The Ultimate Guide to Web Scraping according to experts
“I think you can have a ridiculously enormous and complex data set, but if you have the right tools and methodology, then it’s not a problem.” – Aaron Koblin, entrepreneur in data and digital technologies.
When data is growing impactful and has become the sole reason why businesses can function better today and in recent years, conducting such an action with a tool is what makes it more powerful.
Web scraping garnered multiple attention because it is one of the most efficient and convenient ways to retrieve data without any fears attached. The emergence of such a solution was drawn from the drawback of the online world. Yes, the online world provides a vast pool of information for a business like you to depend upon, but when you look closely, not all the data present is relevant.
For retrieving quality data, many online sources have created a barrier upon its access which leaves brands like you to find your way in the tough competition. This is a major problem right here because the need for data has increased its value and without it, a business can find themselves slowing down and continuing to make inaccurate predictions.
“The goal is to turn data into information and information into insight.” – Carly Fiorina, former chief executive officer, Hewlett Packard.
Web scraping was introduced because it is the modern solution which modern businesses of today require. A fast and efficient solution is exactly what the 2020 market demands to cater to the fluctuating prospects' needs.
Understanding this, we interviewed a few like minded experts who shared their knowledge on the subject stating insightful information which could help you frame your thoughts on this article much more clearer.
1 . One of our experts who goes by the name William Chin-Fook stated,
a. How proxies can make a huge impact on B2B, Can you share some use cases ?
Quick disclaimer - This is deemed a black hat strategy by many marketers and should only be done with multiple proxies.
Some of the use cases that I've used for proxies are; Like, Follow and Review creation. What I mean by that is you're able to drive up views, comments, reviews and likes very easily with proxies. With a strong email list (and logins), you can easily use a proxy to attribute "positive" brand recognition to your clients, thereby driving up engagement and conversions. One example of this is Google my Business.
I was able to purchase a large-set of gmail accounts (300 roughly) and with a well written script, attribute 250 different reviews (some with pictures even) to this certain business. In doing so, you end up ranking MUCH higher in the local map pack - thereby increasing your client's conversions. At the basis of this strategy are proxies. Without different IP addresses, Google might have flagged all of those reviews and blacklisted the listing.
b. What percentage of revenue growth using proxies is possible?
When doing this for Google my Business, I've seen upwards of 70% increase in leads / conversions which can have a substantial impact on revenue. For the one client in my previous answer, he saw an overall 24% increase in bottom-line revenue.
c. What are the ways you’ve used to increase ROI with proxies?
The thing with proxies are, they can help the overall workload automation of certain tasks. It's great for assisting in scraping, server load testing and using for social media. When scraping, I'll use one or two different proxies to crawl different websites which saves me hours, which in the end can be hundreds of dollars a week.
2 . Adam Colbert, President of Rocket 31 stated,
I use proxies every single day for one reason or another. One of the main ways proxies help increase ROI is by being able to run multi-threaded applications without risk to your own IP.
I've done a lot of contact form marketing as well as cold email. I of course use proxies for contact form marketing but I also use them during email validation and list hygiene processes.
Proxies have also helped me to manage multiple social media profiles. I can attach a proxy to a profile and then feel confident knowing that the profile will not get banned. As far as assigning a percentage of revenue growth to proxies, it's really hard to say. Proxies are like water in the internet marketing world - you need them to survive.
- Maksym Babych, CEO at SpdLoad as well as an active media contributor stated,
No company wants employees accessing insecure or inappropriate websites on company networks. That’s why many internal networks are run on a proxy server.When the network is accessed through a proxy, network administrators control which devices have access to the network and which sites those devices can visit.
You can block undesirable content, as well as any sites you don’t want employees using on company time.Network administrators can even record what content is being accessed and when for internal purposes. Many security officers use this to monitor for potential illegal activity or security breaches.
WHAT IS WEB SCRAPING?
Web scraping is the process of extracting information from a source or website which contains valuable information and scraping all of that and saving it in your system in the format you would like to view it in such as CSV file and much more.
Previously, if a company needs to extract information from a website, they would opt for the method of copy-pasting. But the drawback here was when it comes to large data the copy-pasting would consume a lot of time to conduct the action and when you copy-paste big data the website slows down alerting the owner of suspicious activity.
But with web scraping, this isn’t the case. In just a few minutes you can easily extract information without slowing down the website which is why it has grown to be popular. To conduct web scraping activities is convenient, all you need to is:
1 . Select the website/source you want to scrape
- Choose the data which you needs scraping
- Run the web scraping code
- Save it all in your system
So why is web scraping important and why it matters in the near future?
IMPORTANCE OF WEB SCRAPING IN 2020
1. SCRAPES RELEVANT DATA FROM THE CROWD
There are tens and thousands of data available online but not all that data is relevant to help your business grow. As a brand you know what is required for your brand’s enrichment and hence with web scraping, extracting only that portion of essential data that can help brands succeed faster in their lead capture activities.
For instance, if you want to scrape data from your competitor's websites, web scraping makes that happen without the competitor's website slowing down or having any risk of any brand conducting this action to be detected.
2. QUICKER IMPROVISATION OF BRAND’S SOLUTIONS
A brand can enhance its solution when it has the right data which exhibits the requirements needed to improvise the solution. Web scraping provides accurate data because all the data being driven is from sources that have been following it or from platforms where prospects have mentioned their opinion on their expectations about a particular product. All of this contributes a valuable data collection to brands which can help them to improvise their solution better.
Since brands have an analysis of what their prospects are expecting, it becomes easier to adapt to the modifications and also plan out the next possible changes before the new trend hits.
3. RETAINS BRAND SUCCESS
A brand success can only be retained when a band continues to serve the needs of all its prospects even with each changing trend. But how can that happen when the trends have no time of their arrival? With the data collected, brand’s can have an idea, it might not be the exact prediction but a simple analysis of how their solution will be looked upon a few years from now. Not only that aspect, but brands can also have an analysis of how their prospects will look at a product.
For instance maybe the current product offered by a brand is great,it has all the features and the prices are great, with web scraping you can get data which will help you analyze what more are prospects looking from the product for instance maybe they want few features to be automated or they want a specific feature and so on. Web scraping ensures that you get the data that can help you still cater to the prospect's needs no matter the changes and still retain the success crown for longer.
4. OUTSELL COMPETITORS
The harsh truth is if you want to be successful, outselling your competitors can win you over some brownie points. With web scraping, you can easily scrape any information which will most likely help your brand to hover in front of your competitors. It could be their pricing strategies, their prospect reviews and any other information which will most likely help in catering to your very own prospect needs.
The market is growing and changing all the time when it comes to conducting activities which can pull your brand closer to assisting their needs better, web scraping is an ideal tool for that action to take place.
5. INDULGES IN LEAD GENERATION ACTIVITIES
To capture the ideal lead for a brand, it takes up a lot of research time to find the right audience which fits a brand’s target audience. Wouldn’t it be easier if you could just have a list that consists of the leads which can be interested in what your brand has to offer? Web scraping lets this happen.
There are moments where you find leads in the most unimagined places, for instance, your blog post comments, or if someone has shared your post and even leads can be found within your peers activities as well such as their engagement sections of the individuals they interact with openly online, all these prospects stand as a potential sales leads for your brand.
With the help of web scraping, you can easily scrape such information, get their contact details as well as email addresses without breaking a sweat and conduct efficient cold calling and emailing on the spot. This not only saves a lot of time for the sales agents to find them through the crowd but also speeds up the process much quicker than imagined.
Recently, there are brands who conduct web scraping in an automated format so that they can keep in touch with regular updates. To conduct web scraping doesn’t require much technical knowledge, however, if you implement or familiarise web scraping languages, you will be able to conduct this action without any supervision.
5 BEST LANGUAGES FOR WEB SCRAPING
1. PYTHON
Python is one of the most common coding languages. With reference to web scraping languages, this is popularly used for such a process. For any web scraping activities, Python is considered to be the finest in ensuring that this process is conducted without any errors.
Factors:
1 . Beneficial tool for web scraping because it includes two impactful frameworks which matters while conducting this process, Scrapy, and Beautiful Soup.
- The use of ‘Beautiful Soup’ application in python is intended for quick and efficient data extraction practices.
- It contains advanced web scraping libraries which makes Python a better hit when compared to the remaining web scraping languages.
- It contains a variety of the finest data visualization libraries for users like you to function better with.
2. NODE.JS
Node.js is most suited for data crawling activities that practice dynamic coding activities. It also supports distributed crawling practices. Node.js uses Javascript to conduct non-blocking applications which can help enhance multiple simultaneous events that would be taking place.
Factors:
- Beneficial for streaming activities
- Can conduct API’s as well as socket-based activities
- Has a built-in library
- Can conduct basic web scraping data extraction activities
- Has a basic stable communication
3. RUBY
Ruby is considered to be one of the open-source programming languages. It has a user-friendly syntax which is easy to understand and can be practiced and applied without any hassles. The greatest feature of Ruby is that it consists of multiple languages such as Perl, Smalltalk, Eiffel, Ada, Lip along with another new language. Ruby is well aware of how it needs to balance functional programming with the assistance of imperative programming.
Factors:
- It is a simple web scraping languages
- It is more on the productive process
- No signs of code repetition take place
- You require less writing for such a language
- This language is supported by a community of users
- Supports multithreading
4. C & C++
C and C++ are a great execution solution but it can be costly when it comes to conducting web scraping. Prowebscraper recommends, ‘’it is not advisable to use these languages to set up a crawler unless it’s a specialized organization that you have in mind, focusing only on extracting data.’’
Factors:
- Simple to understand
- Can write own HTML parsing library according to your requirements
- Can conduct such a web scraping language better with dynamic coding
- It can help to parallelize any scraper you use without any effort
5. PHP
PHP may not be able to be the ideal choice when it comes to the creation of a crawler program. In order to extract information such as graphics, images, videos, and other visual forms, using a CURL library is better.
The best thing about the curl library is that it can help to transfer files with the help of protocol lists which has HTTP and FTP in it. Having this can help you in the creation of web spiders which could be utilized to download any kind of information from the online platform.
Factors:
1 . Uses 39 MB of RAMusage
- Uses 3% of CPU usage
- It runs 723 pages per 10 minutes
Since you are now well aware of what web scraping is and what are the requirements needed to function it did you know that web scraping can benefit your brand by helping you to generate leads much quicker and better?
The data in which web scraping extracts are all accurate and from relevant sources means that if you apply that data it becomes easier to improvise the solution you are selling. Generating leads in a market where they prospects are well informed can be tough hence with a solution such as a web scraping, you can benefit some major advantages that could help your lead driven activities to function better.
HOW WEB SCRAPING CAN HELP TO GENERATE B2B LEADS?
1. HELPS YOU FIND THE RIGHT AUDIENCE
The key ingredient to tapping leads is to find out first which is your target audience. When you don’t engage with the right target audience, your chances of converting leads becomes relatively less. Hence with web scraping, you can easily find out which audience will be best suited for your brand. You can scrape websites of your competitors and monitor which leads are great for your brand and start engaging with them sooner.
2. COLLECT CONTACT INFORMATION
With web scraping, you can easily collect lead information without any hassle. So many times, your competitors or other sources have a sign-up option for their leads to engage with them. If you scrape such data you can easily retrieve email addresses and phone numbers which will help you to tap leads and convert them into a potential sales lead. For B2B leads the number one way to go ahead and win leads is through referrals and when you can collect such information it becomes quicker for you to assist them too.
3. MONITOR DATA
The market keeps changing and so does your client's preferences. Before your competitors can even plan their next move it is crucial that you hit the target audience first With web scraping you can subscribe to daily data capture from sources so that you are always aware of what your current clients are looking out for. For B2B lead generation, web scraping helps you to monitor the raw data you have in hand so that you can apply the solutions when you plan your next lead generation action.
4. ASSISTANCE IN LEAD GENERATION ACTIVITIES
For B2B lead generation to take place, many things are vital as mentioned in the above pointers, the right target audience, the contact details and the update on client preferences. With web scraping, this can all be assisted. Since all the vital information is being extracted it is put to good use with your lead generation activities. This data that you receive is important because it helps you in nurturing your clients at the right time whilst tackling the huge competition in the market.
5. CAPTURE DATA FROM SOCIAL MEDIA
Today every client of yours is on social media. But the sad reality is that there are so many of them but you might not be able to find them all. So many different social media handles, multiple users, constant engagements can lead you to miss out on a few essential leads which could cost your brand a high value. With web scraping this is possible. You can extract any information about your clients from Instagram, Linkedin or Facebook and even get a hold of their community so that you can keep a closer eye on who you can engage better with. With almost everyone imprinting its presence, it’s great to capture B2B leads with such a platform that has potential leads right closer to you.
6. FIND POTENTIAL LEADS ON LEAD SOURCES
Another great way to generate leads is to find them in places which they often walk upon. For instance, if your clients are found more on a particular social media handle say for instance Instagram, you can use web scraping to conduct this process. Another great place to find your leads is through craigslist. You can find many listings and it’s a great source to scrape them to retrieve valuable information.
7. STAYING AHEAD OF YOUR COMPETITORS
This is one of the most crucial factors to conduct B2B lead generation. An excellent way to receive quality leads which will instantly turn into hot leads, which will give you the expected results you aim to achieve and which will help you soar your brand higher sooner is by web scraping your competitor's information. With web scraping you can easily monitor and track down all the information of your competitor's next move, from their pricing patterns to their lead reviews and feedback, you can get all this information in your system via web scraping and apply its solution by improvising your solution to sell them better.
8. FOR SUCCESSFUL CONTENT CREATION
Content is a great tool to engage with your clients. Not only does it trigger the attention of your clients, but it also makes a huge impact on lead generation activities too. For instance, many content tools for instance SEO are a great medium to generate leads. For example, with SEO you can find the keywords which your clients are using so that you can include in your content and pull their attention towards your brand solution.
Even other forms of content such as blogs or social media posts are a great way to engage with your leads more closely. With web scraping, you can easily gather keywords or the posts and topics which your clients want to see and apply the same when you engage with them via the content platform.
9. CAPTURING LEADS BETTER WITH EMOTIONAL CONNECT
When you can connect with clients during the conversation, you have scored your way to develop their trust upon you and begin listening to what solution you have to offer them. Similarly, when you can understand what runs in your clients' minds when it comes to their emotional connection with a brand, you can use this mechanism to grasp them more closely to you.
For instance, if your clients engage with a brand because they were able to relate to them, or they were able to connect emotionally, chances are your leads can be converted quicker. With web scraping, you can scrape the data you have to find out about what are the factors that trigger an emotional connection with your clients. You can then use it that information when selling your solution to them.
10. KEEPING YOU UPDATED ON LATEST MARKET STRUCTURES
It's 2019 and how the market was years ago will be solely different when you compare it to today. Your client's preferences change with the growing trends which is exactly why you need to step your next game action. With web scraping this is possible. It is important that you know what’s going on in the current market so that you can enhance your sales strategy and product improvement better. With web scraping, you can use this technique to extract regular market changes information and quickly modify the way you create, interact and communicate with your leads. When your clients are aware that you are selling them the latest solution which will is trending, they will automatically be drawn closer to you hence increasing B2B lead generation more efficiently.
What you read now is how web scraping can benefit your lead generation activities, what you will be reading next is how web scraping can mould your entire business with its use in every sector. Web scraping isn’t just a simple solution it holds more value than that. If it can impact your lead generation activity in such a way imagine how its presence can impact your business when used in different processes?
HOW THE USE OF WEB SCRAPING CAN HELP YOUR BUSINESS GROW IN 2020?
1. SCRAPE RELEVANT DATA
The online world as mentioned earlier consists of vast data. Any information you need today, the online platform is room to providing them all. But from a business point of view especially brands like yours, not all the information that is available online will serve your purpose concerning brand growth.
Hence this is the reason why web scraping exists. The use of web scraping here helps to extract only those information which is relevant. For instance, scraping information about competitor's pricing strategies, client reviews, feedbacks of clients about various topics such as new product launches and so much more. All these can conduct quality actions to serve such clients more easily and quickly.
2. CONDUCT IMPACTFUL IMPROVISATIONS QUICKER
Did you know that the quicker you assist leads, the easier it becomes to convert them into a sales lead? The competition is getting tougher, more and more competitors are joining in the race with you to capture qualified leads much quicker and if your brand is going to step down slower, don’t be surprised for witnessing lower lead conversion rates. The use of web scraping here is it helps to reach out to clients before the competitors can even realize.
With web scraping, extracting information such as client's views on similar products like yours, their expectations on a particular product, what solutions they expect a product should deliver will all impact in the improvisation of your current solution. When the data comes in quicker, the process to sell an exceptional solution becomes easier to cover through.
3. HELPS TO ACCESS COMPLETE DATA FROM VARIOUS SOURCES
Fewer brands today display their data to their audience. But despite providing such an advantage the data shown is normally not the data that a brand could benefit with. For instance, say a brand displayed its organization roots, history and achievements, how can a brand like yours benefit from it? Due to this gap, the use of web scraping can benefit here. With web scraping, you can easily extract all the other information that a brand hides from the public eye.
This would be the data that you can use to improvise and update your current solution to become the one ultimate source for leads to draw towards your brand. Since the solution created meets every lead's expectations, the conversion rate of such leads is higher.
4. ENRICHES LEAD GENERATION ACTIVITIES
Web scraping can be very beneficial for this pointer. Tapping leads and converting them into a qualified sales lead isn’t just a tiresome task, it is tougher than it used to be. Today’s leads are more knowledgeable which is why they need to be tapped at the right time. With web scraping finding those leads can take the huge burden away from conducting this activity far away.
Web scraping can help extract data of leads from various sources for instance, if few leads have commented on the competitor's website, leads that are showing interest in a blog relevant to what your brand to offers, a website with many followers and you believe that your solution is better than what it is offering, all of this information can be extracted with just one click.
The benefit here is that sales agents will be able to tap them quicker since these are all the warm leads that are looking for their needs to be satisfied in unique ways. For instance, a user on your competitor's website is simply following them because the solution being offered is similar to their needs. But since the market keeps changing needs to change, sales agents can take advantage by offering them a solution that will meet the next possible preference of that lead and win them over to their side.
5. CONDUCTING EFFICIENT AUTOMATION ACTIVITIES
Nurturing leads is crucial because when it is nurtured well, there is a high chance that it can be converted into a qualified lead. But with so many changes, strategies and other works to focus on, how can brands conduct repetitive tasks such as daily nurturing of leads? The easiest way to answer is through the process of automation. With web scraping, this automation can be conducted successfully.
With the use of web scraping, relevant data will be collected, the data will then be monitored and applied to different strategies conducted by a brand, once the data has applied a brand can conduct efficient automation for nurturing the leads where the outcome will match the expectations set by the brand. To ensure that the automation is conducted efficiently, conducting automation for web scraping can help speed up the process and retrieve quality data whenever needed. This data can then be applied to other works that can be conducted in an automated manner hence delivering effective workflows.
6. KEEPING A CLOSER CHECK ON BRANDING ACTIVITIES
A brand can remain successful when it retains its good name while catering to the client’s needs. But this can’t happen if a brand is never up to date with the changing trends or isn’t applying what it’s current clients needs are. With the use of web scraping, this issue can be easily resolved. Many web scraping applications offer a great advantage of conducting this activity, with regular web scraping activities that can be selected by a brand for instance if you want a daily, weekly or monthly web scraping process to take place, this activity can be conducted accordingly.
When this happens it becomes easier to stay updated about the trends as well as the client’s change in preferences, it becomes even easier to identify what is new with the industry you are in and immediately provide you all the insights required to modify you current solution and trigger the attention of warm leads to come closer to you.
7. CONDUCT EFFICIENT MARKET RESEARCH
The market will keep changing. Trends that are working at the moment will not be an attention seeker 5 years from now. With the growth of technology and the rise in competitors, it is important for any brand to always keep a closer check on what is happening in the market. While this may seem like a great way to prepare for the next change it can be difficult for a fewer brand to adapt to the change quicker. For a technique to be trending the only way many find out is when another brand has already started implementing it. When this happens it takes a lot of time for brands to learn about it and then adapt which again slows the process of lead generation.
With web scraping, this action can be conducted a bit faster. Web scraping can extract the data in the past and currently and use that data to not just provide the current focus but also help in creating a prediction which can help brands to make decisions accordingly. The process of data mining creates an analysis with the data which is provided by web scraping to predict a solution which will most likely take place in the next few years. This can prepare brands to take measures and be able to adapt and prepare for what the next possible change will offer. It will become easier to tap the leads and garner their attention and drive them towards you at such a right time.
8. CONDUCT PRODUCTIVE SEO ACTIVITIES
SEO stands for search engine optimization and as its meaning states, it works on optimizing all the SEO activities that take place. In SEO from implementing the right keywords to conducting efficient backlinks which will help rank brand’s SEO activity, conducting this process however isn’t that easy. Finding the keywords which clients will type to find their solutions isn’t easy, since there are millions of them, even with backlinks the purpose of them is to rank a website but if an article doesn't hold quality backlinks, the ranking factor reduces the brand's opportunity to appear in the eyes of clients.
Hence with the use of web scraping this problem can be resolved. With this process, brands can efficiently scrape through the keywords and backlinks used by competitors and also from other sources. With the keywords and backlinks saved in the system, brands can easily monitor and identify which are the efficient ones that can be placed in the content and improve their ranking.
9. COMPARISON OF ESSENTIAL FACTORS
The best way to outsell your competitors is by understanding what strategies they are implementing to retain their position above yours. Seems to unrealistic? But with web scraping, you can know how your competitors are positioning their solution. With web scraping, you can easily extract information about their product descriptions, pricing, SEO activities such as the keywords they use, lead information and many more.
This all helps brands like yours to improvise and work better in the framework of your current solution. When you can see what your competitors offer to the market, a brand like yours can easily shape the way you’ll your solution. For instance, if your competitors sell their software for $15 a package, you could sell your packages for $10 and add in an extra feature which will compel your audience to consider looking at what is being offered by you.
10. RETAINS THE BRAND’S IDENTITY
When a lead has to learn more about a brand, the first place that they could start their research would be the review category. But in today’s scenario for unrealistic reasons or to spread hatred or to crush a well-established brand, many reviews fall under the negative category. This may seem unfair but it is happening on a large scale wherein the end the brand itself faces the loss. To avoid this web scraping can help.
With the use of web scraping, it can help to crawl out all the reviews, so if there is a bad review web scraping can help detect it and eliminate it as soon as possible. When such actions take place, it becomes easier to clear up any mess before it becomes a big thing. Keeping a regular crawling activity of bad reviews ensures the brand that is not being preyed under any negative comments.
11. PERFORM BETTER THAN THE COMPETITORS
If you aim to sustain your brand higher amongst the crowd you must always have a close eye on what's happening with your competitors. From their website ranking to their social media activities, keeping an eye on what makes them always ahead of you can help you function better than them. Lucky for you, web scraping can be a great solution to help you out. As it extracts data from relevant sources of your competitors, you and your team can easily monitor how their strategies are aligned for instance, how much do they price their additional features, what offers are being given, what boosts their website ranking and much more. With such quality information in hand, it becomes impossibles to rank lower than them in any aspect.
12. CONDUCT BETTER CONTENT MARKETING ACTIVITIES
‘’In 2018, B2B marketers rate blog articles as the most effective content format in the awareness stage, whitepapers during consideration, and case studies during decision. ‘’
With content’s demand growing well with numbers, it is always right to continue to retain its position when the activity is conducted by a brand. But with the market changing and client’s preferences changing simultaneously how can a band detect what type of logs or what type of content their audience would like to read. Here is when the use of web scraping can benefit them. With web scraping, extract data that your clients generally speak about in the comments of blog posts or social media interactions or while giving feedback, they always give their inputs and by scraping that any band can easily detect what they have in mind when it comes to the content platform. To make things easier, scrape through the content category of your competitors, what topics they are using, what do they speak about all can help brands like yours to determine how the content selling can be formulated more efficiently.
13. CAPTURING THE MAIN PERSPECTIVE OF BUYERS DECISIONS
Many times a buyers would invest their time and money in a brand because they were able to connect to their ads emotionally. Emotional connect is another way to drive leads to trigger their attention to investing in a solution that regards them on a more personal level. Emotional connect is a great asset because ‘’it is creating an emotional connection to one company that separates it from the rest, creating brand loyalty over time.’’
This is crucial to conduct because it can garner a lot of attention from the leads and start to develop trust and good bondage simultaneously. But how do you know what creates that emotionally connect? Web scraping can help to identify that. Web scraping such information from the records or monitoring how a lead reacts to a particular ad can all be extracted. For instance, now on Facebook, many users imply an impression with the emojis mentioned there to give their opinion on a post or topic, Web scraping can extract that information and witness how many people approve or dismiss a particular action.
14. HELPING IN MACHINE LEARNING
Today for the bots that are taking over the business industry and are operating to help bands function quicker and better also require the help of all sorts of data which can help it to function better. From setting up its command, conducting numerous tests to ensure a bot can function likewise a human, the right amount of data is required that can make this happen. Hence it is easy to interpret that the use of web scraping can easily be incorporated to cater to all the data required for the efficient use of a bot that will enhance a brand better with many factors.
15. FINDING THE RIGHT AUDIENCE
A company can incur a heavy loss when they are not selling to the right target audience. This is a huge problem as it consumes a lot of time and money spent to cater to such leads and when the audience itself is wrong it can slow down the growth further of a brand. To eliminate such an issue, web scraping can help. As it extracts data, this process can pull out information from many sources be it the social media accounts, the follower of your competitors or even the prospects who comment on relevant posts, all these information can be extracted and saved in your system so that it you can easily identify which audience is the right fit for your brand and start engaging with them further.
‘’Web scraping is the best way to collect data for growing your business today.’’
This is exactly why you need to use it more often. Conducting web scraping activities regularly can be a bit of a hassle which is exactly why you need a cheat sheet which can help you conduct this crucial activity with more ease. With the below cheat sheet find yourself conducting this action with in a more simpler manner no matter what you use the web scraping solution for.
EFFECTIVE WEB SCRAPING TIPS AND TRICKS TO CONDUCT EASY WEB SCRAPING PRACTICES
1. WEB SCRAPING FOR DATA SCIENTISTS
Data scientists depend highly on data. With valuable data, they are able to identify the solutions which can help to solve the problems being addressed. For many businesses, having data scientists to help create predictable solutions that could enhance their brand for the future is very important. Hence data is what will help a business to identify how exactly can they create, monitor and apply successful strategies.
Tips & Tricks: There is a lot of information available online. With the web, scraping data scientists can scrape through all the relevant information required and closely monitor the data for the creation of effective solutions. Instead of downloading all the information available, web scraping lets you scrape the information which you require.
2. WEB SCRAPING FOR CONTENT MARKETING
‘’72% of marketers say content marketing increases engagement.’’ Many brands today depend highly on content marketing. From creating insightful blogs to the creation of engaging video content, content is one of the greatest ways to grab the prospect's attention and draw them towards a brand more quicker and easier.
Tips & Tricks: With web scraping, you can easily conduct efficient content marketing. There are multiple blogs, use cases, infographics, videos being posted and created each day, how can you identify which topics work and which will drive more engagement and attention? With web scraping this is easy. What happens is you can easily scrape which topics prospects are interested to read about, what type of videos are they expecting to see how long they want the blog to be, what interests them in content and much more, Gathering all this information helps to plan your content marketing strategies with more clarity.
3. WEB SCRAPING IN A REAL ESTATE BUSINESS
The real estate market has witnessed a tremendous change for the past few years. The rise of technology has made it easier for agents and brokers to showcase a property without having to be physically present. Even when it comes to sales, cold calls and emails are not the only way to capture leads, even content is playing a vital role in educating and pulling the attention of warm leads. Selling a house is not easy, but with the right information such as stats and understanding your prospect's needs, it becomes one step easy.
Tips & Tricks: Web scraping is a great solution to help agents and brokers to sell better to potential prospects. With web scraping one can easily scrape through lead information via any source such as social media also web scraping can even help to provide valuable data with reference to what prospects think when they want to purchase a property, what the exact needs are and how are they looking at agents or brokers to assist them. Having such a piece of valuable information helps to sell better as well as waste no time in identifying what prospects actually need.
4. WEB SCRAPING FOR PRICING COMPARISONS
Pricing is one of the key ingredients for any business. Pricing is important because it is the one thing that prospects consider when comparing two separate brands. For instance, if you sell your solution for $45 and your competitors are selling for $48, prospects definitely will choose one which adds more value and is budget-friendly. Hence creating an effective pricing strategy matters and is important to develop a better competitive edge.
Tips & Tricks: Web scraping can help brands to scrape through competitor's websites so that one is well aware of how their pricing strategies function. Having an idea of several competitors' pricing strategies can help a brand to understand what the difference is and how they can place an effective strategy that will grab the attention of prospects. Scraping all that information and closely monitoring it will reap a brand the benefits of properly analyzing and effective pricing curation.
5. WEB SCRAPING TO CONDUCT EFFICIENT LEAD GENERATION ACTIVITIES
Capturing leads and then converting them as a qualified lead isn’t a simple task. Many brands commit the mistake of capturing the wrong leads and nurturing them without even understanding completely whether these leads will add value to their business. To top that even when the leads have been recognized, nurturing them and understanding their needs are not conducted timely which again enforces a band to incur the loss of potential leads.
Tips & Tricks: With web scraping, such mishaps can be avoided. Web scraping scrapes through relevant lead information so that you are contacting only the potential prospects. Also scraping through valuable data will also help a brand to understand how to nurture a lead and when the next action would be. Web scraping doesn’t just provide valuable data in hand, it also helps to align an effective strategy which will help you to conduct efficient lead generation activities without any hassles.
6. WEB SCRAPING FOR THE AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY
The automobile industry is functioning well in the market. With the growth of technology, the creation of automobiles is more refined and better than what it was in the past. Hence the growing trends are what helped automobile companies today to create such elegant beauties just the way their customers would prefer. It could be the colour, or the features or even the style of the automobile, ensuring that a customer's vision is brought to life. It is exactly how the automobile industry is growing higher.
Tips & Tricks: Web scraping can be beneficial here as well. Web scraping provides you with the opportunity to conduct regular automobile scraping of market information, customer reviews, feedbacks so that whenever you plan to launch a new design or emerging in the journey of creating a masterpiece, you will have all the advice needed from your customers and the market to create a beauty which will not only grab many eyeballs but also be a successful hit in the automobile market.
7. WEB SCRAPING FOR THE MODERN HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY
Healthcare has seen its shares of data breaching and the new trend in technologies in the medical field. The healthcare industry is accustomed to managing many confidential data of patients as well as the medications. Even a small error can cause a minute yet impactful data breaching to take place. While technology has evolved, such practices are being applied today to cure the impossible. Since healthcare is managing to carve a better future for the industry, the risks are still attached along every new path.
Tips & Tricks: Web scraping can benefit the healthcare industry in many ways. By scraping relevant information with regards to the new technologies, the healthcare industry can easily cater to the new ways patients can be treated which can help to enhance their responsibilities with more accuracy. Web scraping can also scrape through information about the different types of safety measures that can be applied to eliminate any data breaching activities.
8. WEB SCRAPING FOR SOCIAL MEDIA ACTIVITIES
Social media is one of the best industries when it comes to enhancing a brand’s image in the market as well as to engage better with potential prospects. From engaging with prospects to build connections to pulling the attention of potential leads, the media surrounds social media who plays a huge role in effective lead generation in 2020. From posting the right ads to sell clients businesses better in offering impactful solutions required, the media is well aware of how social media can tear or pull a brand towards achieving the goals.
Tips & Tricks: Web scraping can enhance such a significant platform. With web scraping, any media firm can easily scrape through information which can answer all their relevant queries such as what do their prospects like to see, what attracts them, what is trending in the market, how to create ads which act as a magnet puller for prospects and much more. Scraping such relevant information signifies the growth of media brands in the years to come.
9. WEB SCRAPING TO INTACT A BRAND’S ONLINE REPUTATION
For every brand, the scariest thing is when they read bad reviews and feedbacks about their brand. It is scary because your potential prospects can actually turn their path away from you and go to your competitors just because of one bad review. But with the competition rising, there are many users who post bad comments in order to degrade a brand which happens on a more regular basis.
Tips & Tricks: Web scraping can prevent this from happening. Scraping information such as reviews and feedbacks alerts brands to take quick measures before it is even viewed by prospects. A brand can easily eliminate such comments and maintain their brand reputation online. Conducting frequent web scraping activities helps to eliminate such mishaps from happening and ensures that your brand is giving the perception of you offering a reliable service. Now you can also conduct automated web scraping so that you can also focus on other important factors, isn’t that great?
10. WEB SCRAPING FOR EFFICIENT SEO ACTIVITIES
SEO is another factor that helps in attracting leads and capturing them in the form of search engine rankings, keywords, and backlinks. For instance, if you place the right keywords or apply a backlink from a reliable source when your prospects search for relevant topics, your article will appear first to them. SEO plays a key ingredient in attracting prospects via this method.
Tips & Tricks: Web scraping can help to conduct efficient online SEO activities. It can help to scrape the relevant SEO blog topics which are garnering more prospect attention, find keywords even from your competitor's SEO actions so that sufficient keywords are applied in the content and are ranked the highest when your prospect searches for it. It also ensures that the right backlinks are being used so that ranking the content becomes hassle-free.
11. WEB SCRAPING TO CONDUCT IMPACTFUL SALES ACTIVITIES
Sales is a process where capturing and converting potential leads into qualified takes place. But not all the sales calls being made are able to convert prospects into leads. The reason could be numerous such as lack of empathy or poor understanding of needs, not much knowledge about when to contact and manage your leads and much more. But when sales are done right, it provides the opportunity to grasp valuable leads who can be an asset for the business.
Tips & Tricks: Web scraping can lessen the burden amongst sales reps for this process. With web scraping, you can easily scrape through information such as when is the best time to call prospects? Or what exactly a lead is looking for in a product or what are the current requirements for the industry you work in, how you should cater to prospects, how can your solution benefit prospect's needs and much more. Having such valuable information enhances a sales rep's path towards better lead capture and conversion.
12. WEB SCRAPING FOR MARKETING
Marketing is another key element just like sales who has the ability to create a strategy that will help sales and the other teams in the department to achieve better prospect attention. Marketing consists of many things, from forming impactful strategies to creating effective campaigns, a good marketing plan can benefit many teams in the business to walk on the right path towards achieving the brand goals.
Tips & Tricks: For marketing to be successful the right data needs to be in hand. The right data includes the likes and dislikes of prospects, the market conditions, the reviews of prospects, the preferences and trends and much more. To ensure that such valuable information was present, web scraping can help marketers to scrape such significant data so that analyzing a quality solution is being practiced and applied at the earliest. When the marketing plan is confident when selling to prospects, the business, in turn, achieves better results.
13. WEB SCRAPING FOR MEANINGFUL RESEARCH PROCESSES
Many brands today are investing in the research and development sector because they know that good research can create predictive outcomes that can possibly benefit a brand from achieving success in different ways. As mentioned in the first pointer, data scientists are one of them. Conducting research requires a large sum of data but with the online world restricting the access to even view a few information, how can effective research activities be conducted with less than sufficient data in hand?
Tips & Tricks: By conducting regular web scraping, research teams can easily scrape through any data they wish to acquire to strengthen the theories they create. The process of web scraping is so simple that research teams don't have to wait for long hours to retrieve all the quality information. When the research teams have sufficient information in hand, chances are exceptional solutions are created with better clarity and evidence.
14. WEB SCRAPING FOR FINANCE +INSURANCE
Finance rotates around giving the right investment and money-saving advice while insurance guides users to take precautions before any downfall. The beauty of these two areas is that they are focused more on helping users to benefit better which is exactly why millions of users depend on their suggestions and advice. But with the fluctuating market and trends, how can these two sectors keep their heads straight on time and be adaptive to the new changes?
Tips & Tricks: Here is when web scraping can help. For finance, web scraping can scrape through all the financial information such as regular market updates, investment opportunities and much more. For insurance, it can speak again more about the market and which insurance is better and much more. Being in a customer-centric area requires such sectors to always be present with the solutions of the changing trends and markets and assist customers as and when their query arises. With regular web scraping, this action has become much easier.
15. WEB SCRAPING FOR E-COMMERCE
‘’In 2021 in the US alone, e-commerce represents almost 10% of retail sales and that number is expected to grow by nearly 15% each year!’’ E-commerce uses the online platform to engage better with prospects. Common examples are Amazon, eBay and much more. Such platforms provide a wide diversity in order to cater to customers' needs. There are many emerging e-commerce businesses that are rising up and the competition is becoming tougher hence the one thing that can distinguish a new band from the old is uniqueness, but how can a new e-commerce brand achieve that? Data could be the right preference.
Tips & Tricks: Web scraping can help the emerging brands by scraping data with reference to how they exhibit their brands different from their competitors, how they can sell better, what new techniques they can apply and much more. For existing brands, web scraping can scrape information such as how they can retain the growth of their enterprise, what are the market changes and how they can improvise what they are selling and much more. The e-commerce industry needs to retain its growth by understanding what its online customers require and with web scraping this process has become more efficient.
Web scraping is a simpler solution that is making its way higher with the impactful benefit it offers. With the market changing constantly, how can a brand like yours be able to cater to the sudden changes and the new trends prospects are looking to achieve?
With web scraping, the future looks better and it is important that you analyze how such a solution can convert the businesses that incorporate such a measure.
WEB SCRAPING: A FUTURISTIC VIEW OF THE PROCESS
1. HIGH INCREASE IN QUALITY INVESTMENTS
Web scraping can benefit the high increase investments, especially in the stock market. When businesses invest in shares there is a high risk attached to it. But with web scraping this risk can be reduced since with the data acquired, businesses have an idea of what the stock market will likely be in and when is the right time to invest in good shares for the company. The research of studying the market will be profitable in stock buying when businesses are well aware of what they are investing it and with the data provided by web scraping, this action is highly accurate and beneficial for multiple businesses.
2. GROWTH OF BRANDS IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION
This factor aims highly at the venture capitalists who are seeking out opportunities where their investment can benefit a great startup. But with multiple startups rising in the neighbourhood how can such capitalists throw their money to the right firm. Web scraping can make this process easier. With the data surrounding startups with reference to the location advantages, the scope of business and other features of the startups, the capitalist can easily understand and have an idea of how great the business will run.
Web scraping can also retrieve information of the same business adopted by startups and help capitalists to monitor, compare and analysis which startup could benefit from their investment. Doing this ensures that brands are successfully given the right support needed and helps the expansion of such brands to grow healthier and better.
3. ENRICHED MARKETING ACTIVITIES
Brands spend tons of money over marketing activities, from creating the right campaigns to setting up tools which can help grasp better lead capture, the marketing team is one of the most crucial departments for any brands. Hence to ensure that the right marketing strategies and activities are planned, the right kind of data is required to continue further.
For instance, to capture genuine leads with campaigns, using the right keywords, topic and data which prospects are expecting to see the need to be incorporated and with web scraping, this is possible to conduct. For a successful marketing activity, web scraping helps in providing quality data which will not only enhance the way brands market their product but also enable successful lead capture.
4. CAPTURE THE MAIN INGREDIENT OF THE BUYER PURCHASING DECISION, SENTIMENTS
Many times a prospect engages with a brand because the selling factor gave away to an emotional connect. The brand was able to connect with the audience and make them believe that it was specially curated for their needs. Prospects, on the other hand, feel connected with the way the advertisement was displayed and immediately without stopping to think to indulge in becoming a real customer for that brand. Another instance is via the prospect's behaviour. The way a customer picks a band or begins to cultivate the thought of buying a product also makes a big difference in them connecting with a brand. These two similarities all fall under the sentiment categories.
Monitoring such activities can give brands the advantage of understanding what sentiments a prospect gives away when analyzing a solution. This can help brands to create better marketing campaigns and ads with connective sentiments that will trigger prospects' attention to learn more about the solution being offered. The way to collect sentiments can happen only with web scraping. With web scraping, the process can extract information from different sources of prospect communication and engagement such as reviews, feedback, social media and so many other sources making it easier for brands to sell to prospects on a more connective level.
5. STRENGTHEN THE CONTENT PLATFORMS
The content platform is another good source of revenue for brands with the agenda of capturing the attention of prospects all across the online world. Web scraping is an impactful tool here since it can help to enhance any content activities. For instance, for SEO blogs, web scraping can help to identify which keywords work and which don’t, for video and textual content, web scraping can help identify which tags and hashtags will promote the video better and for blog creation, web scraping can help brands to identify which topics prospects want to view.
Content is one of the prime factors of capturing leads vis the content channel and with web scraping extracting relevant data, this activity is conducted more efficiently and conveniently.
6. SETS THE PRICING GAME
Pricing is a crucial factor which is one of the main separators from one brand to another. Prospects would like to invest in a brand that offers good pricing with the right benefit in hand. Brands cannot sell their solution either too low or too high, it needs to be reasonable. Hence with web scraping, this is possible to detect.
This process can easily scrape through competitor's websites to identify what pricing strategies they are implementing. You can then monitor those and align a good pricing strategy for your brand so that the solution being sold is priced at a realistic rate.
7. STUDYING EFFICIENT MARKET CHANGES
The market will keep changing. The trends will become a boom one day and in the next few years, it will disappear. As a brand, the most important action to be conducted here is to continue assisting the changing needs of prospects and the better way to conduct this action is utilized web scraping.
When web-scraping extracts information about the market regularly can keep your brand awareness of the new changes as well as give you a predictive hint of what it could look like in a longer period. This can change the way you sell to prospects and help you and your team to create exceptional benefits with the current solutions being sold.
As mentioned earlier, the perks of web scraping have been converted into an asset which is now being sold by multiple brands, with so many vendors in the market how can you choose which tool will be efficient to conduct web scraping activities?
TOP 3 TOOLS TO CONDUCT EFFICIENT WEB SCRAPING ACTIVITIES
1. DEXI.IO
Dexi.io also referred to as Cloudscape extracts data from the website without any need of downloading any of the information. With the scraping activities, the data can be easily saved in cloud-based platforms such as Google Drive. Dexi.io also supports the use of proxy servers so that to conduct anonymous accessing of data.
FEATURES:
1 . Web Scraping
- Automation Tools
- High scale knowledge capture
- Data mining and much more
PRICING:
For business purposes, Standard -$119/m, Professional- $399/m and Corporate- $699/m.
RATINGS:
4.6/5
2. WEBHOSE.IO
Webhose.io conducts web scraping activities in more than 240 languages and also supports saving it in different formats such as JSON, RSS and more. It is a browser-based app where a data crawling technology has been used to crawl multiple channels with a single API.
FEATURES:
1 . Conducts Financial analysis
- Conducts market research
- Conducts Media and web monitoring and much more
PRICING:
API calls depend on the plans you choose for instance to receive 1000 API calls it will cost monthly $39, click here for more details.
RATINGS:
5/5
3. IMPORT.IO
Using the best technology, import.io conducts efficient web scraping activities. It conducts web scraping activities by allowing you form your datasets by importing data from a web page being selected and exporting the data you have in any format you like such as CSV file. The greatest thing about import.io is that you don’t require any coding which makes the process much easier.
FEATURES:
1 . Easy capture of data
- Deliver high-quality web data
- Conducts web data integration and much more
PRICING:
Need to enquire with Import.io team
RATINGS:
3.9/5
By incorporating the tools above, conducting web scraping has become easier for you to complete the significant actions in your business. But did you know that when you conduct web scraping practices, on a more regular basis, there are chances where you can be blocked?
Don’t be scared because just like how web scraping is a modern solution to online data retrieval, proxy servers are another modern solution to safeguarding online activities without the fear of any identity reveal.
HOW PROXY SERVERS CAN MAKE WEB SCRAPING MORE EFFICIENT?
Proxy servers stand between a user and the website it wants to access. When a user sends a request to view a restricted website the proxy server will receive the request first and then send it to the website. The reason why a proxy server receives it first is that it changes the IP address.
Many times you get blocked when viewing restricted sources of information because your IP address speaks about the location you are in. What a proxy server does is it helps to eliminate that issue by hiding your actual identity and giving another one.
When it comes to web scraping for your business activities, proxy servers are beneficial. While you continue to scrape the multiple websites, proxy servers ensure that your identity is hidden and that the scraping activity conducts quicker.
IN CONCLUSION...
“Every company has big data in its future, and every company will eventually be in the data business.” – Thomas H. Davenport, American academic and author specializing in analytics, business process innovation, and knowledge management.
Web scraping is what you need to grow and enhance your business better. With web scraping allowing you to retrieve quality data that matters to your business, conducting such a process regularly helps to keep you on top of your growth game always.
When it comes to choosing your proxy servers to ensure that it is a paid proxy server, it offers high internet speed and has a good number of IP addresses for you to utilize. Data is getting bigger and with tools such as proxy servers and web scraping, it is time to tackle modern issues with a modern technique.