# Find local businesses on Google Maps with your AI agent

> Ask your agent for businesses of one kind within a distance of a place, filtered by reviews, rating or a claimed profile. Manifold searches Google Maps and returns each business's rating, reviews, website and status, at 4 credits plus 12 for each 100 rows. Our search for dentists near Austin returned 25 of 127, with 8 lacking a website and 5 closed for good.

| | |
| --- | --- |
| Job | A local prospect list for an agency |
| Tool | maps_search_businesses |
| Credits | 7 for 25 rows in this run |
| Fields | Rating, reviews, website, claimed, status, category |
| Run on | Dentists within 10 km of Austin, 27 October 2026 |

## The prompt

We asked our own agent, Claude Code connected to Manifold, on 27 October 2026:

```text
I run a local SEO agency. Find dentists within 10 km of downtown Austin with 20 Google reviews
or fewer, and tell me which ones have no website or an unclaimed Maps profile.
```

## The call

| Step | Tool | Input | Credits |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | [`maps_search_businesses`](https://www.manifoldmcp.com/docs/tools/maps#maps_search_businesses) | Dentists, 10 km around downtown Austin, at most 20 reviews, 25 rows | 7 |

Google Maps businesses in a radius around a point, filtered by category and review count. Each row has the business's rating, reviews, website, whether the owner has claimed the profile and whether it is open. It costs 4 credits plus 12 for each 100 rows.

## What came back

127 dentists matched, and 25 came back. We leave out the practices named after a dentist and every phone number. Across the 25:

| Measure | Practices |
| --- | ---: |
| No website on the profile | 8 |
| Unclaimed profile | 14 |
| Marked closed forever | 5 |
| Website is a group, hospital or directory page, not their own | 8 |

Some of the practices that trade under a business name:

| Practice | Rating | Reviews | Website | Claimed | Status |
| --- | ---: | ---: | --- | --- | --- |
| Lake Austin Family Dental | 3.9 | 16 | None | No | Open |
| Quality Dental Care | 5.0 | 2 | None | Yes | Open |
| Western Trails Dental | 4.0 | 2 | Own site | No | Closed |

## What the agent concluded

- **Five of the leads are dead.** Profiles marked closed forever stay on Maps, and 3 of the 8 profiles without a website are among them. Drop them before anyone writes.
- **A missing website is not always a missing website.** 8 practices link to a dental group's page or a directory listing instead of their own site. To an agency, that is a different pitch: a site of their own, not a first one.
- **The best lead is open, unclaimed and has no site.** Lake Austin Family Dental is all three, with 16 reviews at 3.9 stars: a profile to claim, reviews to answer and a site to build.
- **Review counts this low are a filter, not a verdict.** A practice with 2 reviews may be new, or may be a second listing for a dentist who works at a bigger practice.

## Run it on yours

```text
Find {category} within {distance} of {place} with {a filter: few reviews, low rating, no
website, unclaimed}, and drop the ones marked closed.
```

To see who ranks on Maps for a search instead, call [`maps_search_places`](https://www.manifoldmcp.com/docs/tools/maps#maps_search_places). For one business in full, with its hours and reviews, call [`maps_get_place`](https://www.manifoldmcp.com/docs/tools/maps#maps_get_place).

## Questions

### Does this need a Google Maps API key?

No. Manifold reads Google Maps through DataForSEO, with no Google Cloud project or key of yours.

### Why are closed businesses in the list?

A profile marked closed forever stays on Maps. The status comes back with each row, so ask your agent to drop the closed ones.

### Is this the same as who ranks on Maps?

No. This searches every business in an area by its profile. For the order Google Maps shows for a search, your agent uses the places search instead.

### Can I get the owner's email?

For a business with a website, your agent can look up the addresses known at its domain, at 31 credits a domain that returns any.

## Next

- [Google Maps MCP server](https://www.manifoldmcp.com/mcp/google-maps)
- [Google Maps tools in the docs](https://www.manifoldmcp.com/docs/tools/maps)
- [Lead generation tools in the docs](https://www.manifoldmcp.com/docs/tools/leads)

Published 27 October 2026. Updated 27 October 2026.