Building a Professional Google Maps Scraper: A Technical Deep Dive

Vadym B.12 min

Building a Professional Google Maps Scraper: A Technical Deep Dive

Look, we've all been there. You need business data from Google Maps, but their official API is either too expensive or doesn't give you what you actually need. So you think, "How hard can web scraping be?"

Spoiler alert: It's harder than you think. But it's totally doable.

This is the story of building a Google Maps scraper that actually works in production. Not just the "hey look, I got one restaurant" demo version. I'm talking about the kind that can pull thousands of businesses without getting blocked or breaking your server.

What We're Actually Building

This isn't your typical "scrape 10 restaurants and call it a day" project. We're building something that can:

  • Pull business data at scale (think thousands, not dozens)
  • Handle Google's anti-bot measures without breaking a sweat
  • Process the messy data into something actually useful
  • Not crash when Google changes their HTML (because they will)

The whole thing is built with Node.js and Puppeteer. Why? Because JavaScript is everywhere and Puppeteer is stupidly good at pretending to be a real browser.

The Tech Stack (And Why These Choices Don't Suck)

What We're Using

Here's what powers this thing:

  • Puppeteer + Stealth Plugin: Because Google is really good at detecting bots, but this combo is really good at not looking like one
  • Cheerio: For when you need to parse HTML without wanting to cry
  • Axios: HTTP requests that just work
  • TypeScript: Because debugging scraping code without types is a special kind of hell

How It's Organized (Spoiler: It Actually Makes Sense)

The code is split up so you don't go insane:

Main Engine (index.js): This is where the magic happens. Opens Google Maps, searches for stuff, grabs the data.

The Big Kahuna (bigDatabase/ folder): When you need to scrape at scale:

  • scrapeGoogleMapsPlaces.js: The heavy-duty version with all the bells and whistles
  • extractContacts.js: Finds phone numbers and emails (when they exist)
  • googleMapsParse.js: Turns Google's messy HTML into clean JSON
  • bulkRunner.js: For when you need to scrape 10,000 places and not die

Data Stuff: Saves everything in formats that won't make your data analyst cry.

The Cool Stuff That Actually Works

Playing Hide and Seek with Google

Google really doesn't want you scraping their stuff. Fair enough. But we're sneaky:

const puppeteer = require('puppeteer-extra');
const StealthPlugin = require('puppeteer-extra-plugin-stealth');
puppeteer.use(StealthPlugin());

// This makes your bot look like a regular browser
// (Most of the time)

The stealth plugin is basically a collection of tricks that make Puppeteer look less... robotic. It works surprisingly well.

When Things Go Wrong (And They Will)

Scraping breaks. A lot. Here's what we handle:

  • Cookie banners (because Europe)
  • Content that loads slower than a Windows 95 bootup
  • Network timeouts (thanks, hotel WiFi)
  • Elements that decide to hide for no reason

Basically, if it can break, we've probably seen it break and built something to deal with it.

Processing Data That Doesn't Suck

Google's HTML is... creative. The bigDatabase module turns that chaos into something useful:

  • Batch processing (because doing things one at a time is for masochists)
  • Contact extraction (phone numbers, emails, websites)
  • Data cleaning (goodbye, weird Unicode characters)
  • Speed optimizations (because waiting is boring)

The Extra Stuff (That's Actually Pretty Cool)

This project isn't just about scraping. There's a whole bunch of marketing and SEO stuff thrown in:

SEO That Actually Works

The repo includes guides for:

  • Writing content that doesn't scream "I'M AN AI"
  • SEO monitoring that tells you useful things
  • Technical SEO implementation (structured data, meta tags, the works)

Documentation That Doesn't Suck

Real talk: most technical documentation is terrible. This project includes:

  • Style guides that make sense
  • Checklists so you don't forget important stuff
  • Monitoring setups that actually help
  • Best practices that are actually... best

The "Please Don't Sue Us" Section

Look, scraping is a gray area. Here's how to not get in trouble:

  • Read Google's Terms of Service (yes, actually read them)
  • Follow local laws (GDPR is real, folks)
  • Don't be a jerk about rate limiting
  • If someone asks you to stop, stop

Basically: be respectful, don't hammer their servers, and use the data responsibly. Common sense stuff.

Making It Fast (Because Waiting Sucks)

The whole thing is built to scale:

  • Modular design (add more scrapers without rewriting everything)
  • Memory management that won't kill your server
  • Batch processing (configurable, so you can tune it)
  • Logging that actually helps you debug

Basically, it's designed to handle whatever you throw at it without falling over.

What You'd Actually Use This For

Here's where this kind of scraping makes sense:

  • Market research ("How many pizza places are in downtown?")
  • Building business directories (the kind people actually use)
  • Lead gen for B2B (find prospects, get contact info)
  • Location intelligence (mapping business density, trends)
  • Academic research (studying local business patterns)

And probably a dozen other things I haven't thought of.

The Clever Bits

A few things that make this project stand out:

Stealth Mode: Goes way beyond basic bot detection evasion Smart Processing: Handles big datasets without choking Actually Modular: Add features without breaking existing stuff Performance Tuning: Batching and resource management that actually works

What's Next (If You're Into That Sort of Thing)

The code is structured so you could add:

  • Multi-platform scraping (Yelp, Facebook, whatever)
  • Real-time processing (stream data as you scrape it)
  • ML integration (classify businesses automatically)
  • API wrapper (turn it into a service)

Basically, this is a good foundation for bigger things.

Wrapping Up

This isn't just another "here's how to scrape Google Maps" tutorial. It's a complete system that actually works in the real world.

The documentation is solid, the code is organized, and the ethical considerations are baked in from the start. Plus, the SEO and marketing stuff means you're not just building a scraper – you're building a complete data solution.

The real win here? It shows how to do web scraping right. Good code structure, proper error handling, and ethical data collection. The kind of stuff that matters when you're building something people will actually use.

Oh, and it won't get you sued. That's always a plus.

This analysis is based on the publicly available codebase and documentation. All technical implementations should be used in compliance with applicable terms of service and legal requirements.