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5 Misunderstandings About Web Scraping

Meta Description: There are a lot of misunderstandings about web scraping and we are going to share some of the common misunderstandings people have about web scraping service.

Web scraping is an extreme powerful tool which is used to extract personal data from websites. There are a lot of misunderstandings about web scraping and we are going to share some of the common misunderstandings people have about web scraping service.

  1. Web scraping can be used to extract personal data.

Web scraping is a powerful tool which can be used to extract a lot of personal data. However, it doesn’t guarantee you that the data which is being scraped is useful. A lot of contacts which are extracted can be spam or already getting a lot of promotional emails, so your marketing strategy should be professional and great to stand out. It all depends on your luck, you can also get a great list and also a useless list. The data which is easily visible is never useful.

  1. The entire web can be scraped with web scraping.

The entire web can be scraped through web scraping is totally impossible because each and every website is developing each and every day and they all need different coding script everytime. The same coding script doesn’t work in all the websites, it requires different coding script for every website. The first step in web scraping is called defining of sources. Beside all this, you need to know where the data is stored in the website.

  1. Web scraping setups are very versatile.

Web scraping setups are versatile, this statement is totally wrong. Web scraping setups are very fragile and unstable. This can be due to bad coding and also because all the websites are updating daily so you have to keep updating your coding script as per the website. You can surely get a steady supply of data with a reliable web scraping service. A good web scraping service provide will regularly monitor your targets scripts.

  1. Web scraping is illegal.

A lot of people on the internet think web scraping is illegal, so let’s make it clear it’s not. Extracting data from the web is not illegal. But, it must follow the website’s guidelines and policies. There are websites which have banned web scraping and bots, there are websites which allow you to extract data but not all the data. You must follow the website’s policies and guidelines, not following them can lead to a legal case against you. So just prevent breaking rules else it’s all legal.

  1. Web scraping is cheap.

Web scraping is a service which almost every business in the world use to extract email addresses from websites, contacts and other personal data.

Many people think that this service is really cheap, however it can be true but it all depends on the freelancer you’re working with. If you will do a little research in the pricing list of the freelancers, you’ll surely find a great difference. This is just because freelancers with higher prices will provide you a better service. Make sure you choose a professional web scraping service providing.

Let’s see if the points mentioned above helped you clearing your misunderstandings about web scraping service.

About Author:

Ashis Kumar is a freelancer at Upwork and founder of WeBringIdeas.com who likes to share his ideas through blogging. He has helped many small and large businesses to improve their online presence.

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