Web Scraping Success Rates

In this post, we’re going to explain how using a proxy server to constantly rotate your IP address can improve the success rates of your web scraping activities. We will first explain the concept of proxies and how they work, and then we’ll talk about their benefit in web scraping.

Let’s get started.

What is a Proxy Server and What Does it Do?

A proxy server can be defined as follows:

An intermediary server that is present between a user and the internet.

Proxy servers are used to mask/hide the IP address of the user and provide them with a layer of security when accessing the internet.

A proxy is similar to a VPN, except that the latter performs a much more extensive function. A VPN not only masks the IP address of the user, but it also encrypts the traffic going from the user device to the internet.

What is the Meaning of Rotating IPs?

Rotating IP addresses means changing the IP address of a device periodically. There are a number of ways to do this, but using a proxy with this feature is usually the easiest.

How Exactly Do Proxies and Rotating IP Addresses Improve Web Scraping Success?

Web scraping, in the simplest definition, refers to extracting data from a website or an online platform. 

Many people utilize web scraping to acquire useful information from their competing websites. For example, many businesses conduct price scraping to make sure their goods are competitively and reasonably priced.

When performed within ethical limits and boundaries, there is nothing wrong with this process.

However, websites sometimes take action against aggressive web scraping techniques. For instance, if a device makes continuous and consecutive requests to the website, the latter can ban its access permanently. This sort of action is taken to protect the website from getting overwhelmed with traffic from a single source.

This is where proxies and rotating IP addresses come in.

1. Rotating IP addresses help web scrapers avoid IP bans

When making web scraping requests, IP bans can be avoided if different IP addresses are used instead of the same one over and over again. By using a rotating IP proxy, you can set up your device to get a new IP address after a set time interval. 

There will be no reason for the website to initiate a ban against the IP since it will change before becoming too persistent.

You can carry on with your web scraping continuously without worrying about getting hit with a ban. The process will go smoothly, and you will be able to extract all the data you need. This is one of the ways in which rotating IPs improve web scraping success rates.

1. Rotating IP proxies help you save time and make the process efficient

Rotating IP addresses can be done manually. For example, in theory, you could connect to a VPN, send a few requests, and then re-connect to the VPN. By doing this, your device will be assigned a different IP address, and you will be able to carry on without getting banned.

However, rotating your IP addresses manually like this can be arduous and time consuming. The benefit of using proxies for this purpose is that the whole process can be automated. The IP addresses can change on their own, making web scraping easier and more successful.

By making this process more efficient, web scraping becomes easier and more successful.

1. Rotating IP addresses can allow you to access location-restricted websites/webpages

Sometimes, certain websites and webpages are location-restricted; which means that they cannot be accessed from certain places. If you are using a proxy that gives you IP addresses from random regions, you can bypass these restrictions and continue your web scraping without a problem.

On the other hand, if you want to access a website/webpage that can only be viewed by users from a specific geographical area, you may need to be more precise with your IP masking. For example, to view a UK-only website, you may need to use a VPN instead of a proxy so that you can select a specific UK-based server.

Some proxies also allow location selection, but if you need a guaranteed specific region (e.g., UK), a VPN with dedicated servers might be a better option.

When using a proxy/VPN server in another country, you can use an IP location tool to double-check and confirm where your IP is based in.

Understanding Ethical Guidelines and Boundaries When Web Scraping

Before we end this article, we want to list some ethical considerations to remember about web scraping with proxy servers.

• Make sure that you respect the guidelines mentioned in the robots.txt file. Websites often mention scraping guidelines in the robots.txt file to indicate what data you can and cannot extract.
• Make sure that you don’t scrape any private or sensitive data. Take care to extract only the data that is publicly available on the website.
• Use legitimate proxy services.
• Don’t flood the website with too many requests. This could trigger a low-level DDoS attack, disabling the website from handling requests from actual users.

Final Thoughts

Here are the main takeaways from our article.

Proxies and IP address rotation help improve the success rates of web scraping by ensuring that the device is not banned for repetitive requests. When the IP constantly changes over time, it is not flagged by the website as malicious.

IP rotation also helps access geo-restricted websites and webpages by masking your device’s IP and making it appear as if it’s located in a different region.