Yellow Pages Business Scraper Worldwide

Table of Contents

• Description
• Supported Countries
• Features
• Input Parameters
• Output Schema
• Usage Examples
• Operating Modes
• Performance Specifications
• Email Extraction Success Rates
• Best Practices
• Troubleshooting
• Known Limitations
• Technical Architecture
• Legal Disclaimer

Description

Yellow Pages Scraper is a robust web scraping solution designed to extract business contact information from Yellow Pages directories worldwide. The actor supports 10 different country-specific Yellow Pages websites and provides comprehensive business data including contact details, addresses, and optionally extracted email addresses from business websites.

Supported Countries

Country	Website	Code
USA	YellowPages.com	us
Canada	YellowPages.ca	ca
United Kingdom	Yell.com	uk
Germany	GelbeSeiten.de	de
France	PagesJaunes.fr	fr
Spain	PaginasAmarillas.es	es
Italy	PagineGialle.it	it
Romania	PaginiAurii.ro	ro
Australia	YellowPages.com.au	au
Brazil	GuiaMais.com.br	br

Features

• Multi-country support with 10 Yellow Pages directories
• Configurable result limits from 1 to 1000 entries
• Optional email extraction from business websites
• Multiple export formats: CSV, JSON, Excel
• Automatic proxy rotation with residential proxies
• Smart retry mechanisms with exponential backoff
• Session persistence with fingerprint randomization
• Intelligent caching and deduplication

Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
targetSite	string	Yes	us	Country code: us, ca, uk, de, fr, es, it, ro, au, br
searchQuery	string	Yes	-	Search query with business type and location
maxResults	integer	No	2	Number of results to extract (range: 1-1000)
scanForEmails	boolean	No	false	Enable website scanning for email extraction

Output Schema

Field	Description
Business Name	Company or business name
Full Address	Complete street address
City	Extracted city name
Country	Country code identifier
Phone Number	Primary contact telephone number
Website URL	Business website address (when available)
Email Address	Extracted email (when scanForEmails is enabled)
Business Category	Industry or category classification
Status Label	Business status indicator
Source URL	Original Yellow Pages listing URL

Supported export formats: CSV, JSON, Excel

Usage Examples

Basic Search

Extract restaurant listings from Germany without email scanning:

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

Estimated execution time: 1-2 minutes

Search with Email Extraction

Extract hotel listings from Canada with email scanning enabled:

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

Estimated execution time: 10-15 minutes

Large Dataset Extraction

Extract a large dataset of lawyer listings from the USA:

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

Estimated execution time: 10-12 minutes

Operating Modes

Standard Mode (Default)

• Processing speed: approximately 1.4 seconds per business
• Data source: Yellow Pages directory only
• Email extraction: disabled
• Recommended for: high-volume data collection

Email Extraction Mode

• Processing speed: approximately 20-30 seconds per business
• Data source: Yellow Pages directory and business websites
• Email extraction: enabled
• Scans: homepage, contact pages, legal/impressum pages
• Recommended for: lead generation requiring email contacts

Performance Specifications

Mode	Results	Estimated Time	Recommended RAM
Standard	50	1-2 minutes	4 GB
Standard	200	4-6 minutes	8 GB
Standard	500	10-12 minutes	8 GB
Email	25	10-15 minutes	8 GB
Email	50	20-30 minutes	16 GB
Email	100	40-60 minutes	16 GB

Note: Allocate 16 GB RAM for email extraction tasks to ensure optimal performance.

Email Extraction Success Rates

Country	Success Rate	Notes
Germany	60-75%	Impressum law mandates contact information
Canada	55-70%	Strong business transparency standards
USA	50-65%	Extensive database coverage
Australia	50-65%	High-quality business listings
UK	45-60%	Strong B2B sector presence
France	45-60%	Comprehensive directory coverage
Italy	45-60%	Well-maintained business records
Spain	40-55%	Growing directory coverage
Romania	40-55%	Focus on local businesses
Brazil	40-55%	Leading Latin American directory

Best Practices

1. Test with small datasets: Begin with 10-20 results to validate query accuracy before executing large extractions.

2. Leverage German directory for emails: Germany has the highest email success rate due to Impressum legal requirements.

3. Include location in queries: Specify city names in search queries for more targeted and relevant results.

4. Segment large extractions: Execute multiple runs of 100 results rather than single runs of 500+ results for improved reliability.

5. Monitor resource allocation: Increase RAM allocation when enabling email extraction mode.

Troubleshooting

No Results Returned

• Verify the search query returns results on the Yellow Pages website directly
• Check spelling and location format accuracy
• Attempt broader search terms

Insufficient Results

• Increase the maxResults parameter value
• Use broader category terms (e.g., "restaurants" instead of "vegan restaurants")
• Verify the location has sufficient business listings

Missing Email Addresses

• Confirm scanForEmails parameter is set to true
• Note that not all businesses have websites listed in their profiles
• Some websites use contact forms exclusively without displaying email addresses
• Consider targeting Germany for highest email extraction success rates

Actor Timeout Issues

• Reduce the maxResults parameter value
• Disable email extraction for faster execution
• Divide large extractions into multiple smaller runs

Error Status Responses

• Typically caused by proxy or rate limiting issues
• The actor implements automatic retry mechanisms for failed requests
• Verify Yellow Pages website accessibility from your region

Known Limitations

• Data extraction limited to Yellow Pages listing pages
• Website scanning requires a listed website URL in the business profile
• Email extraction not possible when businesses use contact forms exclusively
• Some websites implement scraping protection or JavaScript-based content loading
• Email extraction success varies by website structure and regional regulations
• Rate limiting may affect extractions exceeding 500 results

Technical Architecture

Component	Technology
Framework	Apify SDK with Crawlee
Browser Engine	Playwright (headless mode)
Proxy System	Residential proxies with automatic rotation
Search Method	Form-based submission
Selectors	5-7 fallback selectors per data field
Sessions	Persistent with fingerprint randomization
Caching	Smart deduplication system
Error Handling	Exponential backoff with circuit breakers

Legal Disclaimer

This actor extracts publicly available business information from Yellow Pages directories. Users are responsible for:

• Using extracted data for legitimate business purposes only
• Compliance with applicable data protection regulations (GDPR, CCPA, and similar)
• Adherence to anti-spam legislation (CAN-SPAM, CASL, and similar)
• Respecting website terms of service
• Obtaining appropriate consent before using data for marketing purposes

The developers assume no liability for misuse of this tool or extracted data.