Data extraction from a website using the HTTP protocol or web browser is known as web scraping. You may use a web crawler or a bot to automate the process, or you can do it manually.
Web scraping requires proper proxy management. Data scraping needs proxies. Your pool’s IPs will be banned if you don’t control them and your scraper. As a result, your supplier’s proxy pool is soon depleted. You need to follow a few steps to save your IP from getting blocked.
This guide can help you streamline website data scraping and scrape fewer IP addresses. Even though the steps are essential, they will have a considerable impact.
What Is Web Data Scraping?
In web scraping, data and information are obtained from a website using automated means.
Website data scraping extracts structured web data automatically. The process is used for pricing, news, leads, and market research.
Free internet data may help consumers and companies make better decisions. Even if you have just copied and pasted once, you have web scraped. Instead of mind-numbing human labor, innovative technology extracts data from the internet.
How Proxies Work for Web Scraping?
The service provider often blocks IP addresses used to visit a website. Setting up a proxy server is an excellent option if you want to keep your personal IP address private.
Using a proxy pool to scrape a website is more trustworthy and reduces the risk of blacklisting. A web data extraction tool with a proxy pool will help you avoid issues with web data blocking.
How to Scrape Data Without your IP Getting Blocked?
- Make Use of Proxy Rotation
You must change your IP address often while using a proxy pool. If you make too many requests from that IP address, the website you are trying to access will ban your account. Rotating proxies from Rayobyte is an excellent way to keep an IP address safe from detection. With a proxy rotation service, your IP address will be periodically rotated.
- Proxy Servers Should Be Used to Hide Your IP Address
Proxy servers are essential for web scraping; otherwise, it would be impossible. The data center and dedicated residential proxies have diverse uses based on the job.
Use a proxy between your device and the target website to evade IP blocks and maintain anonymity. A US proxy server will be necessary if your home is in Germany and you want to access material from the United States.
Choose static residential proxies with a vast number of IPs from various parts of the world if you want the most satisfactory results.
- Use the User Agents Library
Using residential proxies for sneakers will help web scraping, and your IP won’t get blocked. Your device and personal information are both included in the HTTP request header. Requests from several IP addresses with the same user agent may indicate a problem.
Furthermore, scrapers often transmit an empty header, making matters worse. Real humans have data in their user agents, so the destination server can detect whether it’s a bot. So, you must configure your proxies and scraper to make new requests with alternative headers.
It’s a common technique, and user agent libraries can be found online. To employ a variety of headers, feed it to your scraper tool.
- Avoid Using Images for Scraping
Image files, which are typically copyrighted, are vast and data-heavy. So, there’s a greater danger of compromising others’ privacy and a more significant requirement for storage. Photos are typically concealed in JavaScript, which slows the scraper.
To get pictures from JS components, you will need a scraping tool. However, you should avoid using images to have a smooth scrapping service.
- Follow robots.txt and the Terms of Service
Robots.txt and terms of service are a part of any website. These rules often outline what site visitors may use. Besides that, the robots.txt file governs crawlers and the sites they may visit. The limitation will be bypassed, and you can access restricted pages.
However, your IP address will most likely be blacklisted as a result. Furthermore, it is unethical to defy the website’s guidelines. Check the website’s terms of service for rules. The material’s owner may sue you for infringement if you violate these rules.
- Use a Captcha Solver
When it comes to deciphering CAPTCHAs, web crawlers face significant challenges. To be sure that users are human, certain websites ask them to solve various puzzles. Computers are having a more challenging time deciphering the visuals used in CAPTCHAs now.
Are CAPTCHAs a problem for scrapers? Dedicated CAPTCHA solution services are your best bet for getting past them.
- Keep Your Eyes Out for Honeypot Traps
Links in the HTML code are known as honeypots. Web scrapers may find connections that organic visitors miss. Honeypots identify and limit web crawlers since only robots would visit.
As honeypots take a lot of time and effort to set up, they aren’t generally employed. If your request is denied and a crawler is found, look for honeypot traps on your target’s network.
- Make Sure Your Fingerprint Is in the Proper Place
Advanced bot detection systems use TCP or IP fingerprinting on certain websites. When TCP scrapes the web, it leaves behind some parameters. These values are determined by the end user’s device or operating system.
You can avoid being banned when scraping if you keep your settings constant. With dedicated residential proxies, you may employ an AI-powered dynamic fingerprinting feature.
- During Off-peak Hours, Crawl the Web
It is more common for spiders to do rapid-fire scans of the page’s content than it is to read the text directly. Web crawling will affect server traffic more than the average Internet user.
Crawling with heavy demand may create service delays, harming the user experience. Off-peak hours are better for indexing a website since they are less busy.
- A Specific Number of User Requests
If your scraper sends out requests at an excessive pace, the server will detect this and prohibit it. And a scraper that sends many queries seems like a criminal intent on bringing down the site.
It is natural to increase the number of queries if you want to speed up data collection. Ensure your scraper doesn’t send ten queries in a second by implementing a rate restriction. A two-second delay between questions may save you a lot of proxy resources.
- Different Patterns Should Be Used
When browsing the internet, most people just click around at random. Also, web scraping follows the same crawl pattern since programmed bots perform it. A crawler may immediately detect anti-scraping tools that instantly identify scraping activities.
Random clicks, mouse gestures, or waiting intervals may make web scraping more lifelike.
- Achieve a Balanced Rotation
It is a simple yet frequently overlooked piece of advice. If you are making queries to the same server, each request should have a different IP address. If you’re not careful, the site will flag you as suspicious and block you.
- Access the Google Cache by scraping it
Google’s cached copy of any webpage may also be scraped for data. This strategy may benefit non-time-sensitive content from hard-to-reach sources.
Image source: Pexels
Scraping Google’s cache is more reliable than scraping a site that blocks scrapers, but it’s not infallible.
- Avoid Overloading
Most online scraping services are focused on collecting data rapidly. Humans take longer to view a webpage than web scrapers.
By monitoring your access speed as a scraper, a site may easily catch you. Scanning through web pages too quickly will result in an automatic ban. Do not overburden the website. You may limit concurrent page access to one or two by postponing future requests.
Conclusion
Scraping public data does not put you at risk of getting blacklisted. Honeypot traps and browser settings should not be ignored when you are going for data scraping from a website.
The most crucial thing is scraping web pages with caution and using only reliable residential proxies. Scraping data will become a breeze after that. With the most recent information at your fingertips, you can use it to promote your business.