What Is a Google Places Scraper and How Does It Benefit Business?

Running a business is more than a full-time job — it’s a lifestyle. There are always things to do, sign, plan, implement, and more. To succeed, there are millions of things to do and not enough time to do it all, it seems. 

Often, essential tasks can be overlooked or not done and needed due to time or lack of ability. For example, fitting effective customer research and competitor research into the schedule can be a challenge. In addition, finding the information needed to complete those tasks can often prove to be an impossible task.

Fortunately, there are tools available to help — one of which is Google Places. This incredible tool can help you advertise your business and can also help you complete other necessary tasks. 

This guide provides information on the benefits of Google Places, how to use it to gain a competitive advantage, and two important tools you need to do so: a Google Places scraper and proxies. 

What Is Google Places? Why Is It So Beneficial for a Business?

‌Google Places is a free tool for brick and mortar stores to make themselves known. When you register with Google Places, you place yourself among your competition. You also let potential customers know that you are open, how to find you, and more. 

Google Places can be an incredibly useful tool for gaining attention and driving customers to you. However, with so many businesses registered, it can be common to wonder how good it can be for competition. 

The good news is that all of that competition can provide invaluable insight into your market. Google Places does not just provide the location for businesses. It also has your competition’s customer reviews, images, and more. Using this information provides a competitive advantage as you can create strategies to truly stand out.

The biggest issue in doing so is having the time necessary to gather all of that information so you can put it to work. If you’re wondering how to get data from Google Places, there is a tool to help you do that: a Google Places scraper. 

What Is a Google Places Scraper?

‌Google Places gathers all kinds of important information about each business that registers. This includes addresses, phone numbers, business owners, links to the company website, and more. 

Additionally, customers leave photos and reviews to help others get a feel for that business. As a result, there is a wealth of information available for each business. Unfortunately, it gets provided in such a way that is the equivalent of dumping a mountain of sand onto a pile of diamonds and mixing it up. The jewels are there but it can take a lot of time to find them.

A Google Places scraper tool can be thought of as a gold pan used by prospectors. The scraper dips into the millions of grains of sand to surface with those jewels. 

The jewels that a scraper digs for are specific information that you need, such as a business’s peak hours and the reviews that customers leave. You can automate it to find the information you desire, such as reviews on competitors within a specific location. It prevents you from having to wade through a ton of useless information to find what you need. It then organizes that information so you can view it all in one place.

Why Should You Use a Google Places Scraper?

‌There are many known uses for scraping, some of which include:

• Generating leads 
• ‌Improving SEO strategies through keyword insight
• ‌Improving business models to meet customers’ needs and wants
• ‌Price monitoring of competitors in specific markets

Below is more information on how to download Google Places data and ways you can benefit from a scraper. 

What Are the Fundamental Ways to Put a Google Places Scraper to Work for Your Business?

‌A Google Places scraper can provide a lot of benefits for your business, some of which you will not see the full force of until you dive in. The following are just three of the most fundamental ways a Google Places scraper can improve your business.

1. Customer Research

‌Businesses rely on customers to survive. To gain and retain customers, you have to get a good sense of what your customer wants and needs and how they respond to your business.

Gathering the necessary research on your own can be time-consuming and incredibly challenging. Thanks to scraping tools, though, you no longer have to do it on your own. They can scrape Google Places for any information you need to improve your business.

It helps show customer reviews for both your company and your competitors. These reviews provide insight into things that customers do and do not like from local businesses. 

For example, several customers may express that they can never find a particular product or that checkout lines are too slow. Having this information can help you determine which products you should stock or how many checkout lanes you should keep running. Armed with such insight, you can make any necessary changes to improve your business and sales.

2. Competitor Research

‌Customer research is a vital component of any business’s success, but it’s not the only one. You must also research your competitors to learn what they offer, how they present it, and how your potential customers respond to them. You also get a good idea of their pricing model to be sure you are competitive in this area. 

By using a Google Places scraper, you get access to all of this information. Then, once you have gained it, you can use it to better stand out among your competition.

For example, you can gain access to how your competitors set up their stores, and how they present specific products. If their presentation does well, you can create a strategy to emulate some of those aspects. If it does not do well, you know what to avoid. In either case, it allows you to perform better.

3. SEO

‌A Google Places scraper can also check for specific keywords, keyphrases, and more. By understanding what keywords perform well in your industry, you can adapt your keyword strategy to improve your SEO. This can help you rank above — or at the very least among — your competitors.

Why Do You Need Proxies for a Google Places Scraper?

‌When you conduct any internet activity, it is done so through an IP address. It is similar to a home address for the computer you use. Every time you visit a website, it registers that IP address. 

Websites want visitors, but they prefer those visitors to be human — except for Google. As Google’s web crawlers are what puts those websites on the map, so to speak, they want Google’s crawlers to visit.

Though humans might visit a website several times, there is often time in-between visits.  Additionally, web crawlers often do things that humans do not. For example, they might only look for specific items, such as links or photos. Humans typically have more sporadic browsing patterns. When too many visits from the same IP address occur, or too much crawler activity is going on, websites catch on. They realize that the visitor is a bot and often block that IP address.

Here’s how to scrape Google Places properly: use proxies. Proxies are tools utilized to change the IP address that requests are coming from. This makes it appear as though each request is coming from a different location, meaning the website usually does not realize it is a bot.

Without proxies, you run the risk of your scraper being rendered useless. When too many Google Places scraping requests are made, it can slow down a company’s website speed. Most businesses put a limit on crawlable data to prevent this from happening. When your scraper sends a request from the same IP address too often, you might be blocked. 

Using proxies means that those requests are coming from different IP addresses. This means that you can access the same website more often without being detected. As such, there is no risk of being blocked for sending too many requests. 

Proxies are a must to get full and optimal benefits from Google Places scraping. At Rayobyte, we offer great proxy packages at an affordable price. We also provide risk-free, money-back guarantee trials to let you take our product for a spin before you commit. Come take a look at our data center proxies and our residential proxies. 

How Do Google Places Scrapers With Proxies Benefit Business?

‌Registering for a free account on Google Places is an excellent way to put your business on the map, attract customers, and improve sales. It is also a great place to find and utilize valuable information about your current and potential customers and your competition. Utilizing Google Places is an essential step toward success in your market. 

When you decide to take the plunge and start scraping data from Google Places, be sure you have the tools needed for optimal performance. When you obtain a tool to scrape Google Places and proxies to mask your IP, you can put the full force of market insight to work for you.