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In today’s digital world, data is one of the most potent possessions for every company. Whether you’re trying to create your marketing strategy or need to train your machine learning algorithm, a huge amount of data will help you succeed. This is the reason why the best residential proxy for web scraping is an invaluable tool in the hands of professionals. To help you, this list shows you the most reliable residential proxies that you can immediately start utilizing in your web scraping practices.
In this article, you are going to discover why residential proxies are the best ones to bypass all the challenges of web scraping, such as IP bans and restrictions. Discover their numerous benefits and find the best residential proxy that covers your needs.
What Are Residential Proxies?
Just like all other proxy types, residential proxies will alter a client’s IP address before sending a request to a website server. Doing this guarantees that your IP information will remain private and lets you avoid any geographical and IP restrictions.
What makes residential proxies different from other types is that they use real IP addresses that are assigned to real devices. This makes them ideal for web scraping as they seem like real users trying to access the website, thus getting undetected by the server’s anti-bot restrictions.
Why Implement Residential Proxies into Web Scraping Strategies
#1 Enhanced Anonymity
It is no secret that your IP address is a piece of information that the server can see. Therefore, whenever you are trying to access a website, your identity becomes exposed. With the use of a residential proxy, though, you can ensure that your IP address will remain hidden and the server will see the proxy’s IP address. This enhanced anonymity means that not only your identity will remain private but also that your IP address won’t get blacklisted.
#2 Avoid IP Bans
Many websites have implemented a variety of anti-scraping techniques to keep scrapers away. One of them is to place some IP bans, and more specifically, blanket IP bans. By doing this, they are banning a range of IP addresses to prevent bots from overloading the server with requests. In fact, this strategy has been proven very effective against datacenter proxies, and this is the reason why residential proxies are better for web scraping.
#3 Increased Geographical Reach
Depending on the audience you are trying to study or reach, you might need to access data from a different region. However, in many such cases, you might face geo-restrictions that make your scraping endeavors ineffective. Luckily, the best residential proxy can easily bypass these restrictions by assigning you an IP address from that specific region.
#4 Improved Speed
Web scraping is a time-consuming process because you need to gather a large amount of data, usually from multiple servers. With the use of proxies, you have the option to send multiple requests to numerous servers at the same time. Therefore, the process becomes faster, allowing you to create a large database according to your needs.
#5 Reliable Results and Higher Success Rate
As we’ve briefly mentioned, many websites have set various anti-scraping measures to prevent it from happening. This can include IP bans, and in some cases, they go as far as providing false data to scrapers that will lead to ultimately ruin the company’s data analysis. This is another case where residential proxies become an invaluable tool. Since they come from real users, they can easily pass these measures and lead to better, more reliable results.
#6 Compatibility with Automation Tools
One of the greatest things about residential proxies is that they are compatible with numerous automation tools. This way, you can make this process more productive and effective than ever before. And the greatest thing is that these automation bots show human-like activity, thus not raising any suspicions.
#7 Large-Scale Scraping
If you are looking for a large-scale scraping solution, there is no better tool to use than a residential proxy. By using it, you can send a large number of requests without getting banned or blacklisted. This way, you can obtain large data sets even in the most challenging cases.
#8 Bypass Anti-Scraping Measures
Apart from IP bans, companies have multiple other anti-scraping measures at their disposal to protect their data. One of the most common ones is CAPTCHAs. Others include checking the IP address’s reputation, honeypots, JavaScript challenges, and even user behavior analysis. Only the best residential proxy is effective against all these, thus ensuring uninterrupted scraping on all platforms.
The Best Practices for Using Residential Proxies for Web Scraping
#1 Find the Best Residential Proxy for You
Not all residential proxies offer you the same services. That’s why you need to check what each tool has to offer to determine whether it is suitable for your tasks. As a rule of thumb, always look for a reputable provider with a reliable tool.
#2 Change Your IP Address Regularly
Web scraping can be challenging, especially if you are trying to complete it through a static IP. If you send too many requests, then there is a high chance that your IP address will get blacklisted, thus preventing you from accessing the server altogether. That’s why you need to rotate the IP addresses you are using to avoid detection.
#3 Monitor Your Proxy’s Performance
Another essential practice is to monitor your proxy’s performance. The best and most reliable tools will offer you detailed analytics, where you can view the metrics and evaluate the success of your scraping endeavors.
#4 Scrape Data Responsibly
Regardless of the reason you need the data, you need to always remember that you have great responsibility. You are free to scrape the web for data as long as they don’t violate users’ sensitive information or the servers’ crawling policies.
In Conclusion
When it comes to web scraping, residential proxies are the best tool to employ. They grant you enhanced anonymity and IP rotation, and they can also bypass all possible anti-scraping and anti-bot techniques. Find the best residential proxy for you to enjoy a new scraping experience!
