The internet is home to many different things, one of which is data. Every minute more and more data is generated across the world and added to the already large repository on the World Wide Web. This data has enormous benefits for all businesses, old and new.
ContentsWhat is Web Scraping?How Web Scraping Can Benefit a Business?It Provides AutomationIt's Cost EffectiveIt Guarantees SpeedFor Better AccuracyTop Use Cases of Web ScrapingBrand Monitoring and ProtectionResearch market and competition analysisLead generationImage scrapingConclusionData can help you expand your business beyond the boundaries of your physical location or help you start a brand if you're just getting started. Specifically, website data scraping – the process of collecting this vast expanse of data – is what holds the many keys to starting or growing a business.
Today we'll find out what web scraping is and the many ways it can benefit a new and emerging business.
In the simplest terms, web scraping can be defined as the process of harvesting large amounts of relevant user data from multiple sources in real time. The process is initiated with computers and tools such as proxies and involves exploring multiple data sources before collecting their contents into an unstructured raw file. HTML format. Then the data is parsed and transformed into a structured form such as JSON, CSV, and an Excel spreadsheet that is both easy to read and store.
Initially, users took their time going through each webpage, extracting its content, and moving on to the next page until they had covered an entire website or collected as much data as they had. need. Unfortunately, this manual exercise was grueling, tedious and very slow.
Luckily, this has been replaced by a much faster and more accurate web scraper that automatically works to scrape multiple websites at once and does so repeatedly. Not only is this more efficient, but it produces data that is both valid and highly accurate.
Let's take a look at some of the best benefits web scraping can offer any business below:
Collecting data was once a dreaded exercise that many would simply prefer to avoid. After all, it took too much effort, time and energy and results in the realization that it no longer fits the purpose because it was collected late.
Web scraping has now brought automation into the mix to weed out anything that went wrong with data collection.
The overall cost of data collection with proxies is also lower than traditional data collection processes. With these tools, companies can reduce the cost of hiring a team to handle data collection. Indeed, the tools are easy to use and are serviced and maintained by a third-party solution provider.
The tools used for web scraping are also very fast, so an exercise that once took days or weeks now takes minutes or hours.
The only thing that hurts a business more than no data at all is bad data. The collection of inaccurate data can lead to poor business decisions that could affect the viability of the company or its products.
Web scraping has improved things by ensuring businesses collect the exact data they need with minimal errors.
Web scraping can find practical application in virtually any field, and industry and below are some of the most common use cases:
Brands typically use web scraping to monitor their online image and reputation. They do this by regularly looking for mentions, reviews, and discussions relevant to them. Then, the necessary data is collected to initiate an appropriate response. When done correctly, it can help protect an online brand image and retain old and new customers.
Web scraping is often used to collect market and competitive data. This data can then be further analyzed to take relevant business action. For example, market data, when analyzed, can inform a brand of the right time to manufacture a certain product or service or enter a different market. While competitive data is often collected to help a brand see what its competitors are doing and adapt to beat them.
Tracks are typically what businesses turn into paying customers, and naturally, the more leads a brand has, the more customers it will have at any given time.
And web scraping can be used to gather these leads from different sources such as e-commerce sites and search engines.
Real estate industry players often need to grab images from websites to compare and make more informed decisions. Buyers can easily use it to compare listings and better understand what they intend to buy.
Web scraping is therefore increasingly used to scrape images from the websites of sellers and real estate companies. If you think this is exactly what you need to improve your business, find more information here.
Several fields and industries already benefit from web scraping, and if you own and run an online business, chances are you need it to start your business and grow competitively.
The fact that it allows you to collect data with little to no stress when using web scraping with proper proxy servers is enough of an advantage.
