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Why one Maps search stops at about 120 businesses
A single Maps search lists about 120 businesses at most, however big the city. In a large city, that's only part of a trade, and scrolling further doesn't help: the list ends there.
To get more, you need more searches, each covering a different part of the city. Maps Scraper Pro gives you two ways to run them, and you can use both.
- Chat's area search picks the searches for you, by distance from the place you name.
- Bulk runs the searches you choose, such as one per zip code, and saves them as one list.
Getting past the 120 limit: ask chat for up to 1,000
When you ask chat for more businesses than one search lists, it searches the area around the place too. It searches again from points in rings 2 km apart around the businesses it found, nearest first, and skips the ones it already has.
Step 1: Ask for the number, and how far to look
Open the side panel, choose Chat and type the kind of business, the place and the number, such as "Find 1,000 dentists in Dallas, TX within 20 km". Without a distance, it looks about 4 km out.
- One request collects up to 1,000 businesses.
- The distance can be up to 20 km.
Step 2: Let it work through the area
After the first search, the panel shows Searching more of the area with a count, such as (3 of 19). Each further search waits a few seconds before it starts, so a large request takes a while.
- Click Stop at any time. What it found so far is kept in History.
Step 3: Read how it ended
The last message says why it stopped. It reached your number, or it ran out of new businesses within the distance and says "That's all Maps lists within 4 km", with a wider area to try.
- It also stops early when three searches in a row find nothing new.
| You type | Searches after the first one | How far out |
|---|---|---|
| Find 300 dentists in Dallas, TX | Up to 18 | About 4 km |
| Find 300 dentists in Dallas, TX within 10 km | Up to 90 | 10 km |
| Find 1,000 dentists in Dallas, TX within 20 km | Up to 330 | 20 km |
The area search goes by distance, not by zip code or city line. So a request for more than a zip code lists looks past that zip code's edge, and how chat's area search works has the details.
Search zip code by zip code with Bulk
Bulk runs a list of Maps searches one after another and saves them as one list. Each search is collected to the end of its list, with no area search, so you decide exactly which zip codes are covered.
Step 1: List the zip codes
Write down the zip codes that make up the city, or the part of it you want. The USPS ZIP Code lookup finds them by city and state.
Step 2: Run the first search on Maps
Search Maps for the kind of business and the first zip code, such as "dentists 75201", and copy the address from the address bar.
Step 3: Make one link per zip code
Paste the address once for each zip code and change the zip code in each copy, or run each search on Maps and copy its address. Keep the links in a spreadsheet column when there are many.
Step 4: Paste them into Bulk
In the side panel, click Bulk scrape, then Many Maps searches at once. Choose Paste URLs for one link per line, or Upload file for a .csv with one link per row, then click Start collecting on Configure.
- Review sites shows how many links Bulk kept. It keeps only links to Maps searches and sets the rest aside.
- Leave contact details ticked for emails, and keep the Bulk tab open until the run finishes.
Collecting many searches with Bulk covers each of its screens.
Remove the businesses found twice
Two searches often list the same business, such as one near the edge of a zip code. Bulk leaves out only rows that match in every field, and a business's Maps link changes with the search that found it, so the same business can stay in the list twice.
To remove the repeats, open the list on the results page and ask chat to "remove repeats by Address". Chat keeps the first of each and hides the rest, and a download has only what the page shows.
- Match on Address or Phone, not Business Name: a chain's branches share a name.
- Rows with an empty Address aren't treated as repeats of each other, so they stay.
- For up to 10 places, you can run the searches in chat and click the card that joins them, such as Combine the 3 searches into one table. It keeps each business once, matched by name and address, and adds a Location column.
In chat, a zip code search that lists fewer businesses than you asked for looks past the zip code's edge. For exact zip codes, Bulk is the better fit.
For files you've already downloaded, exporting a Maps search to Excel covers combining them and removing duplicates.
Every kind of business, not one trade
Maps searches one kind of business at a time, so there's no single search for every business in a city. "All businesses" means a list of searches: one per kind of business, in each part of the city.
Start with the kinds that matter to you, then add more. The table groups common searches by sector.
| Sector | Searches to run |
|---|---|
| Health | dentists, doctors, chiropractors, physical therapists, pharmacies |
| Food and drink | restaurants, cafés, bars, bakeries |
| Trades | plumbers, electricians, HVAC contractors, roofers |
| Personal services | hair salons, gyms, dry cleaners, auto repair shops |
| Professional services | lawyers, accountants, real estate agents, insurance agents |
| Shops | grocery stores, florists, hardware stores, clothing stores |
Put every search in one .csv file, one Maps link per row, and upload it to Bulk. Five kinds in 10 zip codes is 50 searches, run one after another, so leave the computer on and the Bulk tab open.
Similar searches can find different businesses: "dentists" and "dental clinics" may each list some the other misses. When the list must be complete, run both and remove the repeats.
For one trade across several cities rather than one whole city, lead lists for clients shows the city-by-city way.
Build a business database for a city
A business database for a city is this guide's lists joined up: one search per kind of business in each part of the city, combined and cleaned of repeats. Build it kind by kind, and keep each run in History so the next one adds to it instead of starting over.
Treat "10,000 leads in one click" with care. One Maps search lists about 120 businesses, one chat request collects up to 1,000 by searching the area around a place, and Bulk takes as many searches as you give it, one after another, in a tab you keep open. A whole city is hours of runs, not a click.
History keeps 500 lists, so download a combined file as you go: a database you can open in Excel beats one spread across lists. Exporting to Excel covers joining the files and removing the repeats, and counting your competitors in a city shows what to ask a finished list.
Other lists of a city's businesses
Some cities publish every registered business as open data, free to download. These lists include businesses Maps may not show, such as home-based ones, but they have no phones, emails or ratings.
| Source | What it has | What it lacks |
|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles, Listing of Active Businesses | About 632,800 businesses registered with the city's Office of Finance, with name, address, zip code and industry code, updated monthly | Phones, emails, websites and ratings |
| Chicago, Business Licenses, Current Active | About 53,400 active business licenses, with name, address, license type and map position; one business can hold several | Phones, emails, websites and ratings |
| A Maps list from Maps Scraper Pro | The businesses Maps lists for each search, with phone, website, rating and the emails on each website | Businesses with no Maps listing |
Open data fits when you need every registered business, or a count by industry. A Maps list fits when you need to reach the businesses: compare the Los Angeles list and the Chicago list with what you need.
To find out whether your city publishes one, search its open-data portal for "business licenses" or "active businesses". You can then match the two lists by address in a spreadsheet.
Problems and fixes
| What happened | Why | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Chat said "That's all Maps lists within 4 km" | It ran out of new businesses before your number | Ask again with a wider area, such as "within 10 km" |
| Chat said "1,000 is the most one request collects" | One chat request stops at 1,000 businesses | Split the city: one request per part, or one Bulk search per zip code |
| The side panel closed during a chat run | The search under way finishes and is kept in History, but the rest of the area isn't searched | Open the list from History, then ask again for the part that's missing |
| Bulk left some links out | It keeps only links to Maps searches, from the main Maps address | Copy each link from a Maps search, not from a country's own Maps address |
| Bulk dropped a line of words | Bulk needs links, not search words | Run the search on Maps once and paste its address instead |
| Maps shows a verification page | Maps wants to check that you're a person | Complete it in the tab, then run the search again |
Questions people ask
How do I find a list of all businesses in my area?
Run one Maps search per kind of business and collect them with Maps Scraper Pro, or check whether your city publishes its registered businesses as open data. The open data lists every registered business, and the Maps list has the phones, websites and emails.
Can a Maps scraper get more than 120 results?
Yes, by running more than one search. Maps Scraper Pro's chat does it for you, up to 1,000 businesses a request, by searching the area around the place.
How do I get a list of businesses by zip code?
Run one Maps search per zip code, such as "plumbers 75201", and paste the links into Bulk. It collects each search to the end of its list and saves them all as one list.
Is there a free list of all businesses in a city?
Many cities publish one as open data, free, but without phones or emails. Maps Scraper Pro is free too, and gives you the contact details for each kind of business you search.
How long does a whole city take?
It depends on how many businesses there are, because each one is collected in turn and each further area search waits a few seconds first. Start a large request and let it run in its tab; what it finds is kept in History as it goes.