrastructure costs handled by Apify

Legal Notice

This actor extracts publicly available business information from Yellow Pages directories. Users must:

• Use data for legitimate business purposes only
• Comply with applicable data protection laws (GDPR, CCPA, etc.)
• Follow anti-spam regulations (CAN-SPAM, CASL, etc.)
• Respect website terms of service
• Obtain proper consent before using data for marketing