- How to start
- 1. Open https://app.dataforseo.com/register. No card is required. A new account gets $1 to try.
2. Fill in your first name, email and password. The password must be at least 8 characters. Agree to the Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy. A temporary email address is rejected.
3. The email picks the account type. Gmail or another personal email becomes Personal and asks for a phone number. A company email becomes Business and does not ask for a phone. Both work, and both get $1. Do not pick a package, an API or a monthly fee on this page.
4. Confirm the email that arrives in your inbox.
5. On the next page select SERP Tracking, Rank Tracking and Local SEO. Then select REST API. You can leave the description empty. Continue stays off until those are selected.
6. On the next page set Your role to Owner. If Owner is not there, choose Founder. Company name is your own company. Company website is your own site. Set When do you plan to integrate to ASAP. Do not select Slack or WhatsApp. Then press Continue.
7. Open https://app.dataforseo.com/api-access. Copy the API login and the API password. The API password is not the password you use to sign in. DataForSEO creates it. It is visible for 24 hours. After that, press Send by e-mail on the same page. Do not copy the Base64 line. The API login may not be the same email you used to sign up. Copy exactly what is in the API login field.
8. Leave IP access empty. If you add an address there, this app cannot scan.
9. Paste the two values here and press Save here. Do not send them to anyone in a chat. The account stays in this browser only. Another person's scan spends their own balance.
10. The $1 runs out after a few small tries. The smallest top-up after that is $50. It does not expire and it is not a monthly fee. Leave the cheaper scan mode on. The fast mode returns the same result and costs about three times more per point. Do not open a second trial account. DataForSEO will close it.
- Cheap and Fast
- Cheap is slower and costs less. Fast paints the dots right away, but costs more.
- Google Maps and Google Search
- Google Maps is the Maps order around that dot. Google Search is the local list on the search page. They can differ in the same place. A missing business is 100+ on Google Maps and 20+ on Google Search.
- Rings before a scan
- Click a ring and that spot is not searched. Click the same spot again and the ring comes back.
- Business and the list
- The business field is whose rank the numbers show. Click another name in the list to see their ranks. A purple name means there is no street address.
- Your own account
- Each person adds their own DataForSEO login and password. It stays in this browser and does not spend anyone else's credit.
- Cost
- A cheap scan here is about 6× cheaper than LeadSnap. One scan here does Google Maps and Google Search together. In LeadSnap both of those have to be selected to match it.