Import businesses from Google

A directory with no businesses in it doesn’t attract visitors, and without visitors businesses have no reason to join. The Google import breaks that circle: search Google Places for, say, plumbers near Austin, TX, check what it found, and add those businesses to your site in one go. Each one becomes a business listing that the business itself can then claim and keep up to date.

Switch on directory mode first. The import then fills in the business fields (This is a business and Opening hours), and businesses can claim their listings.

What you need: a Google API key

The search runs on your own Google Cloud account, and Google bills it for each search (a few cents per page of 20 results).

1. In the Google Cloud console, create a project or pick one, and make sure billing is set up.
2. Enable Places API (New) for the project.
3. Create an API key. Don’t restrict it to websites (HTTP referrers): the search is sent from our servers, not from a browser. You can restrict it to the Places API (New).

This is a different key from the one your site’s Google Maps use in visitors’ browsers. Yclas keeps it separately and never shows it again; it is only saved once Google has answered a search with it.

Search and import

1. In the admin panel, go to Tools and click Start in the Move your site to Yclas card.
2. Scroll to Add businesses from Google.
3. Paste Your Google API key (the first time only; afterwards it says Saved. Enter another one to replace it.).
4. Fill in What (for example plumbers), Near (a town or area), Within (km) (1 to 50, 10 by default) and Up to (how many businesses, up to 60).
5. Click Search and continue.
6. On Map columns and fields, choose the Category: one of your categories, or A category per type of business (from Google), which files each business under its Google type and creates the categories you don’t have yet. Check Listed under: the email of the administrator the listings belong to. Click Continue: preview.
7. On Review before importing, check the businesses that will be added. Nothing has been imported yet.
8. Click the import button and keep the page open until it finishes.

Repeat with other searches (electricians, cafés, another town) to build up your directory.

What each business gets

Taken from Google	On your site
Name	The listing’s title.
Short description	The description, when Google has one; otherwise the name.
Address and map point	The listing’s address, so it appears on maps and in distance searches.
Phone and website	The listing’s phone and website.
Opening hours	The Opening hours field, including hours past midnight.

Listings are published straight away, with no price and no location from your location list. Businesses that Google marks as permanently closed are left out, and so is a business already on your site with the same name and address (the preview lists them).

Google’s terms don’t allow copying its photos, so no photos are imported. Listings without a photo look plainer: invite the businesses to claim their listing and add their own.

Let the businesses take over

The listings belong to an administrator, so they count as unclaimed: each business sees Claim this business on its listing. A business with an email address at its website’s domain confirms with a code and gets the listing straight away; other claims wait for you in Listings › Claims. Contact the businesses you imported to tell them they are listed and invite them to claim it. See Claims.

To take an import back, use Undo as for any import: see Undo an import.

Related guides

• Run a business directory — business listings, claims and quote requests.
• Import listings from a CSV file — the same import steps for a spreadsheet.
• Maps — show your businesses on a map.
• Review replies, invitations and awards — let the businesses collect and answer reviews.
• Deals on listings — let businesses add offers once they have claimed their listing.