If you’re looking for a reliable, automated way to collect Google reviews for your business or your clients, Apify combined with n8n offers a powerful and user-friendly solution. Brendan O’Connell, a WordPress and automation expert, shares a comprehensive walkthrough on how to scrape Google reviews, schedule the scraping process, and output the data into a spreadsheet for easy management and further use.
This article will dive into the details of how Apify works, how to set up Google review scraping, automate it with n8n, and why this approach is a game-changer for handling Google reviews—especially considering the limitations of Google’s official API.
Table of Contents
- What is Apify and Why Use It?
- Scraping Google Reviews: The Challenge and Solution
- How to Get Started with Google Review Scraping on Apify
- Automating the Scraping Process with n8n
- Viewing and Managing Your Scraped Reviews
- Practical Use Cases and Benefits
- Other Useful Apify Actors
- Getting Started Tips and Resources
- Conclusion
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What is Apify and Why Use It?
Apify is a versatile web scraping and automation platform that offers over 5,000 ready-made “actors”—pre-built scrapers and automation scripts. These actors cover a wide range of data sources, including social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter, e-commerce sites like Amazon, and various other websites. For example, you can scrape TikTok channel metadata, LinkedIn profiles, or even entire websites’ content.
One of the biggest advantages of Apify is that it handles much of the complexity involved in working with APIs and web scraping. If you’re new to automation or not comfortable with API requests, JSON bodies, and other technical details, Apify provides a user-friendly interface that simplifies the process.
Apify also offers a generous free plan that includes $5 worth of credit each month, allowing you to experiment and run scrapers without entering a credit card. This credit can be used flexibly across different actors, making it a great starting point for small projects or testing.
Scraping Google Reviews: The Challenge and Solution
Google’s official API for business reviews is quite limited—it only allows access to the five most recent reviews. Accessing more extensive review data requires complicated developer documentation, and many users, including Brendan himself, have been denied access, possibly due to Google restricting this feature to enterprise-level accounts.
This is where Apify shines. It enables you to scrape Google reviews directly from Google Maps business listings, bypassing the limitations of the official API. You can scrape thousands of reviews, filter them by date, sort them by newest or highest rating, and even choose the review language.
One of the top actors for this purpose on Apify has over 11,000 users and charges only 50 cents per 1,000 reviews scraped. With your free $5 monthly credit, that’s up to 10,000 reviews scraped for free every month—more than enough for most businesses.
How to Get Started with Google Review Scraping on Apify
Getting started is straightforward. You simply:
- Search for the Google reviews scraper on the Apify homepage.
- Select the top-rated actor with thousands of users.
- Click “Try for free” to open the actor in your Apify console.
- Paste the Google Maps URL of the business you want to scrape.
- Set parameters such as the number of reviews to scrape, sorting options (newest or highest), language, and date range.
- Run the scraper directly in your browser or integrate it into an automation workflow.
The scraper interface also allows you to view and edit the JSON input, which can be handy for more advanced users who want to customize their requests.
Automating the Scraping Process with n8n
Running the scraper manually is useful for one-off tasks, but automation is where you unlock its full potential. Brendan demonstrates how to use n8n, an open-source workflow automation tool, to schedule Google review scraping and export the data to a Google Sheet.
Here’s a high-level overview of the automation setup:
- Schedule Trigger: Set the workflow to run every three days (or any interval you prefer).
- Set Node: Store reusable variables like the Apify API key, Google Maps URL, maximum reviews, and review start date.
- HTTP Request Node: Make a POST request to the Apify API endpoint to run the Google reviews scraper synchronously and retrieve the dataset items.
- Google Sheets Node: Append the scraped review data to a Google Sheet for easy access and management.
This setup allows you to “set it and forget it,” automatically scraping only new reviews since the last run and keeping your spreadsheet up to date.
Key Tips for the Automation
- Use camelCase naming conventions for variables to keep your workflow organized.
- Pass dynamic values like the Google Maps URL and review start date into the API request body.
- Make sure to include your Apify API token as a query parameter for authentication.
- Adjust the sorting option in the scraper input to “newest” to ensure you get recent reviews.
Viewing and Managing Your Scraped Reviews
Once the automation is running, you can track each scraping run in the Apify console. Brendan shows how the scraper runs every three days, pulling only the new reviews added since the previous run. For example, the San Diego Zoo, a popular business with tens of thousands of reviews, is scraped regularly to maintain a fresh dataset.
The scraped data includes:
- Reviewer name and profile image
- Review text and star rating
- Date the review was published
- Business name and address
- Review ID and any attached images
Having this data in a spreadsheet makes it easy to analyze, share, or even display on your website.
Practical Use Cases and Benefits
This scraping and automation technique is incredibly useful for:
- Businesses wanting to aggregate and monitor their Google reviews more effectively.
- Marketing agencies managing multiple clients’ reviews and reputation.
- Developers and website owners who want to display live, authentic reviews on their sites without relying on limited APIs.
Brendan even hints at future integrations, such as using the scraped data in a query loop on a Bricks website with tools like Bricksforge, enabling rich, real-time review displays with reviewer photos and names.
Other Useful Apify Actors
Beyond Google reviews, Apify offers many actors that can help with various business use cases:
- LinkedIn scrapers: Filter and collect profiles, such as CEOs of midsize SaaS companies, for outreach campaigns.
- Twitter scrapers: Extract tweets and replies to analyze and craft better social media content.
- YouTube scrapers: Gather data on high-performing videos from channels to inform content strategies.
- Website content crawlers: Scrape website content into HTML or markdown for rebuilding or archiving purposes.
While some actors require paid plans, many are affordable and count against your monthly credit, making Apify a versatile tool for marketers, developers, and business owners.
Getting Started Tips and Resources
Apify’s documentation is well-written and there are plenty of video tutorials available to help beginners get started. You don’t have to use the API directly—you can run scrapers manually via the website interface and export results in CSV, Excel, or XML formats.
Filtering out unwanted data is also straightforward, allowing you to customize the output by excluding fields like “local guide” status or “like” counts.
Conclusion
Using Apify in combination with n8n provides a powerful, accessible way to automate the scraping of Google reviews, bypassing the limitations of Google’s official API. Whether you’re a business owner, marketer, or developer, this setup enables you to collect, organize, and leverage review data efficiently.
The free $5 monthly credit on Apify makes it risk-free to try, and the flexibility of n8n allows you to tailor the workflow to your specific needs—whether that’s running the scraper every few days, monthly, or on demand.
As Brendan O’Connell shows, this approach is not only practical but scalable, and opens up possibilities for integrating authentic customer feedback into your marketing and website strategies.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Can I scrape Google reviews for any business using Apify?
Yes, as long as the business has a Google Maps listing with reviews, you can scrape them using Apify. You just need the Google Maps URL for that business.
Is scraping Google reviews legal?
Scraping publicly available data is generally legal, but it’s important to review Google’s terms of service and ensure you comply with any restrictions. Use the data responsibly and ethically.
How often should I scrape reviews?
It depends on how frequently new reviews are posted. For businesses with many reviews, scraping every few days is useful. For smaller businesses, monthly or quarterly scraping might be sufficient.
Do I need technical skills to use Apify and n8n?
Basic familiarity with APIs and automation tools helps, but Apify’s user-friendly interface and n8n’s visual workflow builder make it accessible to beginners. Brendan’s approach includes helpful tips to get started easily.
Can I display scraped reviews on my website?
Absolutely! Once you have the review data in a spreadsheet or database, you can use tools like Bricksforge or custom code to display live, authentic reviews on your site.
What if I want to scrape reviews from platforms other than Google?
Apify supports scraping data from many platforms, including LinkedIn, Twitter, TikTok, and YouTube. You can explore their library of actors to find the ones suited to your needs.
