How to Scrape Google Reviews Using Google Maps API & Python?

Online reviews play a crucial role in shaping a business's reputation and influencing consumers' decision-making. Thus. extracting Google reviews can be immensely beneficial.

Google Reviews are a valuable source of feedback and opinions about firms and places. They provide valuable insights into customer opinions and sentiments.

Extracting Google Reviews using the Google Maps API and Python can be a powerful tool. Combining Python and the Google Maps API automates the process. It offers a time-saving solution that benefits both businesses and developers.

What are Google Reviews?

Google Reviews is a feature provided by Google. It allows customers to share their feedback and experiences with firms, products, or services they have used.

To participate in this, one needs to have a Google Merchant account.

Google Customer Reviews relieves the burden of gathering customer feedback by taking charge. Customers receive email prompts to share their experience with your brand.

The company presents those who choose to take part with a brief survey to fill out.

Why are Google Reviews Important?

Google reviews hold immense significance for your business. Below are three compelling reasons why they can be a game-changer:

Enhanced Local Search Ranking:

Online reviews contribute to improving your business’s local search ranking. By optimizing local SEO, you ensure that potential customers can discover your firm when searching for relevant products or services.

Having Google reviews boosts your search rankings and also distinguishes your business. Positive reviews on your Google Maps listing highlight the quality of your offerings and the positive experiences shared by satisfied customers. It makes a lasting impact.

Trust and Credibility:

A vast majority of individuals, particularly young, trust online reviews as much as recommendations from friends and family. But trust is contingent on certain factors. Like, authenticity, relevance to the industry, and positive reviews on the same platform.

Since Google is one of the most used and dependable search engines, people hold its reviews in the same regard of trust as recommendations from trusted peers.

Influence on Purchase Decisions:

Google reviews can impact consumer purchase decisions. When potential customers read online reviews, they often seek confirmation that they are making the right choice. Positive reviews can provide the validation needed to complete a purchase, thereby driving sales.

Conversely, a low star rating or recent negative reviews may steer customers toward competitors.

What are the advantages of Google Reviews?

Google reviews are not only important for ranking but also offer several other benefits. Here are five advantages of having Google reviews:

Boost Brand Trust:

Google reviews play a pivotal role in building brand trust. Customers value transparency and seek reassurance from fellow customer reviews. Positive reviews create a sense of reliability, fostering trust in your brand.

Enhance Online Exposure and Local SEO:

With Google’s algorithm influenced by effective marketing strategies, businesses with a large number of reviews rank higher in local search results. This increased visibility expands your online exposure, attracting potential customers.

Gather Valuable Customer Feedback:

Each Google review serves as a feedback loop, providing valuable customer insights. You can learn about areas for improvement, identify what customers expect, and gauge overall satisfaction.

Improve Click-Through Rates:

Positive reviews act as powerful magnets, encouraging customers to click on your link. A good collection of favorable reviews entices people to explore your offerings further.

Increase Conversion Rates:

When customers find themselves on your website and encounter positive reviews, they are more inclined to make a purchase. Displaying your Google rating on your site can be the deciding factor that seals the deal with potential buyers.

How to extract Google Reviews using Google Maps API & Python?

Before we begin, ensure you have Python installed, and create a Google Cloud Platform (GCP) to obtain the necessary API key. Now, let’s dive into the steps to extract Google Reviews using Python and the Google Maps API.

1. Setting Up the Google Maps API

To get started, head to the Google Cloud Console (https://console.cloud.google.com/). Then, sign in with your Google account.

If you haven’t created a project yet, access the “Select a project” drop-down menu at the top and proceed to click on “New Project.”

Name your project and click "Create."

In the Google Cloud Console, navigate to "APIs & Services" > "Dashboard" section. Click on the "+ ENABLE APIS AND SERVICES" button. Search for "Google Maps JavaScript API" and click on it to enable the API.

After enabling the API, click on the "Create Credentials" button. Choose "API key" as the credential type and copy the generated API key.

2. Installing Required Libraries

For interacting with the Google Maps API and handling data in Python, we will need to install some libraries. Open your terminal or command prompt and run the given commands:

pip install requests
pip install googlemaps

3. Writing the Python Code

Now that we have everything set up let us start writing the Python script to extract Google Reviews.

import requests

# Replace YOUR_API_KEY with the API key obtained in Step 1

API_KEY = 'YOUR_API_KEY'

def get_google_reviews(place_id):

url = f'https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/details/json?place_id={place_id}&fields=name,rating,reviews&key={API_KEY}'

response = requests.get(url)

data = response.json()

if 'result' in data:

place_name = data['result']['name']

place_rating = data['result']['rating']

reviews = data['result']['reviews']

print(f'Place Name: {place_name}')

print(f'Place Rating: {place_rating}')

for review in reviews:

author_name = review['author_name']

review_text = review['text']

rating = review['rating']

print(f'Author: {author_name}, Rating: {rating}, Review: {review_text}\n')

else:

print('Place not found or error in API response.')

if __name__ == '__main__':

place_id = 'PLACE_ID_OF_THE_LOCATION' 

# Replace with the Google Maps Place ID of the location you want to extract reviews from.

get_google_reviews(place_id)

4. Obtaining the Place ID

To use the script, you need to get the Place ID of the location you want to extract Google Reviews. One way to find the Place ID is by searching for the location on Google Maps.

The Place ID can be extracted from the URL of the location's page on Google Maps. It is a long string of alphanumeric characters following the "place/" segment in the URL.

5. Running the Script

Copy the Place ID of the location you want to extract reviews from and paste it into the place_id variable in the Python script. Save the script and run it. The script will request the Google Maps API and fetch the reviews for the specified location. The reviews will be displayed in the console.

Conclusion

This blog post has demonstrated the process of extracting Google Reviews using the Google Maps API and Python. By harnessing the potential of the Google Maps API, businesses can gain access to valuable insights derived from user-generated reviews.

It helps firms to enhance their services, reputation and make informed decisions. It is important to keep in mind that the number of reviews you can fetch might be restricted based on your API usage and access limitations, so adhering to Google’s usage policies is essential. Happy coding!