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Google Places & Maps

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6min

Google Places Results

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SerpWow parses Google Local & Maps results (i.e. local business listings) when the search_type search parameter is set to search_type=places . When this parameter is set SerpWow provides a places_results array in the result JSON that contains the Local or Maps results.

The nature of the value passed in the location parameter determines whether results are returned from Google Local, or Google Maps. For full details see the request parameter documentation.



Google Local Results

If the location parameter is set to a location name from the Locations API (or any other free-form location name text) - for example Manhattan,New+York,United+States then results will be returned from a Google Local page.

Google Local Page
Google Local Page


Below is an example of the search_type=places response when requesting Google Local results.

JSON
{
"request_info":{...}
"search_metadata":{...}
"search_parameters":{...}
"search_information":{...}
"places_results":[...]
"pagination":{...}
}



Google Maps Results

If the location parameter is set to a latitude, longitude and zoom value - for example location=lat:43.437677,lon:-3.8392765,zoom:15 then results will be returned from a Google Maps page.

Pagination with Google Maps When requesting Google Maps results (i.e. when specifying your location parameter using a latitude, longitude and zoom level) Google do not display the total number of pages of result available (as the Google Maps interface allows the user to infinately scroll and move the map to generate more results).

Therefore when showing Google Maps results the pagination section of the results JSON is not present. To paginate through Google Maps results simply specify additional requests, incrementing your requests' page parameter each time ( page=2 , page=3 etc) until no place_results array is present in the result JSON (this indicates you have reached the end of the available results for the given latitude, longitude and zoom level).

Google Maps Page
Google Maps Page


Below is an example of the search_type=places response when requesting Google Maps results.

JSON
{
"request_info":{...}
"search_parameters":{...}
"search_metadata":{...}
"search_information":{...}
"places_results":[...]
}



SerpWow returns the following properties for search_type=places requests (any differences between the Google Local and Google Maps results are noted below):

Property

Type

Description

search_information

object

An object containing top-level details about the search.

  • original_query_yields_zero_results
  • string
  • Set to true when the original search_term supplied in the request yielded no results and Google "corrected" it.



  • query_displayed
  • string
  • The query / search term displayed in the search bar.

places_results

array

An array of Places Result objects, containing each of the place results shown on the results page. The Place Result object has the following properties:



  • title
  • string
  • The title of the place result.



  • data_cid
  • string
  • The cid of the place result. A CID (Customer ID Number) is a unique identifier Google assigns to a specific businesses entity. Read more about Google cid 's here . Note The data_cid is used as a request parameter in Place Details and Place Products requests.



  • knowledge_graph_id
  • string
  • the knowledge_graph_id of the business when available: Note The knowledge_graph_id is only supported for google places requests



  • gps_coordinates
  • object
  • An object containing latitude and longitude number properties being the latitude and longitude of the place result.



  • address
  • string
  • The street address of the place result.



  • sponsored
  • boolean
  • whether this places result is an ad



  • extensions
  • array
  • An array of strings being the extensions/services offered by the business, i.e. "Offers takeaway".



  • rating
  • number
  • The customer rating the place has received, out of 5.



  • reviews
  • number
  • The number of customer reviews the place has received.



  • category
  • string
  • The text-representation of the place category - i.e. "Coffee Shop".



  • data_id
  • string
  • An additional hexidecimal-encoded ID useful for some SEO applications, if available: Note The data_id is only available when the result includes certain elements.



  • link
  • string
  • A link to the website of the place result, if shown. If the link is not shown on the Places search results page you pay perform a Place Details request, passing in the data_cid of this Place, to retrieve it from the Place Details popup.



  • thumbnail
  • string
  • A URL to the thumbnail preview image next to the place result (if shown). May also be returned as a Base64 encoded image.



  • price
  • string
  • A locale-specific string (i.e. "$$$") indicating the relative price of services offered by the business.



  • price_parsed
  • number
  • A numeric representation of the relative price of services offered by the business, ranging from 1 (inexpensive) to 5 (expensive).



  • price_description
  • string
  • A text representation of the relative price of services offered by the business, if shown. For example 'Inexpensive'.



  • all_categories
  • array
  • An array of strings for each of the place categories, if more than one exist and are shown.



  • description
  • string
  • The full-text description of the place result, if shown.



  • phone
  • string
  • The phone number of the business in the place result, if shown. If the phone is not shown you may find a Place Details request returns it from the Place Details page.



  • user_review
  • string
  • The full-text of the user review next to the place result (if shown).Note that user reviews are only shown on search_type=places on Google Maps, not Google Local . To retrieve full Place Reviews use the Place Reviews request.



  • wheelchair_accessible
  • boolean
  • Note that if a business is wheelchair accessible is only shown on search_type=places on Google Maps, not Google Local .
  • position
  • number
  • The position of the place result within the current page of results .



pagination

object

An object containing pagination details for making subsequent requests for additional pages of results.

Note the pagination object is only returned for Google Local results. See the note on Pagination above for information on how to paginate Google Maps requests.

  • current
  • number
  • The current page number.



  • next
  • string
  • The Google URL for the next page of requests.



  • other_pages
  • object
  • A dictionary, keyed by the page number, of Google URLs to all other pages shown on the current page of results.



  • api_pagination
  • object
  • An object containing next and other_pages properties being mirrors of the next and other_pages properties with API URLs instead of Google URLs. Provided as a convenience for making additional API requests.


Next Steps      Google Places Parameters

Updated 10 Mar 2025
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