Google Business Reviews Fetcher

Fresh

The Google Business Reviews Fetcher automatically collects and tracks Google reviews for a single business location. Instead of manually checking Google Maps for new reviews, this tool fetches review data on a schedule and tracks changes over time through snapshots.

Why Use This Tool

Perfect for:

• Businesses monitoring their Google reviews over time
• Tracking new reviews as they come in
• Building a historical record of all reviews
• Exporting review data for reporting or analysis
• Monitoring owner response rates

Key Benefits:

• 📸 Snapshot-based tracking - See exactly what changed each time
• 🔄 Smart depth calculation - Automatically optimizes API costs
• 📊 Deduplication - Only tracks new reviews, skips duplicates
• 👁️ Visibility tracking - Detect when reviews disappear or reappear on Google
• 🔔 Email alerts for low-rating reviews via Automations
• 💾 Export reviews to CSV for analysis
• ⏰ Scheduled or manual fetching

Quick Start Guide

WARNING

This tool requires you to set up a Google Places API key to search for Google businesses. Please read the guide at: Setup Google Places API key

Step 1: Add a Business

1. Navigate to Google Business Reviews Fetcher in the sidebar
2. Click "Create New Fetcher"
3. Search for your business using the business search field
4. Enter a friendly name (e.g., "Downtown Seattle Location")

Figure: Access Google Business Reviews Fetcher tool

Step 2: Configure Fetch Settings

Initial Depth (First run only)

• How many historical reviews to fetch on first run
• Range: 10 - 4,490 reviews (in multiples of 10)
• Example: Set to 1,000 to fetch complete review history
• This only runs once - pulls all historical reviews

Subsequent Depth (Optional)

• How many reviews to fetch on future runs
• Leave at 0 for automatic (recommended)
• Or set a custom value if you know your review volume

How Automatic Depth Works:

First Run: Fetches 1,000 reviews (your historical data)
Second Run: Automatically calculates based on schedule
  - Example: 7-day schedule = ~21 reviews (3/day × 7 days)
Third+ Runs: Analyzes previous snapshot
  - If last run found 15 new reviews
  - Next run fetches ~30 reviews (15 × 2 buffer)

Schedule Interval

• 0 = Manual only (you click "Fetch Data" when needed)
• 7 = Weekly (runs every 7 days)
• 30 = Monthly (runs every 30 days)
• Custom = Any number of days

Location & Language

• Select the geographic location and language for review fetching
• Example: United States - English

Queue Priority

• Standard Queue: Up to 45min processing, $0.00075 per 10 reviews
• Priority Queue: Up to 1min processing, $0.0015 per 10 reviews

Figure: Create a Google Business Reviews Fetcher

Step 3: Save and Run

1. Click "Add Business"
2. Initial fetch starts automatically
3. You'll be redirected to the snapshot page showing progress

Understanding the Business Detail Page

After creating a business, you'll see the detail page with:

Business Information Card

Figure: Business Information Card

Shows configuration and tracking details:

• Address: Business name and location
• Place ID: Google's unique identifier for this business
• Schedule: How often reviews are fetched (Manual, Weekly, etc.)
• Queue Priority: Standard or Priority processing
• Initial Depth: Number of reviews fetched on first run
• Last Run: When reviews were last fetched
• Total Snapshots: How many times reviews have been fetched
• Location & Language: Geographic and language settings

Snapshots History Table

Every time you fetch reviews, a new snapshot is created. The table shows:

Figure: Snapshots History Table

Columns:

• Date: When the snapshot was created
• Depth: How many reviews were requested from the API
• Found: Total reviews returned by Google
• New: Reviews that didn't exist in previous snapshots
• Duplicates: Reviews already captured in previous snapshots
• Status: Pending → Processing → Completed (or Failed)
• Type: Scheduled (automatic) or Manual (you clicked "Fetch Data")

Example Snapshot Flow:

Snapshot #1 (Initial):
  Depth: 1,000
  Found: 847 reviews
  New: 847 (all are new on first run)
  Duplicates: 0

Snapshot #2 (7 days later):
  Depth: 30 (auto-calculated)
  Found: 18 reviews
  New: 3 (3 new reviews since last week)
  Duplicates: 15 (already had these)

Snapshot #3 (7 days later):
  Depth: 30 (auto-calculated)
  Found: 25 reviews
  New: 5 (5 new reviews this week)
  Duplicates: 20 (already had these)

Actions

• Fetch Data: Manually trigger a new snapshot
• Edit: Change business settings (except business selection)
• Delete: Remove business and all snapshots

Bulk Actions

From the main business list, you can select multiple businesses using the checkboxes and perform bulk actions:

• Fetch Reviews: Trigger a review fetch for all selected businesses at once. The fetches run sequentially to avoid API overload.

Figure: Fetch reviews for multiple businesses

This is useful when you want to manually refresh reviews for multiple businesses before generating reports.

Viewing Review Data (Snapshot Page)

Click on any snapshot date to view the reviews captured in that snapshot.

Figure: View detail a snapshot

Snapshot Information

Shows details about this specific fetch:

• Date: When this snapshot was created
• Depth: How many reviews were requested
• Reviews Found: Total reviews returned by Google
• New Reviews: Reviews discovered for the first time
• Duplicates Skipped: Reviews already in previous snapshots
• Status: Completion status
• Type: Manual or Scheduled run
• Business Rating: Overall star rating and total review count
• Missing Reviews: Reviews that disappeared from Google since last snapshot (shown only if > 0)
• Reinstated Reviews: Reviews that reappeared after being missing (shown only if > 0)

Reviews Table

Figure: Reviews table

Cumulative View (Default)

By default, the snapshot page shows all reviews ever collected for this business with their current visibility status. This gives you a complete picture of all reviews regardless of which snapshot first captured them.

To see only reviews from this specific snapshot, enable the "Only show reviews in this snapshot" toggle above the table.

Review Columns:

• Reviewer: Name, photo, profile (if available)
  • Shows review count and photo count
  • "Local Guide" badge if applicable
• Rating: Star rating (1-5)
  • Number of "helpful" votes
  • "View on Google" link to see review on Google Maps
• Review Date: When the review was posted
• Review Text: Full review content
  • Expandable for long reviews
  • Shows review images if attached
• Owner Response: Business reply to the review
  • Shows if owner has responded
  • Full response text
• Status: Review visibility status (see below)

Review Visibility Tracking

The tool automatically detects when reviews disappear or reappear on Google by comparing each fetch with the previous one. Each review has a visibility status:

Status	Description
New	First time discovered in this fetch
Visible	Currently visible on Google
Missing	Was visible before but no longer on Google (deleted by reviewer or removed by Google)
Reinstated	Was missing but has reappeared on Google

INFO

Why do reviews go missing? Reviews can disappear from Google for several reasons:

• Reviewer deleted their review
• Google removed it for policy violations
• Google's spam filter flagged it (may be reinstated later)
• Temporary Google Maps data issues

Filters

• Rating: Filter by star rating (e.g., show only 1-2 star reviews)
• Owner Response: Filter by "With Response" or "No Response"
• Visibility: Filter by status (New, Visible, Missing, Reinstated)
• Search: Search reviewer names or review text

Export

Click Export to download all reviews (respects current filters) as CSV for:

• Client reporting
• Analysis in Excel/Google Sheets
• Integration with other tools
• Long-term archiving

Example Workflows

Workflow 1: New Business Setup

Goal: Track reviews for a coffee shop with ~200 total reviews

Setup:

Business: Blue Bottle Coffee - Ferry Building
Initial Depth: 500 reviews
Subsequent Depth: 0 (automatic)
Schedule: 7 days (weekly)
Priority: Standard Queue

What Happens:

1. First run: Fetches 500 reviews, finds 187 total
2. Week 1: Auto-fetches ~21 reviews, finds 2 new reviews
3. Week 2: Auto-fetches ~30 reviews (2×2 buffer), finds 3 new
4. Week 3: Auto-fetches ~30 reviews, finds 1 new
5. Ongoing: Adapts based on review frequency

Workflow 2: High-Volume Business

Goal: Track reviews for busy restaurant getting 5-10 reviews/day

Setup:

Business: Popular Restaurant Downtown
Initial Depth: 4,490 reviews (max)
Subsequent Depth: 0 (automatic)
Schedule: 3 days
Priority: Priority Queue (faster processing)

What Happens:

1. First run: Fetches 4,490 reviews (complete history)
2. Day 3: Auto-fetches ~27 reviews, finds 18 new
3. Day 6: Auto-fetches ~36 reviews (18×2), finds 22 new
4. Day 9: Auto-fetches ~44 reviews (22×2), finds 15 new
5. Ongoing: Automatically adjusts to review volume

Workflow 3: Manual Monitoring

Goal: Fetch reviews only when needed (e.g., before monthly reports)

Setup:

Business: Consulting Firm
Initial Depth: 100 reviews
Subsequent Depth: 50
Schedule: 0 (manual only)
Priority: Standard Queue

What Happens:

1. First run: Manual click, fetches 100 reviews
2. Month 1: Manual click, fetches 50 reviews
3. Month 2: Manual click, fetches 50 reviews
4. Ongoing: You control when to fetch

Setting Up Low-Rating Alerts (Automation)

Get notified by email when new reviews below your rating threshold are detected using the Automations tool.

How It Works

After each fetch completes, the automation system:

1. Checks for NEW reviews in the snapshot
2. Filters reviews by your rating threshold (e.g., 3 stars or lower)
3. Sends email only if matching reviews are found
4. Skips notification if no reviews match criteria

Step-by-Step Setup

1. Go to Automations in the sidebar
2. Click "Create Automation"
3. Configure the automation:

Basic Settings:

Name: Low Rating Alert - [Your Business Name]
Trigger: Google Business Reviews Snapshot
Report: Select your business (or "All Reports" for all businesses)

Trigger Configuration:

Include All Reviews: No (unchecked) - Only sends alerts for reviews at or below threshold
                     Yes (checked)  - Sends alerts for ALL new reviews regardless of rating
Rating Threshold: 3 (triggers for 1, 2, or 3 star reviews) - Only visible when "Include All Reviews" is unchecked

Add Action → Send Email:

To: your-email@company.com
Subject: ⚠️ {{trigger.newReviewsMatchingCount}} New Low-Rating Review(s) - {{trigger.businessName}}

Email Body:

{{trigger.newReviewsMatchingCount}} new review(s) with ratings at or below {{trigger.ratingThreshold}} stars have been detected for {{trigger.businessName}}.

{{trigger.reviewsList}}

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Business Information:
Name: {{trigger.businessName}}
Address: {{trigger.address}}
Place ID: {{trigger.placeID}}

Summary:
• Total new reviews: {{trigger.newReviewsCount}}
• Matching criteria: {{trigger.newReviewsMatchingCount}}
• Average rating: {{trigger.averageRating}}/5
• Total reviews: {{trigger.totalReviews}}

Action Required:
Please review this feedback and respond promptly to address customer concerns.

---

This is an automated notification from SEO Utils.
Snapshot Date: {{trigger.createdAt}}

4. Click "Save Automation"

Available Template Variables

Variable	Description	Example
{{trigger.businessName}}	Business name	"Blue Bottle Coffee"
{{trigger.address}}	Business address	"123 Main St, Seattle, WA"
{{trigger.placeID}}	Google Place ID	"ChIJ..."
{{trigger.newReviewsCount}}	Total new reviews found	5
{{trigger.newReviewsMatchingCount}}	Reviews matching threshold	2
{{trigger.ratingThreshold}}	Configured threshold	3
{{trigger.averageRating}}	Business average rating	4.2
{{trigger.totalReviews}}	Total review count	847
{{trigger.reviewsList}}	Formatted list of matching reviews	(see below)
{{trigger.createdAt}}	Snapshot date	"2024-01-15"

Example Email Output

2 new review(s) with ratings at or below 3 stars have been detected for Blue Bottle Coffee.

Review 1:
Rating: 2/5 ⭐⭐
Reviewer: John D.
Date: 2024-01-15
Review: "Coffee was cold and service was slow. Very disappointed."
View Review: https://maps.google.com/...

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Review 2:
Rating: 1/5 ⭐
Reviewer: Sarah M.
Date: 2024-01-14
Review: "Worst experience ever. Will not return."
View Review: https://maps.google.com/...

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Business Information:
Name: Blue Bottle Coffee
Address: 1 Ferry Building, San Francisco, CA
Place ID: ChIJAQDl8...

Summary:
• Total new reviews: 5
• Matching criteria: 2
• Average rating: 4.2/5
• Total reviews: 847

Action Required:
Please review this feedback and respond promptly to address customer concerns.

---

This is an automated notification from SEO Utils.
Snapshot Date: 2024-01-15

TIP

Besides sending emails, you can set up the Automations tool to send data view webhooks, so you can perform other analyses or automations.