Getting into web scraping can be much easier with proper routines and practices. For example, writing a simple scraping bot doesn’t have to be overly complex. All you need is a beginner-friendly programming language like Python.
It gives you all the features and access to Python requests library frameworks like Scrapy and Beautiful Soup to get you started. The best web scraping routines typically involve both a coding and non-coding approach.
Since web scraping allows individual and corporate users to extract precious data from the web, let’s talk about the best, legal ways to get your hands on valuable insights.
Make sure an API is available
API stands for an application programming interface. An API allows your scraping bot to extract data using a simple software tool. In other words, it simplifies web browsing, content targeting, and data extraction.
However, an API must be available to benefit from such a level of convenience and simplicity. When API is accessible, you use it to launch a query. An API will return with the targeted data as a response.
There are three scenarios for web scraping with an API:
- API is available – full API availability means all the data attributes are available, and you’re free to extract the wanted data using the API tool service;
- No sufficient data attributes for the requested use case – an API can be available but lacks sufficient attributes to execute the use case. In such a scenario, you feed the data to the API using web scraping;
- API isn’t available – web scraping is the only way to extract the data.
Avoid anti-scraping mechanisms
Web scraping requires you to make a request to the target website. Modern websites use anti-scraping and anti-bot mechanisms to prevent inhuman activity. Each time you send a request, websites rely on their servers to provide you with the wanted results.
In other words, the frequency and volume of your scraping requests should not exceed the website servers’ limit. Overloading website servers could result in getting detected and blocked.
Limit the number of requests to target websites and use proxies to mimic human behavior. Some proxy types give you access to multiple IP addresses to avoid suspicion and detection.
Pay attention to Robots.txt
When browsing and scraping data from web pages, it’s crucial to respect Robots.txt. Webmasters and administrators use the robot.txt files to make their web pages more visible on search engines.
This text file is a resource of instruction for web crawlers and scrapers that instructs them on how to crawl web pages on the target sites. Websites have specific pages that are off limits to web scrapers and crawlers.
Robots.txt files determine the following things:
- Whether your scraping bots are allowed to scrape specific pages;
- How frequently they can do it;
- How fast they can do it;
- Which user agents to use.
Diversify your crawling approach
Although bot and human interaction may appear similar, there are inherent differences in interaction with data from the web. Human interactions usually follow the same patterns.
They are unpredictable and slow. Bots, on the other hand, are fast and predictable. That’s why websites use CAPTCHAs to detect bot behavior and block access.
Diversify your crawling approach by using random scraping patterns. That should help you avoid anti-scraping mechanisms.
Use scraping tools like Python scrapers
Web scraping tools allow you to scrape multiple target web pages at once. Tools like proxies also hide your IP to prevent IP blocking and scrape geo-restricted websites.
However, scraping bots built with Python are some of the most effective scraping tools on the web. Aside from increasing your scraping efficiency, Python can speed up your operations and make data extraction as fast, effective, and accurate as possible.
The Python requests library is a perfect scraping tool for parsing complex HTML and XML pages and targeting specific page components for extraction.
Watch out for honeypot traps
Also called honeypot links, honeypot traps are anti-scraping measures used to detect, ban or block web scrapers. Websites use special links that aren’t visible to regular users.
However, web scrapers can see them. When they access such links, the target website immediately detects anti-human activity and blocks the IP in question.
Conclusion
Following the best web scraping practices when trying to extract precious data for your business is a surefire way to save time, effort, and resources. It makes sure you get the wanted data without any trouble.
It also ensures you extract the data within legal boundaries to avoid lawsuits. We recommend keeping an eye on the latest trends in web scraping, as it might help to get the latest updates on the best routines for avoiding anti-scraping mechanisms.
From choosing the best scraping technique to understanding terms of service, we advise you to stay vigilant when extracting data from the web.
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