The internet stores countless amounts of data, and this amount grows every day. There are over 100 million sites globally, all offering some kind of information, and the owners are updating these sites daily.
There’s a lot of user-generated content as well, meaning that there are a lot of valuable resources companies can use to their advantage. The main question is, what is the best way to gather this online data? Web scraping is one of the most popular automated data-gathering methods.
It can make your data process more efficient overall and overcome different challenges. Today we’ll talk about how web scraping can help your business.
Introduction to web scraping
Web scraping, data scraping, or web harvesting uses automated software to collect large amounts of data online. These tools are called web scrapers, scraping bots, and scrapers, and they have the power to collect data online and store it in a desired file format and structure.
Even though this is the only function of web scrapers, companies can use this data in many ways to improve their processes. In modern business, it’s about having the correct information at the right time and using it to adjust your approach.
It’s important to mention that web scraping is legal and that companies can use it to gather any public information online that’s not blocked by the owner.
Staying competitive
The digital world has created a fast-paced business environment where trends and behaviors change quickly. Companies need to recognize these changes and be flexible to stay competitive. You must review case studies, track announcements, and analyze your competition.
You can do this with web scraping, especially if you want to look closely at your competitors. For example, you can scrape product and service promotions data to understand how your competitors spend their budgets.
On the other hand, you can see who are their top clients, what are their most engaging posts, and much more.
Finding new leads
B2B companies can take advantage of online sites like Yelp and Yellow pages to quickly find many potential clients interested in their services or products. You can acquire helpful information such as industry, location, contact information, and business name to create a new leads list.
All this information can help your marketing teams approach potential customers more effectively and help sales teams convert them into paying customers. On the other hand, B2C companies can also utilize scraping for generating leads.
You can simply see who is communicating with your competitors on social media and learn more about their target audiences to create a more accurate persona.
Improve content marketing
Collecting data from social media has many different uses. For example, you can gather data from Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to see what kind of content is most popular, what your audience is consuming, and what kind of audience loves your content.
All this information can help you improve your overall content strategy. You can also use web scraping to track the most relevant keywords in your industry and create a keywords list that will effectively bring in organic traffic and boost your SEO.
The Python requests library used by most modern scrapers also allows companies to download content from pages and access various APPs, making it highly versatile.
Streamline reputation management
Controlling your online presence is a big part of branding and creating a reputable name. You must keep track of what people say about your business, products, and services. You can use web scrapers to search for all the mentions of your business on blogs, forums, websites, and social media.
In other words, you won’t miss any reviews, feedback, or comments. It’s essential to track all these things and respond on time. For example, if someone shares a negative review about your business, you can respond, offer help, or ask them to tell you more about their problem.
It will show other customers that you care and want to improve your level of service. If you just let these negative comments stand, they will create a negative reputation around your brand.
Scrapers can access information on any page
There are many automated data gathering processes, but their design makes web scrapers great. Scrapers created in Python use the Python requests library that allows different scraping functionalities like accessing APPs, APIs, posting to forms, and downloading content.
At the same time, they can work with international domains and URL addresses with genuine authentication. Modern proxies allow the use of proxies to effectively access all websites, even those with complex structures, geo-blocks, and security measures.
Find more info about getting your hands on Python web scraping.
Conclusion
These are only some advantages of using web scraping for your business. This process can help you develop new products, optimize prices, improve strategic intelligence, and more. Take the time to find the right scraping service that will give you valuable data you can use for your business efforts.
