Why Residential Proxies Are The Right Choice When It Comes to Scraping?

Learn why residential proxies are the right choice for scraping, their benefits for online privacy when extracting internet information

By Claudio Pires
Updated on November 10, 2023
Why Residential Proxies Are The Right Choice When It Comes to Scraping?

Web scraping is the technique of extracting information from the internet. Scraping is typically present via bots (software that automatizes complex tasks on the web). These bots collect data from public online resources. The information gathered is then analyzed and applied to multiple purposes. In this article, you’ll learn why residential proxies are the right choice for scraping and their benefits for online privacy and how to choose the best residential proxy.

Why Do You Scrape Data, And How Can Residential Proxies Help?

While different organizations have unique requirements and goals, the power of information remains the same.

Having the correct information at the right time gives your business a significant advantage over competitors. Some of the purposes of web scraping include:

  • Market research and analysis
  • SERP (Search Engine Result Page) analytics for search engine optimization
  • Pricing competitors and monitoring prices specifically for e-commerce.
  • Brand monitoring and verification of ads
  • Leading to lead generation
  • Automated marketing
  • Machine learning advancement.

The capacity to scrape the web efficiently and without limitations allows you to follow the competition, develop strategies, make informed decisions, and pivot based on comprehensive market and competitive research.

As such, online competition has increased, leading to social media platforms and websites being extremely concerned about who’s using their services, what data is made public, who’s harvesting their data, and how they can prevent it. This is where residential proxies are employed.

What are Residential Proxies?

A proxy server is a conduit between a client’s device and the internet. They handle all device requests and alter the client’s IP address and other potentially sensitive information before sending them to the intended servers.

Residential proxies employ IP addresses issued by ISPs and associated with a specific device, such as a computer or smartphone. When utilizing a residential representative, online platforms and websites “see” you as the authentic device of a residential nature. This simple attribute provides a secure, stable connection that is impossible to distinguish from other organic visitors and impossible to detect.

Why do you Want to use Residential Proxies for Data Scraping?

Here are some of the primary benefits that make proxies for residences a perfect choice for efficient and safe web harvesting.

Anonymity residential proxies scraping benefits for online privacy

Proxies for residential use conceal your true identity while you harvest information. Anonymity is essential to effective web scraping. Online platforms and websites want to keep their public data as safe as possible.

Therefore, they often block access from competitors’ IP addresses and other suspicious traffic. Proxies that reroute traffic to residences give you anonymity, which allows you to collect and harvest web data without hindrance.

Reliability

Websites sometimes provide inaccurate information to requests for data that prevent them from being scraped.

Data that is deceptive results in erroneous analysis, which negatively affects business. Using authentic residential IP addresses, bots that scrape can collect accurate information, particularly for real-time applications like retail price comparison for e-commerce.

Geo-Targeting

Typically, search engines, websites, and social media platforms present users with filtered information based on their online activity and geographic location. Attempting to access and scrape geographically-specific data, such as comparing prices and offers, may take time and effort.

Proxies for residential use allow you to select an IP from a geographically targeted continent, country, or even city. This ensures that the data received is entirely authentic.

Automated tools and compatibility

Proxy service providers that provide residential services typically have a variety of automation tools built-in, some of which are proprietary.

For example, they support tools that automate SEO to increase the level of your scraping. Additionally, the proxies are permanent, and their configurations cannot be different, which makes them suitable for most platforms.

Scrapping on a larger scale: Residential proxies scraping benefits for online privacy

To effectively and accurately scrape, you must send many requests. The greater the number of requests, the more current the information will be. Multiple requests from data center IP addresses will be quickly out.

However, because residential proxies that rotate addresses each request through a different IP address, there’s no way to associate them and thus risk being blocked. The greater the speed of data scraping using residential proxies revenue can increase by as much as 300%.

Avoid bans on jackets and sweaters

Total bans are bans that some websites impose on a specific group of IP addresses. For example, AWS IP addresses are out by most websites due to the number of cases of overburdening sites with requests.

On the other hand, authentic, ethical proxies for residential use elude censorship because they originate from devices with actual ISP-issued internet connections.

Ilimitada cantidad de sesiones concurrentes

Proxies for residential use facilitate scraping data from multiple websites at once. Concurrently requesting numerous things speeds up the process of grinding significant amounts of information faster.

The larger the sample of data you analyze, the more accurate the results you’ll receive, making them more valuable as a tool for information gathering and decision-making.

Ad placement testing residential proxies scraping benefits for online privacy

Companies that advertise in space could utilize a residential proxy to verify their ads on their website (in conjunction with a custom computer program script that tests the ads).

As documented by the residential proxy service provider ProxyEmpire, you could utilize a proxy server when verifying and confirming advertisements displayed on your pages.

Cybersecurity Penetration Testing

Cybersecurity firms may employ residential proxies and other IP masking techniques during a cyber security breach to imitate the methods used by actual cyber criminals.

Automation Cases

Also, residential proxies are a great option for cases that require you to log into a website to harvest data or automate processes, such as Instagram automation, sneaker or ticket purchasing, etc. This is because logging into an account is much easier for anti-bot systems to recognize if you are a bot or a real user.

Another reason is that if you need to execute many requests, such as scraping websites or extracting data from search engines, this activity might be considered illegal. Similarly, proxies can facilitate your research into the market, search engine optimization, competitor activities, and ad verification.

Claudio Pires

Claudio Pires is the co-founder of Visualmodo, a renowned company in web development and design. With over 15 years of experience, Claudio has honed his skills in content creation, web development support, and senior web designer. A trilingual expert fluent in English, Portuguese, and Spanish, he brings a global perspective to his work. Beyond his professional endeavors, Claudio is an active YouTuber, sharing his insights and expertise with a broader audience. Based in Brazil, Claudio continues to push the boundaries of web design and digital content, making him a pivotal figure in the industry.

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