Google Reviews contains valuable data -- review text, star rating, reviewer profile, review date, and more. Scraping this data directly means dealing with anti-bot detection, CAPTCHAs, IP rotation, and constantly breaking selectors. The Scavio API handles all of that and returns clean, structured JSON from a single POST request.
This tutorial shows you how to scrape Google Reviews using Go and the Scavio API. By the end, you will have a working Go script that fetches real-time Google Reviews data and parses the results.
Prerequisites
- Go installed on your machine
- A Scavio API key (free tier includes 50 credits on signup -- no credit card required)
Step 1: Install Dependencies
net/http is built into Go, so there is nothing to install.
# net/http is in Go's standard library - no installation neededStep 2: Make Your First Google Reviews Search
Send a POST request to the Scavio Google Reviews API endpoint with your query. The API returns structured JSON with review text, star rating, reviewer profile, and more.
// Reviews are per place: get a data_id (or place_id) from POST /api/v2/google/maps/search
// first. Owner responses are not part of this response.
package main
import (
"bytes"
"encoding/json"
"fmt"
"io"
"net/http"
)
func main() {
apiKey := "sk_live_your_key"
dataId := "0x89c259869319e7af:0x54953953a5ede7bb"
body, _ := json.Marshal(map[string]interface{}{
"data_id": dataId,
"num": 10,
"sort_by": "newest",
})
req, _ := http.NewRequest("POST", "https://api.scavio.dev/api/v2/google/maps/reviews", bytes.NewBuffer(body))
req.Header.Set("Authorization", "Bearer "+apiKey)
req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
resp, err := (&http.Client{}).Do(req)
if err != nil {
panic(err)
}
defer resp.Body.Close()
raw, _ := io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
var data map[string]interface{}
json.Unmarshal(raw, &data)
formatted, _ := json.MarshalIndent(data, "", " ")
fmt.Println(string(formatted))
}Step 3: Example Response
The API returns structured JSON. Here is an example response for a Google Reviews search:
{
"search_parameters": { "engine": "google_maps_reviews", "data_id": "0x89c259869319e7af:0x54953953a5ede7bb", "num": 10 },
"place_info": { "title": "Jives Media", "address": "800 6th Ave Ste 36C, New York, NY 10001", "rating": 4.9, "reviews": 199 },
"reviews": [
{
"position": 1,
"rating": 5,
"date": "a year ago",
"iso_date": "2025-06-11T00:00:00Z",
"snippet": "We have been working with the Jives Media team for over a year now...",
"likes": 0,
"user": { "name": "P Gol", "link": "https://www.google.com/maps/contrib/100121084533228462911", "local_guide": true }
}
],
"pagination": { "next_page_token": "CAESY0NBRVFB..." },
"response_time": 3720,
"credits_used": 1,
"credits_remaining": 4811
}Every field is structured and typed -- no HTML parsing, no CSS selectors, no regex extraction. Your Go code can access any field directly.
Step 4: Full Working Example
Here is a complete, runnable Go script that searches Google Reviews and prints the results:
// Reviews are per place: get a data_id (or place_id) from POST /api/v2/google/maps/search
// first. Owner responses are not part of this response.
package main
import (
"bytes"
"encoding/json"
"fmt"
"io"
"net/http"
"os"
)
const apiURL = "https://api.scavio.dev/api/v2/google/maps/reviews"
// FetchGoogleReviews calls POST /api/v2/google/maps/reviews and returns the decoded response.
// Rows come back under reviews.
func FetchGoogleReviews(dataId string) (map[string]interface{}, error) {
apiKey := os.Getenv("SCAVIO_API_KEY")
body, err := json.Marshal(map[string]interface{}{
"data_id": dataId,
"num": 10,
"sort_by": "newest",
})
if err != nil {
return nil, err
}
req, err := http.NewRequest("POST", apiURL, bytes.NewBuffer(body))
if err != nil {
return nil, err
}
req.Header.Set("Authorization", "Bearer "+apiKey)
req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
resp, err := (&http.Client{}).Do(req)
if err != nil {
return nil, err
}
defer resp.Body.Close()
raw, err := io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
if err != nil {
return nil, err
}
if resp.StatusCode != http.StatusOK {
return nil, fmt.Errorf("scavio api error %d: %s", resp.StatusCode, string(raw))
}
var data map[string]interface{}
if err := json.Unmarshal(raw, &data); err != nil {
return nil, err
}
return data, nil
}
func main() {
data, err := FetchGoogleReviews("0x89c259869319e7af:0x54953953a5ede7bb")
if err != nil {
fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "Error: %v\n", err)
os.Exit(1)
}
formatted, _ := json.MarshalIndent(data, "", " ")
fmt.Println(string(formatted))
}Why Use Scavio Instead of Scraping Google Reviews Directly?
- No proxy management. Direct scraping requires rotating proxies to avoid IP bans. Scavio handles all of this server-side.
- No CAPTCHA solving. Google Reviews aggressively blocks automated requests. Scavio returns clean data every time.
- Structured JSON output. No HTML parsing or CSS selector maintenance. Get typed, consistent data from every request.
- Multi-platform in one API. Search Google, Amazon, YouTube, and Walmart from the same API key with the same authentication pattern.
- Free tier included. 50 credits on signup with no credit card required. Each search costs 1 credit.