What Are the Benefits of Scraping Google Maps?

Google Maps is a popular web mapping service and a software application used by thousands of individual users/consumers and companies worldwide, including Accenture, Lyft, Snapchat, and Glovo. Back in the day, Google Maps used to be a simple navigation tool. However, today it allows users to calculate the distance and approximate time between two places, geolocate a specific point, search for the nearest places, and more. Moreover, many businesses create their profile on Google Maps for marketing and to allow users to easily search for their location, opening hours, phone numbers, and more. This information is not only helpful for customers, but many b2b businesses also use this data for lead generation, data analysis and more. This is where Google Map Scraping comes in handy.

This article will discuss the basic concept of scraping Google Maps and its benefits. We’ll also explore the features of the best Google Maps data scraper, called Zenserp.

What Are The Benefits of Google Map Scraping?

Companies scrape Google Maps data for various purposes:

Lead Generation by Scraping Google Maps Data

Perhaps the biggest benefit of scraping data from Google Maps for b2b businesses is lead generation. Today, almost every company creates a profile on Google Maps and shares its business location, contact details, timings, photos, reviews, ratings and more to improve its digital presence. This valuable data can be scraped by other businesses to generate leads. For example, b2b businesses can scrape contact info, such as email and phone numbers, ratings, and Google reviews of businesses located in a specific area and create a qualified outreach list.

Big Data Analysis

With Google Map scraping, you can extract lots of normalized data about businesses located in a specific place or local business and use it for data analysis to uncover trends and patterns.

Evaluate Brand/Business Reputation

You can scrape Google Maps reviews for a specific brand to assess brand sentiment, reputation and quality of products/services.

Competitor Analysis

Another benefit of Google Map scraping is competitor analysis. For example, you can scrape Google Maps reviews to assess how your competitors are doing and what people like and dislike about their products or services. You can then use this extracted data to improve your products/services accordingly.

Scrape Google Maps to Track Rankings

Scraped data from Google Maps can also be used to track and monitor the ranking of businesses in a specific area for a search query or search queries.

Product Research

You can also extract data from the Google Maps platform for product hunting. For instance, you can scrape data, such as info and reviews, of businesses offering similar products that you’re searching for and choose the best product based on your research.

Should You Use Official Google Maps API or a Third-Party API For Google Map Scraping?

Google offers several APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) for Google Maps and Places. Developers can use the APIs to access Google Maps functionality and data. This means you can use the API for Google Maps scraping purposes. So the question is, why do businesses look for a third-party Google Maps scraper if there is an official Google Maps API? Here’s why:

Pricing: Some users find the pricing structure of the Google Maps API a bit tricky and expensive. On the contrary, there are several reasonably priced third-party Google Maps extractors that provide accurate results.
Authentication Process: All your Google Maps API calls must include an API key linked to your Google Cloud platform account.
Constant Monitoring: You must constantly track your API usage to ensure you don’t exceed the allowed limits. Otherwise, your account can get blocked for over-usage.
Unpredictable: Google can enforce new restrictions any time they want, which can significantly affect your product using the official Google Maps API.

Considering the above points, many businesses prefer a third-party Google Maps extractor to the official Google Maps API.

What Type of Data Can You Scrape From Google Maps?

Different Google Maps scrapers have different capabilities in terms of scraping Google Maps data. A good Google Maps Scraper allows you to extract the following data for a business:

Place ID, title, subtitle, description, and category
Location, address, and exact coordinates
Reviews and ratings
Contact details, including phone number, website URL, and email address
Timings and opening hours
Menu and price (for restaurants)
Temporarily or permanently closed status
Social media links
Images

Which is the Best Google Maps Scraper?

If you’re looking for an easy-to-use, reliable, and efficient Google Maps Scraper, Zenserp Google Maps API is definitely the best option. The API allows you to scrape accurate data of local businesses from Google Maps search results pages.

Here are the key features of Zenserp Google Maps API that make it the best Google Maps scraper:

Detailed Data

The API provides detailed data about every business for a given search query. This includes coordinates, place ID, title, address, rating, review count, and type.

Geotargeted Searches

The Zenserp Google Maps API also supports geotargeted, allowing you to add a location or coordinates to your requests. You can use this feature to check the ranking of a local business at a specific location.

Scrape Local Businesses Data by Coordinates

Zenserp Google Maps API allows you to scrape data of all businesses for a requested search query by iterating over coordinate sets.

Scalable

The efficient API is highly scalable and can process thousands of requests without compromising performance.

Free Plan

Zenserp offers a generous free plan that comes with 50 monthly API requests. You can choose from one of its several flexible pricing plans if you want more API requests.

Detailed Documentation

The Zenserp API has extensive documentation that includes all the details regarding API endpoints, methods and parameters. It also provides several code examples in different programming languages for quick integration. Moreover, you can test API features in the Zenserp API playground.

Conclusion

Scraping Google Maps data has several benefits, including lead generation, competitor analysis, product research and hunting, and big data analysis. However, it’s essential to use a reliable and efficient Google Map scrape that can process thousands of requests and provide detailed results within seconds. Zenserp Google Map API is one such tool that can scrape accurate data from Google Maps.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is Google Map scraping?

Scraping Google Maps means extracting data from Google Maps, such as the title, subtitle, category, reviews, and ratings of a business.

Is Google Google Maps scraping legal?

Web scraping and Google map scraping are legal, given you’re scraping publicly available data. However, you must refrain from scraping private data.

Can a Google Maps scraper extract rating of a business?

An efficient Google Maps scraper like Zenserp Google Map API can scrape information regarding the ratings of a business.