Documentation Index
Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.lobstr.io/llms.txt
Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
Search engines and professional networks don’t always return exactly what you ask for. Google Maps can surface businesses from the wrong city or category. LinkedIn Sales Navigator can include leads that don’t match your selected industry, company size, or seniority filters. lobstr.io addresses this with built-in filtering that runs at the crawling level — before results reach your output file — so your data is clean from the start.
Filtering happens automatically. You don’t need to clean your data manually after a run — lobstr.io handles it during the scrape itself.
Google Maps
Sales Navigator
Why Google Maps results can be inaccurate
When you search for businesses on Google Maps, the results don’t always match what you’re looking for — you often get the wrong business type or wrong city/country.For example, search for plumbers in Alaska and you might get plumbing supply stores instead of actual plumbers.Or search for businesses in one city and get results from another city — sometimes another country.To fix this, the Google Maps Leads Scraper applies two automatic filters at the crawling level.Geo Match Filter
The Geo Match filter ensures every collected business is within 50 km of your chosen location. If a business falls outside that radius, the scraper skips it entirely — it never appears in your output file, and you’re not charged for it.Category Match Filter
The Category Match filter checks that every result matches your search keyword or business category. It supports:
- Translation matching — catches matching categories even when Google lists them in a different language.
- Fuzzy matching — handles variations and similar category names (e.g., “Plumbing Service” matches “Plumber”).
If a business doesn’t match your category, it’s skipped before it reaches your results.These filters run before results are added to your output file. You only get clean, relevant data — and you’re only billed for businesses that match your criteria.
How to enable or disable these filters
- Open your Squid and go to the Settings tab.
- Scroll to Advanced Settings.
- Toggle Geo Match and/or Category Match on or off.
You can use one filter, both, or neither — the choice is yours.Billing impact
You only pay for results that pass your enabled filters. Skipped listings never count toward your usage.Why LinkedIn results can be inaccurate
LinkedIn Sales Navigator lets you filter by industry, company size, and seniority level. However, the leads it returns don’t always honor those filters precisely.For example:
- You search the “Software” industry but get someone from “Construction”.
- You select company size 51–200 but see leads from companies with only 10 employees.
- You pick seniority “Manager and above” but get someone with an entry-level role.
How lobstr.io filters Sales Navigator results
The Sales Navigator Leads Scraper verifies each lead against the filters you applied, including:
- Industry
- Company size (employee headcount)
- Seniority level
lobstr.io adds two extra columns to your export file:| Column | What it contains |
|---|
MATCH FILTERS | true if the lead matches all your filters; false if one or more don’t match |
NO MATCH REASON | The specific reason for a mismatch — e.g. no_industry_match, no_company_size_match, no_seniority_match |
lobstr.io does not remove non-matching leads — it only flags them, so you keep full control of your data.
Saved searches
Filtering works the same way with saved searches. If your Sales Navigator account is connected, leads scraped from a saved search are also checked against your selected filters.How to use the filter columns in Excel or Google Sheets
- Open your export in Excel or Google Sheets.
- Click the
MATCH FILTERS column header and apply a filter.
- Select
true to see only fully matched leads, or false to review mismatches.
- Filter the
NO MATCH REASON column to view specific mismatch types.
Improving Sales Navigator search accuracy
You can reduce mismatched results by using Boolean filters instead of dropdown filters. Boolean filters let you type exactly what you want, which gives more precise results in your Sales Navigator search — better input means better data in your export.👉 Read: How to use LinkedIn Sales NavigatorData Cleansing
Many LinkedIn profiles include emojis, special characters, credentials, and extra punctuation in the name field.For example:
- ”🚀 Thomas Vidaurre”
- “Harvey Castro, MD, MBA”
- “Erkeda DeRouen, MD, CPHRM ✨”
These look normal on LinkedIn but cause problems in CRMs, enrichment tools, and spreadsheet formulas. The Sales Navigator Leads Scraper automatically removes everything that isn’t part of a person’s real name — emojis, decorative symbols, Unicode characters, extra punctuation, and professional suffixes.The result is a clean Full Name, which lobstr.io splits into a clean First Name and Last Name.Do I need to enable it?
No. Data Cleansing is always active for every Sales Navigator lead — no toggle, no setting, nothing to configure.Does it cost credits?
No. Data Cleansing does not use any additional credits. You only pay for the leads you collect and for any email or phone enrichment you enable.Does it remove middle names?
No. Middle names stay exactly as they are.What about ALL CAPS names?
If a profile name is written in uppercase, Data Cleansing automatically fixes the casing.
