How to Build a Business List by Sector and City from Google Maps (2026 Guide)

How to Build a Business List by Sector and City

Anyone selling to businesses starts with the same need: a list filtered by city and sector, "construction firms in Izmir", "accounting offices in Bursa", with phone numbers that actually work.

This guide covers where to get that list, how to build it, and the traps to avoid.

Three sources, three different results

The biggest problem with purchased lists is not age, it is unknown origin: you cannot tell where the data came from or under what permission. On Google Maps, the business itself publishes its details so customers can reach it.

What fields does Google Maps give you?

A business listing usually includes:

• ▸Business name and category
• ▸Phone number
• ▸Address and district
• ▸Website (if any)
• ▸Rating and review count
• ▸Opening hours

That is plenty for a sales list. Rating, review count and whether there is a website are the three most useful fields for filtering.

Building it by hand

1. 1.Search Google Maps for "sector + city", e.g. "construction company Karşıyaka".
2. 2.Open each result and copy name, phone, website and rating into a sheet.
3. 3.Repeat the same search district by district.

Doing it by hand works for small lists. Past 50 records it takes hours, and copying phone numbers is where most errors creep in.

Trap 1: one search returns at most 60 results

Google shows a limited number of results per search; in the official Places interface the cap is 60 records. Searching "Istanbul accounting" shows you the 60 most relevant offices, not the thousands that exist.

The fix is to narrow the search: district instead of city, sub-sector instead of a broad sector ("chartered accountant", "bookkeeping office"). Only then does the list approach its real size.

Trap 2: businesses that hide their address

Plumbers, cleaning companies, movers, businesses that go to the customer, often hide their address on Maps and show only a service area. They do not appear in some searches at all. If your target sector works this way, search by service name and district to surface more of them.

Trap 3: a landline is not a mobile number

If you are building the list to reach people on WhatsApp, landlines have no WhatsApp. The share of mobile numbers on Maps varies a lot by sector: tradespeople and service businesses mostly publish mobiles, large offices mostly publish switchboard numbers. Split mobile from landline before planning any messaging.

Filtering: who to contact first

A raw list is only a start. A few practical rules:

• ▸Very few reviews and no rating: the business may have closed or abandoned the listing.
• ▸No website: it has not invested in digital. If you sell web, ads or software, that is an opening; otherwise it is neutral.
• ▸High rating, many reviews: a busy business; keep your message short and direct.

Rather than filtering record by record, it is faster to give each business a priority score. We explain how in our AI lead scoring article.

You have the list, now what?

A list is only worth as much as the first message. Sending the same text to 300 businesses brings no replies and lowers your number's quality rating. See our WhatsApp cold message templates for short, business-specific openers.

There is also a legal framework for commercial messages to businesses, including how to record someone who says "don't message me", summarised in our KVKK compliance article.

A tool that does the whole chain

paplead does the full chain: it scans Google Maps for the city and sector you choose, ranks businesses by priority, sends the first message from your own number over the official WhatsApp Business Platform, and handles the reply until it becomes a meeting. Our comparison article lays out honestly which tools cover which link of that chain.

The first scan is free and needs no card: go to paplead.com and choose Start your free scan to see how many businesses exist in your area and sector.