Google Maps Business Scraper

Step 01

Problem

Getting contact data from local businesses for prospecting requires searching one by one on Google Maps and manually copying information. It's tedious, slow and error-prone.

Step 02

Context and constraints

Built a Python scraper using the Google Places API (Text Search + Place Details) that searches for businesses by category and province, extracts structured data, and stores it in a database for prospecting and enrichment.

Role: Backend developer: integration with Google Places API, data extraction pipeline, pagination handling, and structured export to CSV/database.

Step 03

Key decisions

• Google Places API over browser scraping: more reliable, no anti-bot detection, official data access.
• Text Search API for initial discovery by category + location query.
• Place Details API for deep extraction: website, phone, reviews, coordinates.
• Pagination handling via next_page_token for complete result coverage.
• SQLite database for local storage with schema for business data and enrichment.
• Integration with Google Sheets for direct export to campaign contact lists.
• Separate enrichment module using DeepSeek AI for data quality enhancement.

Step 04

Outcomes

• Automated extraction of businesses per search with structured data.
• Integration with prospecting pipeline: scraper → enrichment → Sheets → email campaigns.
• Ready for local prospecting campaigns, competitive analysis or commercial databases.

Metrics

• API-based: Google Places Text Search + Place Details.
• Fields extracted: name, address, phone, website, rating, reviews (text), coordinates, place ID.
• Pagination support via next_page_token for complete result sets.
• SQLite storage with database schema.
• Push to Google Sheets integration for campaign workflows.
• Enrichment pipeline using DeepSeek AI for data enhancement.

Step 05

Learnings and next improvement

Category + Location → [Google Places Text Search] → [Place Details] → SQLite
                                                                          ↓
                                                              [DeepSeek enrichment]
                                                                          ↓
                                                              [Google Sheets] → Campaigns

Step 06

Visual resources