How to Scrape Closed Businesses From Google Maps (Complete Guide)

Why Closed Business Data is the Ultimate Competitive Advantage
Understanding Business Closure Types and Status
Step-by-Step Guide: Scraping Closed Businesses with Scrap.io
Alternative Methods and Tools for Closed Business Data
Legal and Ethical Considerations
Turning Closed Business Data into Revenue
Advanced Techniques and Automation
Common Challenges and Solutions
Case Studies and Success Stories
Conclusion and Next Steps
FAQ

Okay so listen. While everyone's fighting over the same leads, there's this huge opportunity sitting right there. 15,000 retail stores are closing across America in 2025. That's literally double what we saw in 2024. And here's what nobody's talking about - every single closure is basically free business intel.

My neighbor runs this real estate company. Last month he goes: "Man, I wish I knew which businesses were gonna close before everyone else finds out." Turns out, you totally can. I'm gonna show you exactly how to scrape closed businesses from Google Maps and get there before anyone else even knows what's happening.

Here's the thing. When Party City said they're closing 700 stores, smart people weren't sad about it. They were thinking "holy crap, 700 good retail spots about to open up." When Forever 21 closed stores, good marketers weren't crying - they were figuring out which markets just lost their main clothing store.

But how do you actually find this stuff? How do you get this closed business info before it's old news? That's what I'm gonna show you.

Why Closed Business Data is the Ultimate Competitive Advantage

Market Intelligence Gold Mine

Let me hit you with some crazy numbers. Georgia had a +184% increase in business bankruptcies in one year. Like, it went from 213 in 2023 to 605 in 2024. Wyoming? Even more insane - +367% bankruptcy rate increase. These aren't just numbers on a page. This is money waiting to be made.

Think about it. Every business that closes leaves behind:

Customers who still need stuff
Good locations that are now empty
Gaps in the market nobody's filling yet
Suppliers looking for new clients
Workers who know the business inside out

So there's this case from the Local Search Forum where an SEO guy used closed business scraping to find broken links and grab competitor citations. Pretty clever if you ask me.

Real Estate and Location Opportunities

Here's something most people miss. When big chains close, they usually have these long leases already set up at good prices. These spots have customers who already go there, everything's already built, people know where it is.

Delaware's got the highest bankruptcy rate - 1,796.3 per 100,000 businesses. If you're in real estate or want to open more stores, that's not bad news. That's basically a map showing you where all the good cheap spots are gonna be.

The numbers show 32.8% of small business closures happen because they ran out of money. Not because the location sucked. Not because there weren't customers. They just couldn't manage their cash. The opportunity is still there.

Customer Acquisition from Business Disruption

Remember those 1.2 million jobs permanently lost when businesses closed in Q2 2020? The Federal Reserve tracked all that. Those weren't just jobs - those were customer relationships that suddenly had nowhere to go.

When you can spot permanently closed businesses before other people, you can:

Go after their customers with good timing
Fill the gaps they left in the market
Take their Google rankings and local listings
Hire their people who already know everything
Get better deals from their old suppliers

Understanding Business Closure Types and Status

Permanently Closed vs Temporarily Closed

Not all closures are the same. If you're gonna scrape permanently closed businesses the right way, you gotta know the difference.

Permanently closed means they're done. Game over. Not coming back. These are the ones you want for getting into new markets, grabbing real estate, or stealing customers. Google Maps shows these differently, and with good tools, you can filter just for these.

Temporarily closed could be anything. Maybe they close for winter. Maybe they're fixing the place up. A ski shop closed in July? Not the same as a restaurant that went broke. You gotta know which is which or you'll waste a ton of time.

COVID-Related Closures vs Economic Closures

This is where it gets good. COVID killed a lot of healthy businesses. They had customers, good spots, everything worked. They just couldn't survive being forced to close.

Economic closures? Totally different. These places were already struggling. When you're pulling this data, you need to know which is which because you'll handle them completely differently.

Seasonal vs Operational Closures

Some places close for seasons - like ice cream shops in Minnesota winters or tax places in summer. Others close because stuff went wrong - lost their main employee, can't get supplies, boss quit.

When you're using business closure scraping tools, you need filters that can tell these apart. Otherwise you're just getting a bunch of useless info mixed with the good stuff.

Step-by-Step Guide: Scraping Closed Businesses with Scrap.io

Setting Up Your Scrap.io Account

Alright, let's actually do this. Here's how to find closed businesses online. Scrap.io makes this way easier than doing it any other way.

First off, you get 200 million establishments indexed that update in real-time. When someone marks their business "permanently closed" on Google Maps, you see it right away. Not six months later when some database finally gets around to updating.

Getting started takes like two minutes:

What makes it work so well is our advanced filtering capabilities for finding exactly what you need.

Using the "Closed" Filter

This is where Scrap.io beats everyone else. They've got this "Closed" filter that nobody else has. It's like having x-ray vision for finding opportunities.

Here's what you do:

Type in where you wanna search (could be a city, state, whole country even)
Pick what kind of business (or just leave it blank for everything)
Click the "Permanently Closed" filter to "Yes"
Hit search

Done. Now you've got every dead business in that area. The system can extract all businesses from specific locations including if they're closed, their old ratings, contact info, everything.

Geographic and Industry Targeting

Wanna get really specific with your closed business data extraction? You can stack filters:

Location targeting: Pick exact neighborhoods, cities, counties, states, whatever
Business types: Just restaurants, just retail, just services
Size filters: How many reviews they had, photos, ratings before dying
When they closed: Recent closures or ones that have been dead a while

Like, you could search "all dead restaurants in Miami that had over 100 reviews." Those are real businesses that had real customers, not some random place that opened and closed in a month.

Data Export and Analysis

Once you've got your list of dead businesses, Scrap.io lets you download everything as CSV or Excel. You get:

Names and addresses
What their ratings were
Phone numbers (if they're still listed)
Websites (lots are still up)
Social media pages
What kind of business they were
When they closed (if it shows)

The data even comes color-coded - yellow for Google Maps stuff, orange for website info. Makes it super easy to see what's what.

Alternative Methods and Tools for Closed Business Data

Manual Google Maps Research (Limited Scale)

Look, you could do this by hand. Open Google Maps, search each area, click every business, check if it's closed, copy everything into Excel.

But come on. Maybe you can do 20 businesses an hour if you're fast. To get 1,000 closed businesses would take you 50 hours. That's more than a week of full-time work for data that Scrap.io gets in under a minute.

Doing it manually only makes sense if you're checking like five specific competitors. For web scraping for business closures at any real scale? Forget about it.

API-Based Solutions (Technical Requirements)

Google Maps API could work in theory, but here's the problem - it doesn't have a filter for closed businesses. You'd have to:

Pull every single business in an area
Check each one to see if it's closed
Sort through everything to find the closed ones
Deal with limits and costs

Compared to other scraping tools, it's a huge pain. Plus Google's API gets expensive fast - we're talking thousands of dollars to scan a whole city. There's a reason scraping becomes more profitable than the official API when you're doing this at scale.

Third-Party Scrapers (Comparison with Scrap.io)

I've tried basically every scraper out there. Most of them either:

Don't have filters for closed businesses
Give you old data from outdated databases
Need you to know how to code
Get blocked all the time
Cost way too much for crappy data

What makes Scrap.io different is they built it specifically for Google Maps with all these filters. When you need to extract additional contact information from closed businesses, it just works.

Legal and Ethical Considerations

Public Data Rights and GDPR Compliance

Here's the stuff nobody wants to talk about but everyone needs to know. Can you legally scrape business status from Google Maps?

Short answer: Yeah, if you do it right.

The stuff on Google Maps is public info that businesses put there themselves. You're not hacking anything or breaking into databases. You're just collecting what's already out there for everyone to see.

Scrap.io follows all the GDPR rules because they only grab public info. Everything can be traced back, and businesses can control their own public data. The platform follows all the legal considerations for Google Maps scraping.

Terms of Service and Usage Guidelines

Now, Google's rules are different. They don't really like bots scraping their stuff. But here's the thing - Scrap.io works the same way as any search engine. They're just indexing public info, not breaking into anything.

The key is using the data the right way:

Don't hammer their servers
Follow the rules about what you can access
Use it for real business stuff
Keep your data accurate

Best Practices for Data Usage

When you've got closed business info, follow these compliance guidelines for outreach campaigns:

Check if the data's right before making big decisions
Don't be creepy even with closed businesses
Use it for real business not sketchy stuff
Keep track of where you got the data and when
Update it because sometimes closed places reopen

Turning Closed Business Data into Revenue

Lead Generation Strategies

Alright, you've got your list of dead businesses. Now what? Let me show you how to make money from this.

Strategy 1: Fill the Gap
Every closed business had customers. If you can figure out what they sold and who bought it, you can jump in as the replacement. Digital marketing agencies are using this multi-platform lead generation approach and making bank.

Strategy 2: Find Their Suppliers
Those 8,400 US businesses that filed bankruptcy in 2024? They all had suppliers who just lost a customer. Find the dead businesses in your industry, figure out who supplied them, then go to those suppliers as their new customer.

Strategy 3: Grab Their People
Closed business means people looking for jobs. Use the business info to find their old employees on LinkedIn and hire people who already know your market.

Market Analysis and Competitive Intelligence

The data from closed business data for lead generation isn't just about direct opportunities. It's about understanding what's really going on in the market.

When you look at patterns in closures, you can:

See which markets are struggling before you jump in
Find areas where lots of businesses fail
Understand how seasons affect different businesses
Spot warning signs for your own business

Like if you see a bunch of similar businesses all closing in one area, maybe that market's too crowded or people are moving away. That info is worth a ton when you're planning where to expand.

Real Estate and Location Planning

Remember those 15,000 stores closing in 2025? Every one could be your next location.

Here's what smart companies do with this:

Watch big chains closing for good retail spots
Track restaurant closures for kitchens that are already set up
Monitor office closures for cheap office space
Look for mall closures if you're into redevelopment

What's cool about scraping this data all the time is you start seeing patterns. Maybe all the closures are on the same street - could be construction, maybe the bus route changed, maybe different people moved in. You can't get this info any other way.

Advanced Techniques and Automation

API Integration with CRM Systems

Once you're serious about using closed business data, you need it automated. Scrap.io's API connects right to your CRM, so fresh opportunities just show up in your pipeline automatically.

Setting it up is pretty simple:

Use the API to search on a schedule
Import results straight to your CRM
Get alerts when new places close in your target areas
Track how well these leads convert

With 300 requests per minute, you can watch entire cities or states all the time. The comprehensive contact data extraction means you're getting real data, not just basic stuff.

Regular Data Updates and Monitoring

Markets change fast. A place that was open yesterday might be closed today. That's why you need to keep checking, not just look once.

Set up weekly or even daily checks for:

Areas with expensive real estate
Markets where you compete
Industries where businesses close a lot
Places you want to expand to

How much does this cost? With Scrap.io's pricing, watching a whole city every day costs less than one click on Google Ads. We're talking pennies for info worth thousands.

Cross-Platform Data Enrichment

Closed business data gets even better when you add other sources. Here's the advanced stuff:

Get closed businesses from Google Maps
Check LinkedIn to see where their employees went
Look up trademarks to find abandoned brands
Watch for domain names expiring
Check social media to see what customers are saying

This way you get the whole picture. You're not just finding closed businesses - you're understanding why they closed and how to profit from it.

Common Challenges and Solutions

Data Accuracy and Verification

One problem with scraping tools for closed businesses is making sure the info's right. Sometimes places say they're temporarily closed but never reopen. Other times they forget to update their status.

Here's how to double-check:

Look at multiple things (website, phone, social media)
Check for recent reviews saying it's closed
Look at street view if you can
Check with local business records

Scrap.io helps by giving you lots of data points to verify. You're not just getting "closed" - you're getting the whole story.

Scale and Processing Large Datasets

When you're pulling data for whole states or countries, that's a lot of data. We're talking hundreds of thousands of businesses.

Here's how to handle it:

Use filters hard to cut out the junk
Export in chunks so it's easier to work with
Use Excel formulas to analyze stuff quickly
Get a database if you're doing this big time

The platform can handle any size extraction, but you gotta be able to work with all that data too. Start small, figure out what works, then go bigger.

Avoiding Detection and Rate Limits

If you try to build your own scraper, you'll hit limits fast. Google doesn't like bots hitting their servers over and over.

Scrap.io fixed this with:

Spread out infrastructure
Smart request routing
Automatic retries
Built-in limit management

You don't have to worry about getting blocked or managing proxies. They handle all the technical crap so you can just use the data.

Case Studies and Success Stories

Let me tell you about some real wins from people using closed business data smart.

The Real Estate Score
When Party City said they're closing 700 stores, this real estate company used Scrap.io to map every location in 24 hours. They found 47 great spots in their target markets and got meetings with property managers before it even hit the news. Result? They locked down 12 leases at 30% below normal price.

The Agency Win
This digital marketing agency tracked restaurant closures in their city all through 2024. Every time one closed, they found similar restaurants nearby and pitched them on grabbing those lost customers. Their success rate? 40% - way better than their normal 12% for cold outreach.

The Supplier Switch
A B2B equipment supplier saw lots of gyms closing in certain states. Instead of seeing lost customers, they saw opportunity. They started selling used equipment to new gyms opening where the old ones closed. Revenue went up 65% in one year.

These aren't lucky breaks. This is what happens when you do closed business data extraction right and actually use what you find.

Conclusion and Next Steps

Look, while everyone else fights over the same leads, you now know how to find totally different opportunities. Those 15,000 retail stores closing in 2025? That's your advantage right there.

With businesses that closed due to covid still leaving gaps and new ones closing every day, the opportunity is huge. You just need the right tools and plan to grab it.

Here's what to do:

Start local - Pull closed businesses in your city
Find patterns - What's closing? Where? Why?
Pick your angle - Real estate? Leads? Hiring?
Set up monitoring - Check weekly for new closures
Move fast - First one there wins

Scrap.io makes this whole thing easy without needing to know code. You can literally start pulling closed business data in five minutes with their free trial.

Markets are changing faster than ever. Businesses close, opportunities open, and whoever spots these changes first wins.

Don't wait for opportunities to come to you. Go find them in the data.

Start Your 7-Day Free Trial - Get closed business data with 50 free searches and 100 export credits.

FAQ

How do I identify permanently vs temporarily closed businesses?

With Scrap.io, it's easy - just use the "Permanently Closed" filter that's built right in. This filter finds businesses marked as permanently closed on Google Maps, so you don't have to guess. The platform shows you the closure status right in your results, and you can filter to show only permanently closed, only temporarily closed, or both. Saves you hours of checking each one by hand and makes sure you're going after the right opportunities.

What business data can I extract from closed businesses?

You can get tons of data including business names, addresses, their old ratings and review counts, phone numbers (if they're still listed), website URLs, social media profiles (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter), what kind of business they were, their old hours, how many photos they had, and price ranges. Scrap.io color-codes everything too - yellow for Google Maps data and orange for web data, so it's easy to see where each piece of info came from.

Is it legal to scrape closed business information?

Yeah, it's legal when you're collecting public info that businesses put on Google Maps themselves. Scrap.io follows all the GDPR rules by only grabbing public data that can be traced back. The important thing is using the data for real business stuff like market research, finding leads, or checking out competitors. Always follow data protection rules and don't be weird about it, even with closed businesses.

Which tools work best for scraping business closure data?

Scrap.io is the best because it has that special "Permanently Closed" filter and pulls real-time data from Google Maps. Unlike old database companies with outdated info or doing it by hand which takes forever, Scrap.io can pull thousands of closed business records in minutes. You don't need to know how to code and it comes with API access if you want to automate stuff. Other tools might work, but none of them have the closed business filter, the scale, and are this easy to use.

How can closed business data benefit my business?

Closed business data opens up tons of ways to make money: find great real estate before it's publicly available, go after customers who need a new provider, hire experienced people from dead competitors, approach suppliers who lost clients, and find gaps in the market nobody's filling. Like, digital marketing agencies get 40% success rates when targeting businesses near recent closures. Real estate companies get leases 30% cheaper by moving fast on closure data.