Q: After I scraped my first attempt - a search for "Lumber Stores near Maryland" - I was told it would be about ...
300 results and was ultimately presented with 252 results. After I opened the file, I discovered many were accurate, but 119+ results (48%) are for things like CVS, Walgreens, Weis, Office Depot, Target, Dollar Tree, Firestone Complete Auto, a Mower Repair shop, Giant Food, Sunset Liquor, Cue Dudes Pool Tables, Sherwin-Williams, Billy's Hearth Grill, Skatezone, Olayemi Watches, clothing stores, a florist, an optometrist...
Results also came back for Delaware, District of Columbia, Massachusetts, New York, NJ, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, VA, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia. I can see the use of the word "near" is probably what got me in this aspect of the search, but it's what naturally populated when I created a Google Maps search, so I just ran with it to see what happens.
I can see results like Flooring, Hardware, etc being scooped up in this search, but the rest?
How do I reject items that have no clear reference to what I was looking for after I run a task? How do I prevent things like Optometrists and Florists from getting caught up in a search for lumberyards?
BTW: I used "lumber store" vs "lumberyard" also because this was a default selection when I set up my search. I assume the software might produce better results if I went with what seems to be used most often in Google Maps searches, so I ran with it in my test.
I can see how this will be useful in my business, but there is clearly a good deal of filtering / returning of unrelated records that needs to be done. Recourse for 50% "misses" and training on how to better target results will be good to understand.
Dana67267
May 15, 2024A: Hello Dear Customer,
Thank you for the feedback. You are exactly right! You naturally can see all those places on Google Maps, that's why the scraper returned them. Google is adding more categories and locations to your results, that's why we build filters for Outscraper customers so you can ignore such places. Please check out the filters in the advanced parameter, and read our article on how to use them: https://outscraper.com/google-maps-data-scraper-filters/
I hope with them you will get much better results.
Cheers,
Hello Dear Customer,
Thank you for the feedback. You are exactly right! You naturally can see all those places on Google Maps, that's why the scraper returned them. Google is adding more categories and locations to your results, that's why we build filters for Outscraper customers so you can ignore such places. Please check out the filters in the advanced parameter, and read our article on how to use them: https://outscraper.com/google-maps-data-scraper-filters/
I hope with them you will get much better results.
Cheers,
Verified purchaser
Thank you, Dana.
How do I reject items that have no clear reference to what I was looking for after I run a task?