How to Web Scrape Google Reviews: Code and No Code Approaches

In the modern digital landscape, online reviews serve as a crucial component in shaping consumer behavior and influencing purchasing decisions. Because Google Reviews is integrated with Google Maps, a mapping program that many people use to find companies and locations, it stands out among the other review systems. Checking Google Reviews may reveal much about how satisfied consumers are, what others think about a company, and how it compares to competitors.

Furthermore, having a solid presence on Google Reviews may improve a company's online reputation and reliability, drawing more consumers and increasing sales. This can make more people trust the business and want to buy from them. So, Google Reviews are helpful for people buying stuff and businesses selling stuff online.

What is Google Review Scraping?

Google review scraping is the process of collecting information from Google Reviews data. These are the comments and ratings people leave about businesses on Google Maps. Since Google doesn't have a direct way to get this data, scraping involves using special tools or writing computer programs to gather the reviews from the internet automatically.

To do this, the scraping tool or application navigates to the business's Google Maps page, reads the reviews and ratings, and stores the data. This can contain information such as who wrote the review, how they rated it, and what they said about their experience.

People utilize Google review scraping for a variety of reasons. One popular purpose is to learn what consumers are saying about a specific firm. Businesses that collect and analyze Google Reviews can better understand the strengths and weaknesses of their goods or services, find areas for development, and customize their offerings to match the demands of their customers better.

People use Google review scraping to determine what consumers think about businesses, compare them to rivals, and make educated judgments. Scraping must be done safely and per website guidelines to respect people's privacy.

How Do You Scrape Google Reviews?

ReviewGators deliver various methods for scraping Google Reviews, each with its benefits and drawbacks.

Code-Based approach

This approach involves writing custom code using programming languages like Python along with web scraping libraries such as BeautifulSoup and Requests. With this method, you can fully control the scraping process and customize it according to your specific requirements.

You can extract the needed information straight from the HTML structure of the Google Maps web page that displays the evaluations. However, this strategy necessitates coding skills and may require recurrent upgrades to accommodate changes in the website's appearance or structure.

No-Code Web Scraping Tools

Web scraping tools that offer a no-code or low-code approach are available for those who lack programming knowledge or want a simpler option. These tools often have an easy-to-use interface that allows you to define the data bits you want to scrape using drag-and-drop or point-and-click capability, as well as the target URL.

While these tools may be more convenient and user-friendly for web scraping Google reviews, they require less customization and flexibility options than bespoke coding solutions.

Manual Scraping

Manual scraping involves manually copying and pasting review data from Google Maps web pages into a spreadsheet or text file. Instead of using fancy tools or programs to do it automatically, you do it yourself. While this process requires no technical knowledge or equipment, it can be time-consuming and inefficient for large-scale scrapping projects.

What is a code-based approach?

A code-based technique involves creating instructions in a computer language, such as scraping Google reviews with Python or JavaScript. Scraping Google Reviews entails writing software instructing the computer to navigate Google Maps, locate reviews, and store them.

First, the program sends a request to the Google Maps webpage of the business you're interested in. Then, it looks at the web page's code to find where the reviews are located. Once it finds them, the program extracts the review data, including the reviewer's name, rating, and comments. Finally, it saves this information in a format that you can use, such as a spreadsheet or text file.

While a code-based solution provides much control and flexibility over the scraping process, it requires some programming experience. You must grasp how to write code and traverse web pages utilizing programming frameworks such as BeautifulSoup in Python. However, once the application is installed, you may use it to scrape Google Reviews quickly and effectively.

Here is an example of how a code-based program for scraping Google reviews with Python works:

Step 1: Install Playwright for Python language.

php install Playwright
# to download the necessary browsers
Playwright install                            
                        

Step 2: Use the Playwright API to write code that emulates browser behavior and extracts the required data from Google Maps. You may use the code supplied below:

This code demonstrates how to scrape Google reviews for the Burj Khalifa using the Playwright package in Python. The relevant scripts provide two key functions:

Run function

This function accepts a Playwright instance as input and executes the scraping process. The function runs a Chromium browser, navigates to Google, enters a search query, presses the search button, and waits for the results to appear on the page. The extract_details method is then used to extract the review details and put them in a google_reviews.json file.

Extract_data function

This method accepts a Playwright page object as input and produces a collection of dictionaries with restaurant information. The title, number of reviews, rating, address, and phone number are all provided for each establishment.

Step 3: Run your code to retrieve the scraped data from Google Maps.

What is a no-code approach?

An automated component of software that can extract data from the web without requiring the user to write any code is called a no-code scraper, also known as a web scraper API. The term itself makes it clear that one of its advantages is that companies can employ them without knowing how to code. Because of this, they're a great online scraping tool for businesses that might not have the resources to hire a dedicated group of technical experts.

On the other hand, if any company is large and its activities are focused on a specific specialty, employing the no-code scraper can be more challenging. In these cases, it is critical to have an expert professional with technical understanding and the capacity to adapt web scraping technologies to meet the project's objectives.

In specific terms, there are mainly two ways to accomplish data scraping without coding knowledge. You may either hire a business to design a data scraping program from scratch or acquire a no-code approach and required tools.

With a customized solution, you tell the provider what you want, and their team will create and manage the solution for your organization. While it is likely to meet your project requirements perfectly, it will also be expensive.

In contrast, utilizing a no-code scraper tool can be considered less expensive. You will need to manually manage some diverse business processes, but this can be a doable undertaking for anyone. Indeed, these solutions often enable you to gather the online data by simply entering a required URL or using a user-friendly interface.

Uses of Scraping Google Review Data

In case you're not sure why you should perform web scraping Google reviews, consider the following scenarios where this information might be useful

Managing Business Reputation

The process by which businesses closely monitor their status in the community and carefully consider how their clients see the goods and services they offer is known as business reputation management. Within this framework, they do thorough review analysis, which allows them to obtain deep insights into their operational performance and client satisfaction levels.

Analysis of Competitors

Employing competitor review data allows businesses to have a comprehensive picture of the competitive environment, which helps guide their strategic decisions.

Development of Products

Businesses may ideally meet client expectations by strategically focusing on important aspects of their offers by leveraging review data of their products or services. This methodical technique greatly contributes to customized product improvement, guaranteeing that the items satisfy the ever-changing demands of the market.

Marketing

Employing review data greatly assists companies in developing improved marketing plans, which guarantees more accurate audience targeting. Data-driven marketing is made possible by this empirical method, which maximizes reach and resonance with prospective consumers.

Client Perspectives

Organizations may get important insights into how their goods and services are used by consumers and how satisfied they are with them by using review data. This information is essential for determining how well they satisfy the demands of their customers.

Conclusion

Web scraping Google Reviews data can provide valuable insights for businesses and marketers alike. While the code approach offers flexibility and customization options, the no-code approach provides a user-friendly alternative for those without programming experience. But if you don't, there are tools that are easier to use. Either way, scraping Google Reviews can help you understand what customers think and make smarter decisions. Whether one opts for Python scripting or employs no-code web scraping tools, the acquisition of Google Reviews data enhances comprehension of consumer sentiment and facilitates informed decision-making processes.