Web scraping is essential for any company looking to remain ahead of the competition. It allows you to gather data from multiple sources and analyze it for sophisticated marketing and business purposes.
However, web scraping is difficult. If you do not adhere to the finest web scraping methods, you may face blocks and bans from your target websites. This article was created to assist you in scraping Google data without being blacklisted.
What exactly is web scraping?
Web scraping is the extraction of public data from websites. It is possible to do it manually by copying and pasting the data into a spreadsheet, but it is tedious and time-consuming. A preferable method is to employ automated online scraping technologies, such as web scrapers, to acquire data fast and inexpensively.
Not all web scraping tools, however, are created equal. Some are complicated and restricted to specific targets. Others may require a higher success rate or the ability to handle dynamic content. That is why we recommend using robust scraping tools to simply manage any Google target.
Why do you require web scraping for your company?
Google is the greatest source of knowledge on any subject imaginable. It contains information about market trends, client comments, product prices, and much more. You can leverage Google data for a variety of business purposes by scraping it, such as:
- Analysis of competitors and benchmarking
- Analysis of public sentiment and reputation management
- Lead generation and business research
As per interesting statistics provided by the MarketSplash Team:
- Content scraping is the most common use of web scraping, with 38% of companies practicing it
- Bots make up a significant portion of web traffic, accounting for 61%
- The e-commerce industry is the largest consumer of web scraping services, holding a market share of around 50%
However, how can you scrape Google data without being blocked? Here are some pointers to get you started.
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Some suggestions for avoiding obstacles while crawling Google:
Web scraping can be difficult if you don’t know how to perform it correctly. Here are some best practices to prevent being blocked or banned while scraping Google data:
- Make use of IP rotation.
One of the most typical mistakes made by web scrapers is utilizing the same IP address for numerous requests. To avoid this, you must cycle your IP addresses periodically to appear as different users. Using the same IP address may notify the target website that you are a bot, triggering anti-scraping mechanisms.
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- Use trustworthy user agents.
A user agent is a piece of data that identifies the type of browser and operating system you are using. It is included in the HTTP request header and forwarded to the web server.
Some websites have the ability to detect and prohibit suspicious user agents that do not match the usual patterns of legitimate users.
As a result, you must employ realistic user agents that simulate the behavior of natural visitors. A list of the most common user agents can be found here.
It would also assist if you moved between multiple user agents on a regular basis to prevent forming a consistent pattern that websites can identify.
- Make use of a headless browser.
Some websites employ sophisticated measures to detect and prevent web scrapers, such as launching Javascript on the browser to collect various variables and metrics. You may need to utilize a headless browser to scrape these websites, which is a browser that does not have a graphical user interface (GUI).
A headless browser, like a standard browser, may generate dynamic content and run Javascript without displaying it on the screen. This browser can assist you in circumventing some anti-collecting methods and quickly scraping data.
- Make use of CAPTCHA solvers.
CAPTCHAs are those unpleasant riddles that you must solve in order to access some websites. They are intended to prevent bots from accessing and scraping data from the website. To circumvent this barrier, you must employ CAPTCHA solvers, which are services that can solve CAPTCHAs for you.
CAPTCHA solvers are classified into two types:
Human-based – genuine individuals solve the riddles and send the findings to you.
Without human assistance, artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms detect and solve issues.
You may bypass any CAPTCHA while scraping Google data by using our CAPTCHA-solving tool. It will save you time and effort while allowing you to scrape uninterrupted.
- Set your scrape requests’ delays and intervals.
Another error that web scrapers commit is sending too many queries in a short period of time.
This can cause the targeted website to crash or slow down. It may also notify the website that you are a bot, resulting in a block or ban.
To avoid this, slow down the scraping and specify pauses between requests.
You should also include random delays between requests to avoid establishing a predictable pattern that websites can detect.
You can also design your scrape schedule and evenly spread your requests over time.
This will assist you in organizing your scraping process and avoiding sending queries that are too fast or too slow.
- Determine webpage updates.
Web scraping is a continuous process. You must parse the data that you scrape and arrange it properly. However, if the structure of the website changes, parsing may encounter issues. This can happen when a website’s layout, design, functionality, or content is updated.
If the structure of the website changes, your parser may be unable to extract the data you require. It may also fail or produce incorrect results. As a result, you must regularly monitor and identify website changes and update your parser accordingly.
One method is to examine your parser’s output and verify if it can appropriately parse specific fields. If not, it could mean that the website’s structure has changed.
- Scrape photos only when absolutely necessary.
Images are large files that take up a lot of disk space and bandwidth. They can also slow down your scraper and make handling dynamic content more difficult. As a result, you should only scrap photographs if they are absolutely important to your goal.
Image scraping can also present ethical and legal concerns, as some embodiments may be protected by copyright or privacy regulations. Always respect the image owners’ rights and use their images only with their consent.
Data could be scraped from the Google cache.
To avoid blocks while scraping Google data, scrape data from Google cache rather than the actual website. Google cache is a duplicate of the website stored on Google’s servers. It can assist you in accessing the website even if it is unavailable or blocked.
However, there are significant limits to extracting data from Google Cache. It may not contain the most recent or accurate facts because it is not routinely updated. It may also only work for websites that include sensitive or dynamic information that changes on a regular basis.
As a result, you should only use this technique on websites that do not have such issues and where the cached data is adequate for your needs.
In addition to what we already mentioned, you would be interested to understand more about the aspects of legal web scraping and data extraction.
Conclusion
Web scraping is a great approach for collecting important data from Google and using it for business purposes. Web scraping, on the other hand, necessitates skills and knowledge in order to evade banning and bans from your target websites.
To successfully scrape Google data, you need to leverage web scraping best practices such as IP rotation, realistic user agents, headless browsers, CAPTCHA solvers, and more. Using dependable online scraping technologies, such as our Residential Proxies and proxy service, makes scraping easier and faster.
By following these guidelines, you will be able to scrape Google data without being prohibited and reap the benefits of web scraping for your business.
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