Web scraping is the process of capturing data.

Let’s understand this better with an example:

Now you have an online business and want to set the right pricing for your prospects. You understand that it needs to be a figure where your prospects will be able to understand why such an amount has been put and get ready to invest in it as it adds great value for that amount.

So how can you do this?

The best way is to see your competitors.

So what you do here is you will scrape your competitor's pages or websites. Web scraping will scrape all that pricing information you need and then convert it into a type of data as per your choice such as a CSV file and more so that you can read it accordingly. 

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The great thing about web scraping is that it is quick and getting data becomes easier.

There is no need to waste any time since the data is filtered in your format and given to you.

Let’s understand better how web scraping can benefit your brand as a whole.

1. KEEPS YOU AHEAD OF YOUR COMPETITORS

When you have data, especially your competitors, wouldn’t you win them over? 

You would have all the facts and patterns you require to set your business straight such as the right pricing and more. This will help you cater to your prospects even better and hence you will always stay in the competitive game better. 

2. PROVIDES VALUABLE DATA

The data that will be scraped is the essential data you require to enhance your brand or your product. Hence when you scrape the data, it is the data that will help you grow better. There is multiple information available online and not all the data present is what you require so web scraping is making the process easier by helping you get the data you need. 

3. LET’S YOU CAPTURE THE RIGHT LEADS

When you have the right data in hand, capturing leads becomes easier. 

Let’s understand this with an example:

Say that your prospects are looking for a brand that is selling their solution in an affordable manner and has great value. With this data, you can enhance your pricing packages and offer more value. When you exhibit this, your prospects are bound to buy from you because this is exactly what they are looking for. 

Interesting Read : Web Scraping for Automotive Industry: How’s It Changing this Market?

4. ENHANCES YOUR BRAND'S GOALS

You have a brand and you are working to achieve the goals for this brand. 

 With web scraping, this process becomes easier to conduct. Your brand goals would be to increase the lead count. Web scraping will give you the data which will help you understand your prospects better and make you conduct actions according to their favour thus bringing you closer to achieving your goals. 

5. BUILDS A BETTER BOND WITH PROSPECTS

When you're able to get data that lets you understand everything about your prospects such as their likes, dislikes, preferences, and more, don’t you believe that this can play an impact in building better bonds with them?

Your prospects will be drawn towards you as your assistance towards them and what you’re offering them is exactly what they expect from you hence the bond you share with them becomes better and this is exactly what web scraping aims to help you in. 

There are multiple ways for you to conduct web scraping and be on top of your competitive game, we have covered the top 5 web scraping use cases for your better understanding:

1. STOCK MARKET RESEARCH

To invest in stocks, the traditional method of researching and collecting reports is just a time wastage. 

Wouldn’t it be great if you could just have the stock data in hand, the market trends revolving it, and the financial data that can help you understand better about the stock market?

This is exactly what web scraping aims to help you do best. 

2. BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

To grow your business better, the best factor you need to conduct is to make the right business decisions. 

With better business decisions, you're guiding your brand towards a path of success and growth at a faster pace. Hence when you have an ultimate solution as web scraping with you, this process becomes much easier.

3. DYNAMIC PRICING

As stated earlier, pricing matters, and when you set your prices it needs to explain the prospect of the value they receive on investment. Hence it needs to be conducted the right way.

Web scraping ensures that this takes place well as it helps you extract data from sources or from your competitors so that you will have an idea of how to sell a better deal to your prospects. 

4. EFFICIENT LEAD GENERATION

For a successful lead generation process, there are multiple factors that need to be considered such as catering to the exact needs of the prospects, ensuring that they are being assisted during the buying process well, and more. 

Don’t you think that if you had additional data to help you understand better about your prospects, the buying process would be much shorter since you now know how to take care of that lead?

This is exactly what web scraping helps you in. 

5. COMPETITOR ANALYSIS

If you want to excel better than your competitors, the perfect way is to scrape the information they have so that you can align and enhance or improve your selling strategies better. With web scraping, this has become possible. 

While you understand now that web scraping has a huge impact on your brand as a whole, conducting it continuously adds on the risk of being blocked or being considered as suspicious activity.

It is important that you secure your web scraping actions and we have the right solution for that.

Proxy servers are the ultimate solution required to safeguard your online actions which include web scraping as well. 

Proxy servers act as a middle person. When you want to view data or scrape data from a source that restricts you, you then use a proxy server to get that done. 

What the proxy server will do is it will change your IP address and help you get the approval to view that source.

Let’s understand this with an example:

Now you want to view data from a source and you're restricted from seeing. The only person who can view that information is those from Russia. So what happens is when you try to view that information, you will get blocked because your IP address is not matching their viewer list. 

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Your IP address gives away your location so if you're not from Russia, you will get blocked or eliminated from seeing it. What a proxy server would do here is as seen in the image above, it will change your IP address and make it reflect that you're from Russia and hence when you try to access the information, you will be approved of doing so.

Now when you want to scrape information, you need to realize that scraping can slow down a website or source and that is the way you get caught. So when you use a proxy server to conduct that same action, even if you get blocked, your original IP won't get affected. 

Proxy servers offer proxies for others to see and hide your real one so that you remain anonymous always. Always ensure that you invest in a good proxy server to yield the benefits it offers.