Data collection and analysis is an essential aspect of any modern business. With increased competition in today’s digital landscape, businesses of all sizes rely on data to make decisions and gain an advantage.
Web scraping has emerged as one of the most popular data-collection practices. However, to get the most out of your web scraping efforts, it’s vital to use residential proxies along with your scraper. Let’s take a look at why we consider it essential.
Definition of Web Scraping
Web scraping is considered an external data collection method. In this case, companies use specialized tools to collect vast amounts of data from other websites.
This information is compiled into a single format, usually a spreadsheet, where it can be cleaned, improved, and evaluated for valuable insights.
Web scraping can be used across several industries, including real estate, e-commerce, travel, and more, to collect information and improve various aspects of the business. For example, one study found that 73% of companies use web scraping to gain insights into their market.
Another study conducted by Forrester Research found that 85% of businesses use web scraping to improve the customer’s experience by collecting feedback and identifying areas that need improvement.
These aren’t the only statistics that show how popular web scraping is for improving various aspects of a business. You’ll find similar stats supporting the tools used in optimizing pricing strategies, improving lead generation, and powering research and development.
Businesses have several options when it comes to choosing a web scraping tool. If you have a strong tech team that understands coding, you can have them build your own web scraper for your specific needs.
Several code libraries are available across the most popular coding languages to get your team started.
Not keen on the coding route? There are many pre-built options available that require absolutely no coding experience. You simply pay a monthly subscription to use the tool in these cases.
Your team inputs the type of data they want collected and the URLs to be checked, and at the press of a button, the software does all the work for you.
How Do Residential Proxies Empower Web Scraping Efforts?
While web scraping is an essential practice for many businesses, the truth is that even the best web scraper on its own won’t be able to deliver all of the data you need reliably.
To get the most out of your web scraping practices, you need to empower your web scraper by using residential proxies alongside the tool.
Let’s take a look at some of the ways that a residential proxy empowers your web scraping efforts.
Scaling Efforts
When using a residential proxy alongside your web scraper, you’re immediately able to scale the amount of information you can collect. Residential proxies have large pools of IPs that you can utilize with each of your collection requests.
This means you can launch multiple requests simultaneously using different IPs to collect more information faster.
Bypassing Geo-Restrictions
Residential proxies include IPs from across the world. This makes bypassing any geo-restrictions a breeze. If you’re looking to collect data on a new upcoming market in a different country, you can use an IP from that country to start collecting all the information you need.
This way, you don’t have to physically visit the country just to collect data on that market.
Avoiding IP Blocks
Websites have measures in place to block any suspicious behavior that could potentially be harmful. This often includes automated tools that resemble bots.
Unfortunately, most web scrapers fall into this category and will be issued an IP ban if detected. If your IP gets banned, you will not be able to access the site. No access means no data.
A residential proxy helps you avoid this by assigning a real IP from an existing device to your scraper, which makes it appear as a legitimate user.
Thereby reducing the number of IP blocks. Also, if the IP gets blocked, all you do is choose a different one from the proxy pool, and off you go.
Why Are Residential Proxies the Better Option?
You may be wondering why we’re advocating for the use of residential proxies for web scraping when datacenter ones are more affordable. There’s a very simple reason for this.
Datacenter proxies, while great for online anonymity, aren’t the best option for web scraping as they’re more easily detectable.
Datacenter proxies automatically generate their IPs, and they’re not linked to real devices or assigned by ISPs, like residential proxies. As such, they’re much easier for websites to detect and block.
Is Web Scraping with a Residential Proxy Legal?
As with any data collection method, there are concerns regarding how ethical the practice is. In the case of web scraping, it’s not illegal to collect data that’s publicly available. Nor is it illegal to use residential proxies to empower these data collection methods.
However, there are ways that businesses can ensure they use these tools ethically and don’t harm any businesses through the process.
This includes not infringing on copyright laws, giving credit where it’s due, not collecting personal information or data behind protections such as login screens, and also not overwhelming the website with requests.
By keeping the ethics of web scraping in mind, there’s no reason why your business shouldn’t benefit from extra data collected through a web scraper.
However, if you’re still uncertain, you can reach out to your legal team to help you devise a process that ensures you’re operating within the confines of the law.
Final Thoughts
Data scraping is an external data collection technique that’s growing exponentially in popularity. Using a data scraper makes collecting information from other websites easier, faster, and more reliable.
However, if you truly want to experience the power of data scraping, you need to empower the tool by using residential proxies alongside it. This will ensure you can scale your collection efforts, bypass any geo-restrictions, and avoid any IP blocks.
