Map a competitive set
Research businesses by category and geography. Keep the search boundaries clear when comparing neighborhoods or markets.
All use casesYelp
LOCAL BUSINESS & REPUTATION DATA
Yelp
business data.
Understand the business.
Put its reputation in context.
Locations, categories, ratings and operating details, shaped into a dataset for your local-market research.
MAKE THE LOCAL MARKET COMPARABLE
More than a list
of names and stars.
Connect the business, its location and its reputation. Build your brief around the decisions you need to make.
Compare reputation signals
Read ratings alongside review volumes for comparable businesses. Use dated observations where your source agreement supports them.
Enrich location records
Connect business categories, branch addresses and available operating details to the right location in your existing dataset.
THREE VIEWS. ONE BUSINESS.
Identity, discovery
and reputation.
Keep the business record separate from how it was found and when its rating was observed. Scope only the fields your workflow needs.
Know the business behind the listing.
A location-level record connects business identity, categories and available contact details.
- business_id / source_url
- Keep a stable source reference for matching and updates.
- name / categories / location
- Separate the brand, business type and individual branch.
- phone / price_level
- Preserve published values; missing does not mean zero.
- hours / observed_at
- Keep operating details tied to their collection time.
Illustrative schema / not a collected Yelp result
{
"example_only": true,
"record_type": "business",
"sample_id": "business-001",
"business_id": null,
"source_url": null,
"observed_at": null,
"name": "Example Neighborhood Kitchen",
"categories": [
{
"alias": "restaurants",
"title": "Restaurants"
}
],
"location": {
"city": "Los Angeles",
"region": "CA",
"country": "US",
"street": null
},
"phone": null,
"price_level": "$$",
"coordinates": null,
"hours": null,
"is_closed": null,
"attribution": null
}Fictional business and values. No live data request.
This fictional record illustrates a proposed delivery format. Fields depend on the agreed source, access and scope; it is not a built-in API response.
Proposed delivery examples, not live Yelp records. Available fields, review access and delivery formats are confirmed during scoping.
THE DETAILS THAT CHANGE THE ANSWER
Keep useful distinctions
in the final data.
Clean data should be easier to work with without losing what the original observation actually means.
4.5 stars needs context
A rating based on 12 reviews and one based on 1,200 are different signals. Preserve both values and the observation date.
Closed now is not closed for good
Store the weekly schedule, time-sensitive availability and permanent closure separately. Leave missing values unknown.
Position is an observation
Keep the query, filters and locale. A business disappearing from one result set does not prove that it stopped operating.
A LEANER COLLECTION PLAN
Find once.
Enrich what matters.
Reduce duplicate work and unnecessary processing. Start with a small, validated sample before committing to recurring coverage.
- 01 / SCOPE
Define the market and access
Agree locations, categories, fields and intended use. Select a suitable licensed API or another explicitly permitted source route.
- 02 / RESOLVE
Build the business set
Preserve the search context, normalize source identifiers and deduplicate results before requesting more detail.
- 03 / DELIVER
Enrich, validate, refresh
Fetch only necessary details, check missing fields and agree a refresh schedule. Add AI only when the analysis needs it.
Yelp APIs & licensing
Evaluate Places for consumer-facing applications and Insights for internal analytics. Confirm the fields, plan and usage rights for your project.
Yelp data access referencePage content is a starting point
A 2Captcha response still needs content validation and parsing. A blocked page is not an empty business dataset, and rendering does not guarantee access.
Scraper API referenceYelp restricts automated scraping. We review source permissions, licensing, attribution and retention requirements before agreeing collection or delivery. Public visibility alone is not an unrestricted reuse licence.
THE RIGHT SERVICE FOR YOUR WORKLOAD
Research across websites.
Or commission a dataset.
The API supports your own page workflows. Managed collection is for a defined business-data requirement with an agreed source, schema and refresh plan.
Scraping API
Collect accessible public pages across websites, with optional AI analysis and classification.
- Content-only mode without AI processing
- Your URLs, prompts and result handling
- No login or CAPTCHA bypass
Managed Yelp data
A tailored project for location research, business enrichment or reputation analysis, subject to suitable source access.
- Source and sample feasibility review
- Business matching and quality checks
- Agreed delivery and refresh frequency
BEFORE YOU SCALE
Practical questions.
Clear boundaries.
Can a city search give us every matching business?
A search is a ranked selection, not a complete business registry. We define categories, geography and filters, then report tested coverage and duplicates. Yelp documents limits on its search endpoint and excludes businesses without reviews. A result total is not a promise that every matching business can be retrieved.
How are branches and duplicate businesses matched?
Use the source business ID or alias with the address and source URL. Keep separate branches distinct even when they share a name. Flag conflicting or ambiguous records for review instead of merging them solely by business name.
Does the review count include the full review text?
No. A rating and review count are aggregate fields. Yelp documents a separate endpoint for up to three review excerpts with the required plan access. Full text, additional review coverage and historical analysis are not included automatically; those require a separate feasibility and licensing review.
Will we receive business email addresses?
Email is not assumed. Available phone, location and contact fields can be scoped, but we do not invent missing details or derive personal contact information from reviews. Any additional website enrichment is a separate source and should keep its own provenance.
Can we compare ratings and opening hours over time?
Where the source agreement permits it, dated observations can support comparisons for the same business. A historical dataset needs an agreed collection period; today's page does not provide a complete past record. Regular hours, an open-now flag and permanent closure must remain separate states.
Do we need the Yelp API, a scraper, or both?
Choose the access route around the intended use. Yelp directs consumer-facing integrations to Places API and internal analytics to Insights API. The self-service Scraping API returns accessible page content, not a guaranteed Yelp dataset, and does not bypass login or CAPTCHA. We assess access before promising a managed collection.
What determines the cost of a recurring dataset?
The business count, geographic coverage, required fields, access agreement and refresh frequency all matter. Deduplicate discovery results before fetching details, and refresh only the fields you need. Deterministic parsing does not need AI; optional classification or analysis adds a separate processing cost. We quote against validated scope, not an assumed cost per page.
START WITH YOUR BUSINESS SET
Which local market
are you researching?
Share the locations, categories and fields you need. We will review source access and a sample scope before proposing collection.
- Target cities and business categories
- Example URLs and required data fields
- Refresh schedule and intended use
Projects are accepted individually, subject to feasibility and available capacity. An enquiry does not reserve a solution or confirm delivery. Pricing and terms are agreed directly with our team.
We review access and scope first. This form does not run a scrape or create a paid task.
ScrapingBuddy is not affiliated with Yelp. The restaurant image and data examples are illustrative. Collection and delivery depend on appropriate source access and agreed usage rights.