The internet is a treasure of data waiting to be explored. This data can help you create excellent data-driven marketing strategies due to the recent advancement in data analytics software. Several data-driven companies are harnessing this technology to advance their business and provide unique solutions to complicated problems.
There is so much data on the internet that you cannot possibly scrawl through it manually. However, various web scrapers and crawlers in the market can scrape through hundreds of websites to provide you with the relevant data that you need. Every company uses this software to create data-driven and targeted campaigns. However, there are few risks involving the use of web scrapers. To avoid these risks, you can use residential proxies, which we will discuss later in this article.
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What Is Web Scraping?
Web scraping is a method that companies use to extract relevant data from the internet. As this data is present in vast amounts on the internet, you can not browse it manually. A web scraper can automatically browse hundreds of webpages to collect the relevant information and store them in your computer in the form of spreadsheets.
People use web scraping to collect publicly available data to develop business strategies. eCommerce companies can immensely benefit from this technique as it can scrape their competitions to check which strategy and keywords are working for them. These scrapers can also scrape various surveys and reviews to improve their own customer experience.
However, when using a web scraper, you send many traffic and requests to a website. A website has special anti-scraping protection tools that can detect these sudden requests. If these tools identify you as a scraper or a bot, it can ban your IP address or feed you incorrect data. To avoid this, people use residential proxies that can bypass anti-scraping tools.
Benefits of Using Proxies
A proxy is a security layer that you can add to your IP address to protect your privacy. When you use a proxy server, it can mask your real IP address with another proxy IP address to make you anonymous. There are several benefits of using a proxy, such as:
- With the help of a proxy, you can mine websites more efficiently with reduced chances of getting banned.
- You can use a proxy to change your geographical location by connecting to a different server. This way, you can access geo-restricted content and stream online websites.
- With the help of a proxy pool, you can submit a larger number of requests on a website without being blocked.
What are Residential Proxies?
Residential proxies are IPs of residences that help you to reroute your data from a residential server. These proxies are more expensive than datacenter proxies as they are more secure and reliable. You can use residential proxies to connect to a server-based in different locations and mimic real users. Also, these proxies increase the possibility of scraping data from diverse locations that can access geo-restricted content.
How can Residential Proxies Help?
It prevents you from getting blocked
A residential proxy can help you bypass a website’s anti-scraping measures by connecting to a residential server. These servers mimic real users, which decreases the possibility of websites detecting a bot activity. It enables you to submit a large number of requests without worrying about being blocked.
Provides Access to a Wide Range of Locations to Extract Data
As residential IPs are real servers worldwide, you get access to different global IPs in your pool. These IPs can help you bypass geo-restrictions and access every data that a website has to offer.
Protects your Anonymity
IPs are a great way to mask your real IP address and browse the internet anonymously. When you browse the internet, your ISP, and the website you are visiting can store your data such as IP address, location, cookies, etc., for future use. You can secure this data by installing a proxy on your device, which will hide your IP address. When using a proxy, all your transmitted information is encrypted by the server to provide an extra security layer.
IP Rotation
IP rotation is one of the most remarkable features of a proxy server as it decreases the chances of a website detecting your scraper to zero. The proxy server will automatically rotate your IPs periodically so that the requests are distributed to multiple IPs. This reduces the chance of an anti-scraper tool detecting any bot activity from your end.
Several proxy providers provide all of these features in the market. However, check the customer reviews of the provider before finalizing. It is always advisable to choose a server with both residential and datacenter IPs for a better approach.
Conclusion
Web scraping is an excellent tool for online businesses to create more targeted marketing strategies. You can easily collect relevant data to understand your consumer behavior and make educated choices. Be sure to use residential proxies to avoid getting banned from any website.
