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APIEndpoint 10 of 40Business Data / Q&A / Engagement & Responses

Google Q&A API

The Q&A API for the new local SEO stack.

Every business profile collects questions from customers — but most go unanswered, and when they do, the wrong person (a random commenter) fills the void. Google's own dashboard buries Q&A in a tab nobody checks. We built infrastructure for agents to surface unanswered questions, flag them before they hurt reputation, and draft owner replies at scale. Questions, answers, asker role, answer source, dates. All from a single call.

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POST /v1/business/qa · 1 credit / call

POST /v1/business/qa3 of 47 questions

Do you take reservations or is it walk-in only?

Maria S. · 3 days ago

Owner answer · 8 upvotes

Walk-in only on weekends. Reservations Mon-Thu by phone.

Is there parking nearby?

Kevin T. · 1 week ago

User answer · 12 upvotes

Street parking on Fulton, paid lot half a block south.

Do you have gluten-free crust?

Anonymous · 2 weeks ago

Unanswered · agent flagged

▌ Ask your agent

These prompts are the new customer engagement workflow.

Connect Local SEO Data as an MCP server once (60 seconds, below). Then your agent runs the work. Replace bracketed business names with your own.

Unanswered question alerts

Pull all Q&A for [Joe's Pizza in Brooklyn, NY]. Flag any question that has zero owner answers. Surface only the unanswered ones, with the question text, who asked, and how long it's been hanging.

Multi-location Q&A sweep

Fetch Q&A for all 12 client locations. Count unanswered questions per location. Rank them by how long they've been unanswered (oldest first). This week, answer the top 3 per location.

Auto-draft owner replies

Pull unanswered questions for [my dental practice]. For each, draft a helpful owner reply that addresses the question directly and invites follow-up. Queue drafts for human review before publishing.

Q&A vs Reviews pattern detection

Pull 100 reviews and all Q&A for [my competitor]. Extract the top 5 themes customers ask about. Compare to what they're complaining about in reviews. Where are the gaps?

▌ Real response

What you get back

Live response from POST /v1/business/qa for a sample Brooklyn pizzeria.

response · application/json~2-4s · 1 credit
{
  "status": "success",
  "credits_used": 1,
  "data": {
    "total_questions": 14,
    "unanswered_count": 3,
    "owner_answered_count": 11
  },
  "questions": [
    {
      "question": "Do you have gluten-free pizza?",
      "asked_by": "Local Guide",
      "date_asked": "2026-03-15",
      "answers": [
        {
          "text": "Yes, we offer a gluten-free crust option with all our toppings.",
          "answered_by": "Owner",
          "date_answered": "2026-03-16"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "question": "Do you take reservations?",
      "asked_by": "Jane M.",
      "date_asked": "2026-02-28",
      "answers": [
        {
          "text": "We do walk-ins only, no reservations needed.",
          "answered_by": "Owner",
          "date_answered": "2026-03-01"
        },
        {
          "text": "Even on weekends?",
          "asked_by": "Local Guide",
          "date_answered": "2026-03-02",
          "answered_by": "Owner"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "question": "What's your delivery radius?",
      "asked_by": "Sarah K.",
      "date_asked": "2026-04-05",
      "answers": []
    }
  ]
}
▌ Returns

Everything you need to close the customer engagement gap

Questions and metadata

Question text, asker, date, answer count

Every question on the profile with who asked, when, and whether it has been answered. Use to identify engagement gaps.

Answers and threads

Full answer text, author role (owner vs. commenter), timestamps

Every answer to every question, with authorship clarity. Critical for diagnosing whether customers are getting answers from the owner or random commenters.

Engagement metrics

Total questions, answered count, unanswered count

Aggregate snapshot. Use for rep tracking and agency dashboards.

Asker roles

Local Guide, verified reviewer, anonymous, or standard asker

Know whether questions are coming from trusted community members or one-off visitors. Shapes response priority.

▌ Built for

What AI-native operators ship with this

Unanswered question monitoring

Agencies pull all Q&A for every client location on a daily or weekly schedule. Agent flags unanswered questions, ranks by age, surfaces only what needs a reply. Prevents the reputation damage of an abandoned question sitting for weeks.

→ For agencies

Auto-drafted owner replies

Pull unanswered questions, have Claude draft on-brand owner replies, queue them in a dashboard for one-click approval. CommonQuestions (restaurant: reservations, plumber: service areas) get fast, consistent answers without owner time.

→ See prompts

Voice-of-the-customer mining

Pull 12 months of Q&A across all client locations. Extract themes (What are customers repeatedly asking about?). Compare to their reviews and website to uncover feature gaps, service blind spots, or FAQs that don't exist yet.

→ For consultants

Competitor Q&A intelligence

Pull competitor Q&A alongside their reviews and profile data. What are customers asking them about? Who's answering fast, who's not? What questions are going unanswered? Spot their weaknesses before the pitch call.

→ Competitor Gap API
▌ vs. the alternatives

Why not just use Google's Business Profile dashboard?

Google's own GBP dashboard buries Q&A in a tab, doesn't notify you of new questions for 100+ locations, and requires manual clicking to see which are unanswered. For anything beyond a single-location business, you need an alternative. Here's how the options stack up.

ApproachUnanswered alertsMulti-locationSetupAI-agent ready
Google Business Profile dashboardNoUnsupported for 100+ locationsManual clickingNo
Google's official Q&A API (deprecated)Deprecated as of Nov 2025Requires OAuthOAuth + approvalDiscontinued
Custom scrapingPossible but fragileYes, but maintenance heavyBuild + maintainBreaks regularly
BrightLocalYesYesDashboard UIManual CSV export
Whitespark / SynupYesYesDashboard UIDashboard only
DataForSEO / OutscraperPossibleYesAPI key + dev workREST only, no MCP
Local SEO Data Q&A APIBuilt-inUnlimited locationsAPI key + 1-line MCP configNative MCP, agent-first
▌ Connect in 60 seconds

Use it from your agent

Two integration surfaces: MCP for clients that speak MCP, REST API for everything else.

Direct MCP integration

Drop-in support in Claude Desktop, OpenClaw, Hermes Agent, and any MCP-aware client.

Add to your client's MCP config (e.g. claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "localseodata": {
      "url": "https://mcp.localseodata.com",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer sk_live_..."
      }
    }
  }
}

REST API

For Perplexity Computer, ChatGPT Custom GPTs, custom agents, and any platform that calls REST endpoints directly.

Base URL:

api.localseodata.com

See the docs for endpoint reference and auth.

▌ Quickstart

Your first call in three lines

Same call, three syntaxes. Pass `business_name` and `location`, or for exact matches use `place_id`. Place IDs are Google's canonical business identifiers — find any business's Place ID in [Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps) (click the business, look for the alphanumeric code in the URL or share link) or use the `/v1/maps` endpoint to bulk-find them.

terminal · curl
POST /v1/business/qa
curl -X POST https://api.localseodata.com/v1/business/qa \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk_live_..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "business_name": "Joe'"'"'s Pizza",
    "location": "Brooklyn, NY"
  }'
Full endpoint reference → · Get an API key →
▌ Pricing for this endpoint

$0.005 per call

Pay-as-you-go starts at $5. Monthly plans from $19. Funds never expire. No seat fees, ever.

Free tier
1,000
credits on signup (200,000 Q&A calls)
Starter · $19/mo
3,800,000
Q&A calls/mo at this rate
Per-call cost
$0.005
per profile lookup
▌ FAQ

Common questions

What is the Google Q&A API?+
A REST endpoint that returns all questions and answers on a Google Business Profile — question text, who asked, when, full answer threads, answer authorship (owner vs. commenter), and aggregate metrics (total questions, answered count, unanswered count) — in structured JSON. One call returns all Q&A for a single business and costs 1 credit (~$0.005). The endpoint is POST /v1/business/qa. This is the data layer underneath unanswered-question monitoring, reply-drafting workflows, and customer engagement dashboards.
Why should I monitor Q&A if I'm already monitoring reviews?+
Reviews and Q&A are different reputation surfaces. Reviews are what customers say about you after they buy. Questions are what prospects ask before they decide. An unanswered question signals unresponsiveness to someone actively considering you — and if you don't answer, a random commenter (often a competitor or someone with outdated info) fills the void. That wrong answer attaches permanently to your profile. Most monitoring tools ignore Q&A entirely. We surface it because reputation includes the questions you don't answer.
How do I authenticate with the Google Q&A API?+
Authentication uses a Bearer token. Generate an API key from your Local SEO Data dashboard (Settings → API Keys), then include it as Authorization: Bearer sk_live_... in your request headers. The same key works for MCP integration (in your claude_desktop_config.json) and direct REST calls. No OAuth flow, no project setup, no domain verification — this is provisioned in 30 seconds. There are no per-endpoint quotas: your only ceiling is your credit balance. See the authentication docs for key rotation and security best practices.
Can I pull Q&A for businesses I don't own?+
Yes — and this is the core reason third-party Q&A APIs exist. Google's now-deprecated Business Profile API only worked for listings you owned and managed via OAuth, which locked you into managing your own business. Our endpoint accepts any Place ID — your competitors, your prospects, your client's locations, any business. No verification, no OAuth, no ownership requirement. This is what makes competitor intelligence, voice-of-the-customer mining, and pre-pitch audits actually work.
What does "unanswered" mean?+
A question with zero owner replies. If a customer asks "Do you offer gift cards?" and nobody from the business has responded, it's unanswered — even if a Local Guide or random commenter chimed in. Our API marks a question as unanswered when the answers array contains zero entries where answered_by is "Owner". This is critical because random-commenter answers are often wrong and hurt reputation.
How often should I monitor Q&A?+
It depends on the workflow. Daily for active reputation management where new unanswered questions need fast replies (e.g., restaurants, services with seasonal questions). Weekly for multi-location agencies monitoring 10+ clients — pull Q&A weekly, flag changes, surface only unanswered questions. Monthly for baseline reporting and trend tracking. Because pricing is per-call (not per-seat), there's no penalty for frequency beyond actual usage. Most agencies run a weekly sweep across all client locations and auto-draft replies for common patterns.
Can AI agents use the Google Q&A API directly?+
Yes. Two integration paths. MCP: add Local SEO Data to your claude_desktop_config.json (or any MCP-aware client — OpenClaw, Hermes Agent, etc.) and the agent calls this endpoint from any prompt. REST: any agent that can make HTTPS calls — ChatGPT Custom GPTs, Perplexity Computer, custom Python agents — hits api.localseodata.com directly with the Bearer token. You don't write integration code. You write the prompt. The agent prompts above show the pattern.
How does this compare to BrightLocal / Whitespark / Synup?+
BrightLocal, Whitespark, and Synup offer Q&A monitoring via dashboard and can draft replies for you. They work, but they're dashboards — you log in, check a tab, manually spot unanswered questions, and manually draft replies. Our API is the data layer: your agent calls it, pulls all Q&A, identifies unanswered questions, drafts replies, and queues them for approval without you touching a dashboard. Pricing: they're typically $40–50/month flat seat fees. We're $0.005 per call, pay-as-you-go. For multi-location operators, agents + APIs are cheaper and faster.
Where does this Q&A data come from?+
Q&A data for this endpoint is aggregated from DataForSEO, our upstream provider for most business-data endpoints. Q&A refreshes within approximately 6-12 hours of new questions being posted or answered on a Google Business Profile. For composite endpoints like Local Audit API we operate our own first-party collection infrastructure. We name the source because if you're running real client work you should know where the data comes from.
Can I get data for competitors' Q&A?+
Yes — this is a core use case. Q&A is public data: anyone can read it on Google Maps without authentication. Third-party Q&A APIs have been a standard category for over a decade (though Google deprecated their own API in November 2025). Google's Terms of Service govern automated access to *Google's own services* and are a civil contract, not a criminal statute. Federal courts in *hiQ v. LinkedIn* have consistently held that scraping publicly available data does not violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. You're also not the one operating the collection — you're calling a hosted API whose upstream provider operates this surface at scale. For production client work and competitor analysis, this is the standard, defensible path. (None of this is legal advice; consult your counsel for your specific use case.)
How does this compare to Google's official Q&A API?+
Google's official My Business Q&A API required you to own and verify each business via OAuth. It was discontinued in November 2025. Our endpoint fills that gap: it works for any business (owned or not), requires no OAuth, no approval delays, and is built for multi-location at scale. If you were using Google's API, migrate to ours — same data shape, API-first design, and no sunsetting.
Does this work for multi-location businesses?+
Yes, and this is where the agent model earns its keep. Each call pulls Q&A for one location, but you can batch as many as you want — the API has no per-call limit beyond your credit balance. Most multi-location operators set a weekly agent run across every location. The agent flags locations with high unanswered counts, auto-drafts replies for common patterns, and surfaces only what needs human approval. The Local Audit API composites Q&A, reviews, rankings, and profile data into one call per location if you want a single per-location report.
What changed in 2026 that made this category exist?+
Two things. First: Google deprecated their official Q&A API in November 2025, leaving a gap for anyone doing production Q&A work. Second: MCP — the Model Context Protocol — became standard in late 2024 and went mainstream through 2025. It let agents call external APIs without bespoke integration code. The moment MCP matured, the right shape of a local SEO data product flipped from "dashboard with a login" to "endpoint your agent calls." The dashboard era is winding down the same way the scraper era is. Meanwhile, the official API sunsetting created an opportunity: the first modern, MCP-native Q&A data layer.
Can I draft answers automatically?+
Not via the API itself — the Q&A API returns questions and existing answers. But you use it with Claude or any AI agent: pull unanswered questions, send them to the agent with context (your business type, brand voice, past answers), and have the agent draft owner replies. Queue them in a dashboard for one-click approval, then you push them to Google manually (or via another tool). Most operators don't want fully automatic answers; they want drafted replies they can review in 5 seconds before publishing. The agent prompts at the top show the pattern.
▌ Related endpoints

Often used in the same agent prompt

POST /v1/business/reviews
Google Reviews API

Full review history with ratings, text, and owner replies.

POST /v1/business/profile
Google Business Profile API

NAP, hours, categories, photos, attributes, and more.

POST /v1/reviews/multi-platform
Multi-Platform Reviews

Google + Trustpilot ratings and reviews in one call.

POST /v1/audit/reputation
Reputation Audit

Composite: reviews + sentiment + cross-platform.

Start surfacing unanswered questions in 60 seconds.

50 free credits on signup. Your first Q&A pull happens through Claude, not curl.

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▌ MADE FOR THE NEW LOCAL SEO STACK