Web Scraping: What It Is and Why You Should Collect Data from Websites

Hello there! In this article, we’re going to dive deep into web scraping. It’s one of the most efficient and convenient ways to gather data online. In today’s world, where we’re surrounded by an overwhelming amount of information, people often struggle with how to collect and organize this data to make it useful. Here are some common challenges that come up, and how web scraping can help solve them:

• Information Overload: There’s so much data available online that it’s easy to feel lost in the flood of information.
• Different Formats: Data comes in all shapes and sizes – text, video, audio, infographics – and each type requires different skills to process.
• Quality of Information: Not everything you find online is accurate. There are plenty of errors, misinformation, and biased content that can make decision-making harder.
• Lack of Standardization: Different websites present their data in different ways, which can make it difficult to compare or integrate the information.
• Too Much Information: Many people feel stressed by the sheer amount of information they’re exposed to, which makes it hard to focus on what’s really important.

Want to learn how to deal with these issues effectively, and which tools to use? Keep reading!

What Is Web Scraping?

Let’s start with the basics. Web scraping, also known as web data extraction, is the process of automatically collecting data from websites. What makes scraping different from manual data collection is that it’s much faster and more scalable. If you’ve ever had to manually collect information from multiple websites, you know how time-consuming that can be. Scraping automates this process and can gather huge amounts of data in just minutes.

Another related term you might hear is web crawling, which is used more in the context of search engines like Google. Web crawling is the process of browsing web pages for indexing, while web scraping is focused on extracting specific data from those pages.

In the Russian-speaking online world, people often use the term “scraping” to refer specifically to web scraping. So, in this article, I’ll stick to the term “web scraping” when talking about gathering data from websites.

Benefits of Web Scraping

What’s so great about web scraping? First off, it saves a ton of time. Instead of manually gathering data from multiple sites, you can set up a scraper and automate the whole process. Here are some other benefits you might not have thought of:

Automating Repetitive Tasks

Web scraping is a great tool for handling routine tasks like updating prices, tracking stock levels, or collecting reviews. You can configure a scraper to regularly check websites and automatically gather new information in just minutes.

Market Research

Many companies use web scraping to analyze the market, collect pricing data, and monitor products and services from competitors. This helps them make smarter decisions and stay competitive by developing strategies based on real data.

Data Aggregation

Scraping allows you to gather data from various sources and combine it for comparison. You see this all the time on sites like travel aggregators, where they collect and compare flight, hotel, and tour prices to offer users the best deals.

Lead Generation

Web scraping can also help businesses collect contact information for potential clients from sites like irecommend or other similar platforms. This is a great way to expand your customer base, which can lead to increased sales if done right.

Optimizing Workflows

Scraping helps automate tasks that would otherwise take up a lot of time, money, and human resources.

Market Monitoring

Web scraping allows you to track reviews of products or services across social media, review sites, and other platforms. This is especially useful for businesses that need to respond quickly to negative feedback or want to improve their services based on customer input.

Why Is Web Scraping Important?

Web scraping can be valuable in a variety of fields, from business to research. Here are some real-world examples of how it can help:

Price Tracking

Web scraping is great for monitoring prices on popular e-commerce platforms like Wildberries, Ozon, Yandex.Market, Ebay, and Amazon. This allows companies to keep tabs on competitors’ prices and stay competitive in an ever-changing market. Having access to up-to-date data helps businesses adjust their pricing strategies in real time.

Data Aggregation

Web scraping allows you to gather data from multiple sources to get the most complete and accurate information. This can be particularly useful for deep market analysis, gathering user data, tracking competitor products, or keeping up with industry trends. It’s widely used in industries like finance, healthcare, and retail, where big data plays a key role.

Lead Generation for Hiring and Sales

Companies can use web scraping to automatically generate leads for sales or recruitment. For example, scraping resume sites like HeadHunter helps businesses find suitable candidates based on specific criteria like profession, experience, and skills. Scraping review sites or business directories can help find potential clients or partners, significantly speeding up the lead generation process.

Brand Protection

Web scraping can also be used to protect a brand from counterfeit products or unauthorized use of trademarks. Many companies use scraping to monitor mentions of their brand online and identify unauthorized sellers. This helps protect brand reputation and minimize losses from counterfeit goods.

Investment Analysis

In the finance sector, web scraping can help gather labor market data. For example, scraping job listings on HeadHunter or Rabota.ru can help investors assess the demand for specialists in specific industries. Scraping reviews on platforms like Glassdoor or Antijob can also provide insights into a company’s internal culture, helping investors make better long-term decisions.

Sentiment Analysis

Scraping user reviews from various platforms, forums, or social media allows businesses to gauge what customers really think about their products or services. This can help identify common issues or areas for improvement.

SEO Monitoring

Web scraping is commonly used to monitor competitors’ SEO performance. It can track search rankings, analyze keywords, and monitor backlinks. This information is useful for adjusting your own SEO strategy and improving search engine rankings.

Website and App Testing

Scraping can also be used to test and monitor websites and apps across different countries and regions. For example, if a company has localized versions of its site, scraping can check whether the localized content is displayed correctly. It can also be used for load testing to see how a site handles large volumes of traffic.

Machine Learning

Web scraping plays a big role in training machine learning models by gathering large datasets for analysis. For example, scraping text from news sites, blogs, or forums can help train models for sentiment analysis or recommendation systems.

Risks and Limitations of Web Scraping

Like any technology, web scraping has its risks and limitations. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

Legal Issues: Collecting data from websites can sometimes violate copyright laws or a site’s terms of use. So before you start scraping, it’s important to understand the legal aspects and make sure you’re not breaking any rules.

Ethics: Scraping can place a heavy load on a website’s servers, especially if it’s a small site without the infrastructure to handle a lot of requests. Overloading a server with scraping can cause the site to crash.

Technical Barriers: Many websites try to protect themselves from scraping by using tools like CAPTCHAs, IP blocking, or dynamic data loading through JavaScript. In such cases, using an anti-detect browser like Undetectable can help bypass these obstacles.

How Web Scraping Works

Now, let’s get into how it all works. The web scraping process consists of several stages:

Defining Goals and Selecting Target Pages: The first step is to identify the purpose of your scraping and select the web pages from which you want to extract data. These could be individual pages or entire sections of a site with valuable information.

Loading HTML Code: Once the target pages are identified, you need to obtain their HTML code. This can be done using scraping tools that automatically download the page’s code from the server.

Extracting Data: After obtaining the HTML code, the next step is to identify and extract the data you need. This could be text, images, links, or tables. At this stage, it’s crucial to properly configure your scraper to collect only the necessary data and ensure it’s organized in a way that’s easy to process later.

Adjusting the Scraper: Scrapers need to be regularly adjusted and reconfigured, as websites often change their structure over time.

There are various tools for web scraping, ranging from ready-made services to custom solutions using programming languages like Python or Node.js. If you have programming skills, you can even write your own scraper tailored to specific tasks.

Web Scraping Methods

There are different approaches to web scraping depending on the type of page you’re scraping:

Static Scraping

This method is used for pages that fully load all their content at once. It’s simpler and faster to implement because all the data is readily available in the HTML code.

Dynamic Scraping

This method is needed for pages where some content loads later, usually through JavaScript. For example, in some online stores, a product’s name and description might load first, while the price and availability change depending on your location. An anti-detect browser with good residential proxies can help scrape this dynamic data by simulating access from different geographic locations.

Here are some examples of web scraping services

Octoparse: A user-friendly desktop application that’s perfect for people without programming experience since it automates most of the process. You just need to tell it which resources to scrape.

iDatica: This service can create a custom scraper based on your request. It’s a good option for those who don’t know how to code.

Scraper API: A more advanced tool for those with programming knowledge. Its standout feature is its built-in proxy pool, which makes it super convenient.

At the end of the day, the right scraper depends on your specific needs and goals. It’s even better if you can create your own custom solution using Python or any other programming language.

The Future of Web Scraping

The future of web scraping will likely see more integration with AI and machine learning, allowing for even more precise and automated data collection. New technologies will help scrapers better adapt to website changes, bypass protections, and process larger volumes of data in real time for deep analysis and decision-making. I also believe scraping will become more popular thanks to its growing accessibility and the wide variety of tools available.

Conclusion

In conclusion, web scraping is no longer just a convenient tool for data collection — it has become a critical part of any business striving to stay competitive. Having quick access to up-to-date information gives companies a key advantage: the ability to make informed decisions faster than their competitors, adjust strategies in real time, and adapt to changing market conditions.

In this age of information overload and rapid technological progress, the ability to quickly gather and analyze data is crucial to business success. Companies that effectively use scraping to monitor competitors, find customers, improve products, and manage risks are already leading the market. Web scraping isn’t just a tool; it’s a strategic resource that allows businesses to respond quickly to changes, anticipate trends, and grow in dynamic environments.