Is there a tool to extra GBP Services from competitors (like category tools)?

[Conor Treacy]

There are a few different extensions for gathering the GMB Category (GMB Everywhere for example), but is there one for getting the Services or Products listed by a competitor?

Initially, I was looking for something to track internally as it seems service descriptions get edited or new services are added (someone internally accepts all edits) but we don't catch that they've done that. Then I was thinking about competition and if they have service or products listed out in their GBP profiles.

Does anyone have thoughts? Javascript/Python scripts to run against an API to extract data maybe?

 

[JoyHawkins]

I don't know of one that does this. Services would be tricky because they only show a list of them on mobile.

 

[Conor Treacy]

I don't know of one that does this. Services would be tricky because they only show a list of them on mobile.

Ah, I didn't even notice that.

Just brought it up on my phone and I can get the list of all services and the descriptions added to the services (even for competition).

Now I just need to figure out if there's an API or do I go down the dirty road of scraping

The URL has a "lkt-LocalPoiServices" parameter, so I'm off to do some digging!

 

[WilliamGMBE]

@Conor Treacy

Interesting discussion here. Was wondering if you were able to find a solution to this?

I see that Service data is not on the mobile app for all businesses and that it is not there on mobile web version of the map. So was wondering?

Would be interesting to see if you were able to find some way around this?

 

[Conor Treacy]

Would be interesting to see if you were able to find some way around this?

Not yet. With Joy's notice that it was on the mobile end of things, I've been able to highlight and copy info, but I've not created any scrape script as of yet.

 

[WilliamGMBE]

@Conor Treacy
This is an old discussion, but wanted to update.
Now service shows up on some local finder views on desktop. We have added a link to that as part of Basic Audit on GMB Everywhere. If business has a service it will show up, otherwise it does not show.
You can also view services on desktop by going to 'Local Services' url of google and searching for the business. This is the link for local services of Google: https://www.google.com/localservices/prolist

 

[Conor Treacy]

Now that's a neat URL

 

[JS Girard]

@Conor Treacy
This is an old discussion, but wanted to update.
Now service shows up on some local finder views on desktop. We have added a link to that as part of Basic Audit on GMB Everywhere. If business has a service it will show up, otherwise it does not show.
You can also view services on desktop by going to 'Local Services' url of google and searching for the business. This is the link for local services of Google: https://www.google.com/localservices/prolist

Interesting... what is that page supposed to do when it works? It appears to be stubbornly nonfunctional in Quebec...

 

[Conor Treacy]

So for me, I typed in a location "omaha, ne" - you type it, then must select the map icon when it shows.
Then I choose the categroy, lets say "pest control"

That now will list all companies in that area with that category.
You can then select the "service", lets say "Termites" and it will show any company that has listed "termites" as one of their services.

So for "Cockroaches" the 2nd company is "Pest Control Elkhorn" but they only list 3 services "cockroaches, ants, bed bugs", but if I choose "Termites", since they don't list it as a service, they are filtered out.

 

[WilliamGMBE]

@JS Girard
I checked now. It seems that the functionality on the https://www.google.com/localservices/prolist site has changed a little from when I initially posted the answer. Previously we could directly search for the business, now it is best to do what @Conor Treacy has mentioned above.
The links on the Basic Audit of GMB Everywhere are still working though. On our link in the basic parameters, we directly business name with url parameter. Seems direct links has not changed for a business.
Also, another thing we noticed when we created the link on GMB Everywhere is that all the businesses are not there in the https://www.google.com/localservices/prolist page. For some reason we could not find all the business on google maps on this new site of Google. Not sure what logic they use to show in the https://www.google.com/localservices/prolist page.
Hope this was helpful. Maybe this issue is not location based

 

[JS Girard]

@JS Girard
I checked now. It seems that the functionality on the https://www.google.com/localservices/prolist site has changed a little from when I initially posted the answer. Previously we could directly search for the business, now it is best to do what @Conor Treacy has mentioned above.
The links on the Basic Audit of GMB Everywhere are still working though. On our link in the basic parameters, we directly business name with url parameter. Seems direct links has not changed for a business.
Also, another thing we noticed when we created the link on GMB Everywhere is that all the businesses are not there in the https://www.google.com/localservices/prolist page. For some reason we could not find all the business on google maps on this new site of Google. Not sure what logic they use to show in the https://www.google.com/localservices/prolist page.
Hope this was helpful. Maybe this issue is not location based

I'd love to see a gif or video, because I can't get anything to happen with the first form field. Am I supposed to see a drop-down? 'cause I'm not seeing any and searching anything either in French or English produces no result whatsoever regardless whether I've entered a Quebec the US in the second field.

I can trigger a generic web search, but obviously teat is entirely NOT what I'm looking for here.

 

[WilliamGMBE]

I'd love to see a gif or video, because I can't get anything to happen with the first form field. Am I supposed to see a drop-down? 'cause I'm not seeing any and searching anything either in French or English produces no result whatsoever regardless whether I've entered a Quebec the US in the second field.

I can trigger a generic web search, but obviously teat is entirely NOT what I'm looking for here.

Here is a direct link to plumbers in Quebec City: plumber quebec city

You can now add a different search term there and find other businesses.

Hope this works.

 

[JS Girard]

Thanks. I meant more like seeing the process of using the page so I could see if I was missing something, though.

 

[WilliamGMBE]

@js

Thanks. I meant more like seeing the process of using the page so I could see if I was missing something, though.

The below is how the page looks for me. Hope this helps.

 

[JS Girard]

I mean for going from the form to the listings. On further investigation, the search works ONLY in English. I didn't think of testing that at first because usually the restriction is geographical, not language based.

As far as I can tell Quebec is part of French geographical area, so in the past stuff that (say) @JoyHawkins could see in English over in Toronto wouldn't work for us here in Montréal, even in English, unless it was released worldwide.

 

[JS Girard]

I forgot to say in my above post but although the drop down work in English, the search results are still not generated

So basically my initial presumption that this is not available for French remains accurate (we still see the LSA display pop up irregularly there instead of the finder, though).

 

[WilliamGMBE]

@JS Girard
Thank you for sharing. I didnt know that.

 

[JS Girard]

I'd write my "things to know if you handle GBPs in non-english languages" post in English, but, well, it is of limited interest to English speakers lol.

 

[WilliamGMBE]

@Conor Treacy @JS Girard

We where testing out a tool that could solve some of the problems you have with finding services. This is the discussion: Categories and Services can Improve Ranking? Check this idea.


Thought it might be interesting to you