Today’s businesses cannot do without data. Industry giants are gaining market share because they have an ample amount of it. Meanwhile, small scale businesses are catching up with their counterparts because they’re actively reaching out for data. So why let this “raw gold” slip off your fingers?
The internet is the best source of data for businesses and entrepreneurs looking to analyze their competitors. In doing so, you’ll often have to scrape data off your competitors’ websites. You’ll also be constantly hit by restrictions or worst still, a ban with too many requests in a short while.
However, if you understand web data gathering, this is an easy feat. And this is where a proxy comes to play.
What is a proxy?
Proxy servers are a tool that can provide different levels of functionality, like security and privacy, which depends wholly on how you want to use it. When using proxies, your internet traffic moves in such a way that your IP address stays hidden.
Businesses are beginning to leverage the potential that proxies bring to the table – and they are mostly being used in web data gathering.
There many ways businesses use proxies for web data gathering. Even though attempts and targets vary, each of them has the underlying need to stay anonymous, undetected and fast.
Of course, only a few businesses possess the data that Facebook, Google, and Microsoft have at their disposal. With web scraping, even small businesses can access data at scale. They can achieve this goal by going past IP blocking and IP cloaking.
Here are the following ways businesses leverage web data gathering to their advantage and lead the pack in their respective industries.
1. Social Listening
Whether you want to monitor a particular product or opinions on certain political matters, web data gathering tool helps to extract and analyze conversations from Facebook, Twitter and other sites. This practice has become increasingly popular among journalist start-up companies who are familiar with using user-generated content.
2. Real Estate Listing
Using data mining tools, you can keep up with the current prices of real estate in a particular location. For this, you’ll have to scrape real estate websites. It is similar to what happens with price monitoring. This approach allows you to set the right keywords for your listing, which could give you an edge.
3. Ad verification
Ad fraud is not a new concept. If you’re hearing it for the first and you spend money on advertising to get your products or services out there, you need to pay attention to this section.
Hackers create fake websites and direct traffic to it. So when you create an advert, it may not get to the desired audience or potential customers because it goes elsewhere – all thanks to hackers.
Another type of ad fraud happens when competitors redirect your brand to bad sites. If your ad appears on a casino or a porn site, your reputation may be at risk. Proxies can help track and monitor where and how your ads are displayed.
4. Scraping Data from LinkedIn
Scraping data off LinkedIn is nothing new. But there is a way to go about it.
When an individual signs up on LinkedIn, they are told their information remains private and will not end up in the hands of a third party – either by selling it to them or otherwise. It will only be for internet use.
If a web scraper gets hold of such information, then there is a problem in regards to LinkedIn policy. What it means is that the web scraper would be circumventing the LinkedIn privacy clause by gathering personal data and selling it for profit.
But there is a better way to go about it. Companies seeking employees for different positions can scrape for research to get the right people at the helm of affairs. Companies leverage tools to scrape at scale using proxies to achieve their goal.
Some other ways that businesses use proxies are:
Price Comparison
It is not out of place to keep an eye on your competitors, perhaps to see what they are doing differently. With web data gathering, you can do this effectively, for example, by comparing prices. That will keep you a step ahead.
Sales Intelligence
If you want to sell something online, you can use data mining tools to monitor your sales or gather information about your customers, or even prospective customers. It will help you understand your customers and know how to serve them better.
SEO Tracking
It allows businesses to scrape search engines results. By doing this, you will be able to analyze results using specific search words and make use of the best keywords and tags for more traffic to your site.
Wrapping Up
There is no better way to put it than this. Web data gathering in this day and age is essential to the growth of businesses. It allows them to move faster in their sphere and outdo their competitors. So, if you are not gathering data about your competitors, you are leaving a lot on the table.
