[Yelp Search API] `organic_results` always empty while raw_html_file contains organic listings

[michaelhongbgf]

Engine: yelp
Severity: Engine unusable — 100% of fresh searches return zero organic results
Dates observed: 2026-07-06 to 2026-07-07 (ongoing)
Client: google-search-results 2.4.2 (Python)

Summary

Every engine=yelp search returns status: Success with filters, inline_ads, and
pagination correctly parsed — but organic_results is always empty or absent.
The raw_html_file for these same searches contains the organic listings
(~13 unique organic /biz/ links per page), so Yelp is serving complete results
pages and the fetch succeeds. The organic-listing extraction appears broken
against Yelp's current search-results markup.

Reproducible examples (search IDs on our account)

Example 1 — playground search:

• Search ID: 6a4cb9daf3a0a715d597b36a
• JSON: https://serpapi.com/searches/DGWXWmmRhj5xOb6JBRp-5A/6a4cb9daf3a0a715d597b36a.json
• Raw HTML: https://serpapi.com/searches/DGWXWmmRhj5xOb6JBRp-5A/6a4cb9daf3a0a715d597b36a.html
• Params: find_loc=Miami, yelp_domain=www.yelp.com
• JSON contains: filters, 3 inline_ads, pagination — no organic_results key
• Raw HTML (891 KB) contains organic /biz/ listings including:
  apocalypse-bbq-miami, bayshore-club-bar-and-grill-miami,
  fratellino-coral-gables-2, ghee-indian-kitchen-miami-5,
  giselle-miami-miami, greenstreet-cafe-miami-3,
  olds-havana-cuban-bar-and-cocina-miami (13 unique organic slugs)

Example 2 — fresh search with no_cache=true:

• Raw HTML: https://serpapi.com/searches/d8qWT0_-l2sLvn59FsAOxA/6a4cbc6902706af957407b1b.html
• Params: find_desc=restaurants, find_loc=Miami, FL, yelp_domain=www.yelp.com, no_cache=true
• JSON: organic_results empty. Raw HTML (881 KB): 13 unique organic /biz/
  slugs present, including crazy-about-you-miami-3,
  don-maguey-mexican-restaurant-miami, house-of-food-porn-miami-3

Reproduction matrix (all fresh, no_cache=true)

find_desc	find_loc	yelp_domain	organic_results
restaurants	Miami, FL	www.yelp.com	0
restaurants	Miami, FL	(default)	0
Coffee	San Francisco, California, United States	www.yelp.com	0
Coffee	San Francisco, California, United States	(default)	0
pizza	New York, NY	www.yelp.com	0 (+ error "Yelp hasn't returned any results for this query")
fine dining	Miami Beach, FL	www.yelp.com	0 (+ same error)
restaurants (cflt=restaurants)	Miami, FL	(default)	0

8+ searches over two days: 0% returned any organic result. filters and
inline_ads parse correctly in every response, so the page structure is
partially recognised — only organic listing extraction fails.

Additional observation (possibly related)

Although search_metadata.yelp_url shows https://www.yelp.com/..., links
inside the served HTML are geo-localised to non-US Yelp domains — ad redirect
URLs reference en.yelp.ch and pagination.next references
en.yelp.com.ph / en.yelp.be / en.yelp.my (varies per request). If the
organic-results parser keys on US-domain-specific markup or URL patterns,
this localisation may be why extraction fails while ads/filters still parse.

Expected behaviour

organic_results populated with the ~13 organic listings demonstrably present
in the raw_html_file of the same search.

[report-tracking-bot]

A User Report Tracking spreadsheet has been created for this issue for internal tracking.

[Ovi]

Thank you @michaelhongbgf for sharing the detailed notes about the bug, and we apologize about ths issue. We'll investigate this, and reach out once we have any update.

Internal notes:
Could be related to #3653