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Collecting public data for market research manually can be a chore. Not only that but collecting this information manually is an inefficient use of time and leaves space for plenty of user errors to sneak into your data. Your data can even become biased based on the person in charge of collecting the data. There has to be a better way to collect public data.
In this article, we’ll take a closer look at web scraping and how it’s helping businesses collect public data more efficiently than ever before. We’ll also be looking at a few specialized scapers, like an Amazon scraper, and what benefits these tools can have for your business.
What Is Web Scraping? A Quick Guide
If you’ve been looking into the data collection process, you’ve probably come across the term ‘web scraping.’ This is an automated process used to collect information across multiple websites. The data is then parsed and compiled into a single format, such as a spreadsheet. From here, the data can be analyzed and evaluated for valuable information.
Web scraping tools rely on bots similar to crawler bots used by search engines. You can set your requirements, and the scraper program will automatically collect the requested information from the specified websites.
Businesses with IT teams or individuals who know a programming language can build their web scraping tools. There are many helpful resources, guides, and even open-source code to help you get started. Building your scraping tool is cheaper, and you can personalize it precisely to your needs. However, it will need to be updated and maintained by your team without any additional support.
Alternatively, there are pre-built tools that require no coding and can be used to access and collect data even on more complex websites. The Amazon scraper is an example of such a tool. This program combines a scraper alongside a powerful proxy. It has been explicitly developed to access and collect data from the Amazon store. It can collect pricing details and product descriptions and monitor competitors.
How Is Web Scraping Used To Collect Public Data?
Public data is considered anything posted to the public that hasn’t been copyrighted or protected in any other way. Information on your website pages that’s visible to anyone is considered public data. If visitors don’t have to log in to access content on your site, that’s considered public data. If you set your social media profiles to public, anything you post or share becomes public data.
Web scrapers can easily be used to collect this information so that it can be analyzed. All you do is specify to the program what websites should be crawled and the type of information you require. The tool then collects everything for you based on those parameters.
A web scraper can be used to collect product prices, product descriptions and understand the SEO of your competitors. With this information, you can improve your content’s quality and ensure a dynamic pricing strategy. You can also use the collected information to monitor competitors, generate leads, analyze the market, and identify opportunities. All-in-all, web scraping enables business owners to collect a wide range of information to help them make better business decisions.
Is Web Scraping Legal?
Web scraping still falls in a gray area regarding the legality of its use. While there is no law against collecting public information, there are a few best practices to consider. These considerations are in place to ensure you don’t overwhelm or harm the websites you’re scraping.
Collecting public data is legal as long as you respect the rules of the website you’re collecting from. It’s also important to schedule your scraping for a time when traffic to the website will be less. You don’t want to send multiple requests while the website is already busy, which can use up the bandwidth, causing performance issues for the website and other users.
Specialized scrapers, like an Amazon scraper, have been specifically developed to collect information from these websites while causing the slightest disturbance. Since these pages are frequently updated and changed, you need a powerful scraper to adapt to the new structures. That’s why it’s essential to invest in a high-quality web scraping tool – they’ll be able to collect more accurate data safely and securely.
Should You Use Proxies Alongside Your Scraper?
You should always use a residential proxy alongside your web scraper. This tool is essential in bypassing any geo-restrictions while protecting your online anonymity. A residential proxy changes your IP address to that of an actual device within your chosen location. This means that once it’s connected to your web scraper, it will look like a real user browsing the internet.
Using the right proxy alongside your scraper leads to fewer bans and high-quality data collection. Some specialized scraping tools, like the Amazon scraper, already include a proxy that rotates the IP with every new request.
Final Thoughts
Web scraping is a useful technique for businesses to legally collect large amounts of public data. Using the right scraper, paired with a high-quality proxy and respecting the websites you’re harvesting from, will mean you have access to better quality public data. In turn, you’ll be able to analyze the data to make better business decisions.
