Companies rely on data. Extracting valuable data from the web cost-effectively and reliably is vital in helping companies get updated insights about their products and competitors. Moreover, data can help companies optimize their pricing strategies and brand offerings.
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Web data and the new digital habits
The new normal changed the way people consume data, socialize, and shop. Every time people share, like, swipe, or click, the action creates various web data.
As the digitalization of businesses increases rapidly, the demand for data rises exponentially. Industry sectors rely more on data, which helps companies grow and innovate. Thus, it is essential to understand and act on data immediately to mitigate losses and push the growth of any business.
Accessing raw data
You can find a wide range of relevant raw web data everywhere. You can also automate the process so that your people can immediately access and use it. Here are some options to consider:
- Build a crawler for your specific use
You know that search engines use crawlers to find and index web pages. To extract web data, you can have a developer build a web crawler. With your web crawler, you can customize the tool to fit your needs, allowing complete control over it. In addition, you can provide a scalable, agile server infrastructure where you can store and extract the content you find.
- Use a web-scraping tool
Several web-scraping tools are available today. It works similarly to a customized web crawler. Once you put it into action, the web scraper will pull out the information or content you want and deliver it as a CSV or Excel file.
The benefit of using a web scraper is that it will extract only the information you want and structure the data based on the settings you specified. Here are two choices:
- Proxies
This is the core of a web scraping process. Different websites display other data according to a country's IP address. You require proxies in another country depending on the location of your servers and the target websites for data extraction. It is beneficial to have a large proxy pool so that third-party websites cannot block you. You can use residential proxies, data-center IPs, and the new hybrid — ISP proxies.
- Headless browsers
A headless browser does not have a user interface. It can access the web page while hiding the GUI from the user. Many websites use JavaScript frameworks with back-end API. This system fetches the data and the client-side rendering to pull the document object model (DOM).
Using a regular HTTP client that will not render the JavaScript code will not show you the data. Using a headless browser lets you bypass the automated test that checks whether the HTTP client is an actual user or a bot and helps you reach the HTML page you need.
Whatever option you choose to extract web data, make sure you set it right and monitor it regularly. Likewise, it is essential to understand a web page's anatomy to know which elements to include in the HTML page.