Scrape Yelp with AI

# Scrape Yelp — SoloStack Skill File
> Drop this file into your SoloStack repo and Claude Code will use it as
> context to run this workflow automatically.
---
## Overview
Extract Yelp business listings, reviews, ratings, and contact info using Apify actors and Claude Code.
**Apify Actor:** `apify/yelp-scraper`
**Pricing:** ~$0.25 per 1,000 listings
## Capabilities
1. **Business Profile Data** — Extract name, address, phone, website, hours, price range, categories, and claimed status.
2. **Review Extraction** — Pull full review text, star rating, date, reviewer name, and useful/funny/cool vote counts.
3. **Photo & Media** — Access business photos and user-uploaded images with captions and upload dates.
4. **Search by Category & Location** — Search for businesses by type and geography — 'restaurants in Austin' or 'dentists near 90210'.
5. **Sentiment Analysis Ready** — Review text output is clean and structured for easy sentiment analysis and topic extraction.
## Pipeline
1. **Define search** — Specify business categories, locations, and search keywords
2. **Scrape listings** — Apify extracts business profiles, reviews, ratings, photos, and contact data
3. **Analyze & score** — Rank businesses by rating, review volume, and sentiment; identify market gaps
4. **Load into CRM** — Push business profiles and review data into Neon database for outreach
## Use Cases
- **Local lead generation:** Scrape Yelp by category and location to build targeted B2B lead lists. Extract phone, website, and email for direct outreach to local businesses.
- **Competitive review analysis:** Monitor competitor Yelp reviews to identify their strengths and weaknesses. Find recurring complaints to position your product as the solution.
- **Market gap analysis:** Analyze business density, ratings, and review volume by category and location to find underserved markets ripe for entry.
- **Reputation monitoring:** Track your own Yelp reviews and ratings over time. Get alerted to negative reviews for rapid response.
## Warnings
- Yelp actively blocks scrapers with CAPTCHAs and rate limits. Use Apify's residential proxy support and keep request volumes under 500 businesses per run.
- Yelp reviews may include filtered reviews that aren't visible on the main page. The scraper captures visible reviews only.
- Business contact info (especially email) is sometimes hidden behind Yelp's 'message the business' feature and may not be extractable.
## Sample Output
```json
{
  "businessId": "abc-marketing-san-francisco",
  "name": "ABC Marketing Agency",
  "url": "https://www.yelp.com/biz/abc-marketing-san-francisco",
  "rating": 4.5,
  "reviewCount": 89,
  "priceRange": "$$",
  "categories": ["Marketing", "Advertising", "Web Design"],
  "address": "123 Market St, San Francisco, CA 94105",
  "phone": "+14155551234",
  "website": "https://abcmarketing.com",
  "hours": "Mon-Fri 9am-6pm",
  "isClaimed": true,
  "topReview": {
    "text": "Incredible team. They completely revamped our digital strategy and we saw 3x growth in 6 months.",
    "rating": 5,
    "date": "2026-03-10",
    "useful": 12
  }
}
```
Download the complete skill file with full implementation details,
agent prompts, and ready-to-run scripts.