Can AlterLab extract business listings from local directories?

Yes. AlterLab handles both static and JavaScript-rendered business directory pages. Business name, address, phone number, hours, categories, and review ratings are extracted as structured JSON from schema.org LocalBusiness markup when available, or from the page HTML using your own selectors.

How do I collect business data across multiple cities?

Use the AlterLab batch endpoint to submit listing search result page URLs for each city in your target market. Each URL returns a page of local business results. Process all cities in parallel with a single batch request, then follow up with individual listing URL requests to collect full business details.

Can I extract customer reviews from business listing pages?

Yes. Business review data on listing pages is publicly accessible and extractable by AlterLab. Review text, star ratings, review dates, and reviewer information are returned in HTML format for custom parsing, or structured JSON when schema.org Review markup is present. For review-heavy pages rendered client-side, AlterLab escalates to browser rendering automatically.

How do I monitor review ratings for multiple businesses?

Schedule recurring AlterLab batch jobs against your list of business listing URLs. Extract the current star rating and review count from each response. Compare against your previous snapshot to detect rating changes, new reviews, and sentiment shifts. Store results with timestamps for trend analysis.

What does local business data collection cost at scale?

At $0.0002/request for static directory pages, collecting data for 100,000 business listings costs $20. For JavaScript-rendered listing pages at $0.004/request, the same volume costs $400. Most local business pipelines use Tier 1 for search result pages listing multiple businesses, and escalate to browser rendering only for individual business pages with interactive content.

business listing extractionreview data collectionlocal market intelligence

Local Business Data API

Extract business listings, reviews, contact information, and service details from any local directory or business portal. AlterLab returns structured JSON output including name, address, phone, hours, and ratings — ready for lead generation and market intelligence pipelines. From $0.0002/request.

Documentation

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SOC 2 aligned

99.9% uptime

Simple Pricing

One dollar

5,000

Requests

Pay as you go

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Never expires

2,847,653+

Requests processed this week

Extract Business Data in One API Call

Send a directory URL, get structured business data. Name, address, phone, hours, and ratings in clean JSON.

local_business.py

import requests

# Extract business listing data
response = requests.post(
    "https://api.alterlab.io/v1/scrape",
    headers={"X-API-Key": "sk_live_your_key"},
    json={
        "url": "https://yelp.com/biz/coffee-shop-nyc",
        "formats": ["json"],
    }
)

data = response.json()
biz = data["data"]["metadata"]
rating = biz.get("ratingValue")

city_sweep.py

# Sweep plumbers across 10 cities
search_urls = [
    "https://yelp.com/search?find_desc=plumbers&find_loc=NYC",
    "https://yelp.com/search?find_desc=plumbers&find_loc=LA",
    "# ... more cities"
]

response = requests.post(
    "https://api.alterlab.io/v1/batch",
    headers={"X-API-Key": api_key},
    json={"urls": search_urls}
)

How Local Business Data Collection Works with AlterLab

A complete local market data pipeline in four steps.

Submit Directory and Listing URLs

Send business directory search result URLs and individual listing page URLs to the AlterLab scrape or batch endpoint. Include category search pages to discover new businesses, and specific listing URLs for detailed data collection. No per-directory configuration required.

Structured Data Extraction from LocalBusiness Markup

Business directories commonly use schema.org LocalBusiness markup. When present, AlterLab extracts name, address, telephone, website, opening hours, price range, aggregate rating, and service categories as structured JSON — no custom selectors needed. For directories without structured markup, HTML is available for your own parsing logic.

Geographic and Category Organization

Store extracted business data with coordinates, city, postal code, and service category. Build geographic indexes to support location-based queries, radius searches, and market density analysis. Deduplicate across multiple directory sources using business name and address normalization.

Monitor Changes and New Listings

Schedule weekly batch jobs against your market search URLs to capture new business openings, closures, rating changes, and contact information updates. The batch endpoint processes entire city-category combinations in parallel — one request covers your full geographic market.

Local Business Data Use Cases

What sales teams, marketers, and local SaaS platforms build with AlterLab.

Local Lead Generation

Build prospecting lists of local businesses by service category, geographic area, and rating. Extract contact information and operating details for outbound sales and marketing campaigns.

Review Monitoring

Track star ratings and review volumes for your own business locations and competitors. Detect reputation issues early and monitor response times across multiple platforms.

Market Entry Research

Analyze competitor density, pricing, and customer sentiment before entering a new geographic market. Build comprehensive competitive landscapes from directory data across dozens of cities.

Local SEO Intelligence

Monitor local pack rankings, citation consistency, and category positioning across business directories. Track which competitors appear in location-specific search results.

Service Provider Directories

Build and maintain aggregated directories of local service providers — plumbers, lawyers, doctors, contractors — with fresh data sourced automatically from multiple listing platforms.

Franchise Performance Tracking

Monitor ratings, review volume, and customer sentiment across all franchise locations simultaneously. Identify underperforming units and benchmark against top performers.