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Today in the digital age, the personal data of consumers are increasingly stored on the sites they consult frequently. This data can then be used by individuals or companies to implement a very effective marketing policy. This technique that saves you from manually harvesting data is web scraping. It is a software or a program that will save you time in addition to enjoying a well-structured and original file.
Web scraping : what is it in practice ?
Today, the internet represents an area where information from all consumers around the world abounds. By collecting this data, individuals and businesses have an easier time implementing a satisfactory marketing policy to attract more customers to them.
The technique to achieve this is web scraping which allows the automatic extraction of data and information on the internet. Having become very effective and very practical, web scraping is now adopted by many individuals and companies.
Before benefiting the most of web scraping services, you need to define some important points. Indeed, you must first define the information you want to collect and where it is. It is after this step that you can resort to appropriate software for automatic data recovery. You can then use the recovered data more easily according to your objectives.
Web scraping : why adopt it ?
Achieving excellent productivity is one of the main objectives for companies and individuals. To achieve this, several methods can be adopted. The best method adopted today is the automatic extraction and analysis of data on websites. The technique to achieve this is web scraping which offers many advantages :
Respond appropriately to the needs of your customers
One of the solutions to quickly increase your sales is to automate your website system. Indeed, if you effectively collect and analyze the data of your customers, you will be able to better determine their real needs.
You can also use web scraping to keep an eye on the evolution of actions on your site. Web scraping therefore allows you to more easily determine the precise needs of your consumers or visitors. This makes it easier for you to meet their expectations and retain them. By adopting this technique, you will be able to define a better marketing strategy.
Mastering pricing in the competitive market
Web scraping is a technique generally adopted by companies specializing in e-commerce. With an information collection tool, you can keep an eye on the selling price of products offered by your competitors.
Web scraping here allows you to perform a complete analysis of your competitors via the automatic processing of their pages on their websites. It is therefore a simple solution to pay attention to the competitive market.
Can web scraping be detected ?
Yes, it is possible for website administrators and platform providers to detect web scraping. However, you can reduce this risk of detection while enjoying a smooth harvesting experience with Scraping-Bot.io.
The latter uses highly developed techniques to imitate human behavior and circumvent the anti-scraping solutions implemented on the site. So note that Scraping-Bot.io protects your scraping activities and guarantees the reliability of the information collected. This is possible through rotating proxies and advanced scraping strategies.
Is it legal ?
Regarding the standards and rules established on web scraping, they generally vary according to each country. So remember to check the laws of your country on web scraping before adopting this technique.
If you use it to extract data that is publicly available on the internet, then you are not committing any crime. However, the practice is considered illegal if you use it to extract legally protected information or private data.
Indeed, the standards and rules established to protect private information and personal life in some countries may restrict the collection of information. By using it, you must therefore ensure that the data collected does not include sensitive personal information.
In addition, the collection must comply with the rules and standards of the country. Also, you will have to ensure compliance with the terms of use of the websites on which you use this technique. Before collecting information from a website, be sure to check its policy.
Protecting your site against web scraping : how to proceed ?
Web scraping has now become very common as a practice on the internet. Although it can be used for good purposes, it can also be used for illegal extraction of sensitive and confidential data. If you are an individual or a business owner, your website certainly contains this type of information.
You must therefore take care to protect this information against any type of hacking. To ensure the protection of your website against web scraping, several solutions are available to you :
- you can adopt high and original authentication methods for each request ;
- you can increase the delays between requests so that web scraping requires more time before completing the task you have started ;
- you can regularly analyze your server logs to determine any suspicious activity related to web scraping detected on your site ;
- you can adopt a captcha to restrict the access of robots to sensitive data on your website.
It is true that these protection solutions may seem complex for a neophyte. However, you must ensure that you implement appropriate solutions to guarantee the protection of your data. Also, if you plan to do web scraping, you will need to better understand the standards applicable to websites.
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