Flying Under The Radar: 5 Proven Tips For Block-Free Data Collection
Web scraping is used in a variety of business use cases, including sentiment analysis, brand monitoring, lead generation, price monitoring, product data extraction, financial data analysis, and more. However, scraping the web has become quite tricky due to anti-bot systems employed by websites.
These systems use machine learning algorithms, user behavior analysis, and IP analysis to detect and block bots. As a result, businesses are unable to data collection for informed decision-making and other use cases.
Luckily, where there’s a will, there’s a way. We discuss five proven tips for data collection without getting blocked.
5 Tips For Block-Free Data Collection
The best way to avoid getting blocked is to appear as ”human” as possible. All websites want human visitors. It’s bots they want to keep out.
Here are some ways to do this.
1. Use Proxies
When it comes to ban-free web scraping, proxies are the first solution that comes to mind. These intermediaries hide your IP address, allowing you to scrape the web anonymously.
Proxies may be shared or dedicated. A shared proxy is used by multiple people, making it prone to blocks. On the other hand, a dedicated proxy is only assigned to one user. So, opt for dedicated proxies for business use cases.
The two main types of proxies are residential and datacenter.
- Residential Proxy: A residential proxy takes its IP address from an actual user living in a residential space like a home or an apartment. It’s much safer than any other type of proxy since it’s linked to human users that websites do not want to block. The requests you send with a residential proxy will seem organic to the target website’s server, allowing you to steer clear of the anti-bot system. On the downside, a residential proxy is more expensive.
- Datacenter Proxy: Datacenter proxies may be dedicated or shared. In both cases, they come from data centers and don’t provide the same level of protection against bans. However, they’re much cheaper and faster, making them suitable for urgent scraping needs.
Think of residential proxies, but instead of having the IPs from home addresses, they have the IPs assigned to mobile phones. That’s a mobile proxy. These proxies may help businesses collect consumer sentiment analysis data and conduct market research.
2. Rotate Your IP Addresses
When using proxies, it’s important to rotate your IPs to avoid suspicion. If a website’s anti-bot system sees hundreds or thousands of requests coming from the same IP address, it will definitely flag that IP. To prevent this, use an IP rotation service.
Many proxy providers offer an IP rotation service either as part of their packages or as an add-on. Make sure to check if their package includes IP rotation before you choose a provider.
3. Set Real Request Headers
The request header is a set of fields sent by the browser to the server that informs the server what kind of browser is being used. It also has other information about the browser attributes. Set real requests headers to make it seem like the request is coming from an actual user.
- Start by going to Httpbin to see the request header your browser is currently sending.
- Look at the User-Agent, the string telling the target website’s server about your system’s operating sensor, version, and vendor.
- Set the headers using your preferred library to make your scraper look like a regular web browser.
For instance, you can learn about request libraries in Python here.
4. Use a Headless Browser
A headless browser is like your regular browser but lacks a graphical user interface. Most browsers, like Firefox and Google Chrome, have a headless mode you can use for web scraping.
When using a headless browser, you can still use a few things to strengthen your defenses against the anti-bot system. For example, you can use a headless browser with a proxy. Some automation suits like Selenium allow you to do that.
5. Avoid Getting Fingerprinted
Anti-bot systems use fingerprinting to determine if the request is coming from a human user or a bot. You can avoid this by changing your request patterns so that the anti-bot mechanism does not get triggered.
For example, if you send access requests at the same time daily for a month straight, the anti-bot system will quickly flag you as a bot. Instead, if you use different intervals and times, you’ll appear more ”organic.”
Similarly, avoid sending too many requests at once. Space you requests apart since that’s more human-like. Also, change your headless browsers from time to time and configure them to have different resolutions, fonts, and other attributes.
Conclusion
Although there are many ways to bypass anti-bot mechanisms, proxy servers are often the best and most reliable option. A residential proxy can provide you with the security and efficiency you need to scrape data from any website. The upfront cost of acquiring these proxies can be compensated by the eventual monetary benefit they offer once you put the data to use.
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