This is a time of intense competition. Businesses use every tool at their disposal to stay ahead. Web scraping is the best way for businesses to reach this level of dominance. This field is not without its challenges. Websites use various anti-scraping methods to prevent you from scraping their sites. There is always a way around.
What are our knowledge about web scraping?
There are many websites on the WWW. You might find some of their websites on the same domain. Amazon, for example, is an ecommerce website. These websites can be your competitors, even if you don’t try. When it comes to success, you must identify and conquer your competitors. What are some ways to get an edge over millions of others in your domain?
Web scraping is the answer.
What are Anti-Scraping Tool and How Do You Deal with Them?
You will need to target well-known websites as a growing company. In such cases, web scraping can be difficult. Why? These websites use anti-scraping methods to block your path.
What are these anti-scraping devices for?
Websites harbor much information. This information can be used by genuine visitors to find out more or to purchase the product they are interested in. This information can be used to gain a competitive advantage by not-so-genuine users, such as those visiting competitor websites. Websites use anti-scraping software to keep their competition at bay.
Anti-scraping tools are able to identify non-genuine visitors, and stop them from acquiring data. These anti-scraping tools can be as simple or complex as IP address detection, or as complicated as JavaScript verification. We will look at some ways to bypass even the most restrictive anti-scraping tools.
1. Keep Rotating Your IP Address
This is the easiest method to trick any anti-scraping software. An IP address can be described as a numerical identifier that is assigned to a device. It can be easily viewed when you visit a site to do web scraping.
Many websites monitor the IP addresses of visitors who surf their sites. While you are trying to scrape large sites, it is important that you have several IP addresses. This is like wearing a different mask every time you leave your home. You won’t get your IP addresses blocked if you have several of them. This works well with most websites. However, some high-profile websites use advanced proxy blacklists. This is why you should be smarter. Here, reliable alternatives are mobile or residential proxy services.
In case you were wondering, there are many types of proxy servers. There is a limit to the number of IP addresses that can be used in the world. However, 100 IP addresses will allow you to visit 100 websites at once without being suspected. The most important step in proxy service providers is to choose the right one.
2. A Real User Agent is recommended
A type of HTTP header is the user agent. They are used to determine which browser you use to visit a website. If you visit a site that is not major, they can block you. Chrome and Mozilla Firefox are two examples of important sites. This is something that most scrapers overlook. By setting up a well-known and authentic user agent, you can reduce your chance of being blacklisted.
It is easy to find one of the user agents. Google bot User Agent is available for advanced websites. Google bot will be able to access your site by submitting your request. This will also list you on Google. The best user agent is always up-to date. Each browser uses a different user agent. If you fail to keep up with the latest user-agents, you may be accused of being a liar. Rotating among several user agents, in short, using a rotating residential proxy can also give you an advantage.
3. Maintain random intervals between each request
A web scraper works in the same way as a robot. Web scraping tools send out requests at regular intervals. You should aim to look as natural as possible. People don’t like routine so it is better to spread out your requests at random intervals. You can avoid any anti-scraping tools on the target site by doing this.
Your requests should be polite. If you send too many requests, it can cause the website to crash for everyone. It is not the goal to overload the website in any way. Scrappy, for example, has the mandatory requirement to send requests slowly. You can also refer to robots.txt on a website for additional security. These documents contain a line indicating crawl-delay. You can see how long you have to wait before you generate high server traffic.
4. A Referrer Always Helps
Referrer headers are HTTP request headers that specify which site you are being redirected to. This header can save your life during web scraping operations. It should appear as though you are visiting Google directly. The header “Referrer”: “https://www.domain.com/” can help you do this. This can be changed as you move between countries. For example, in the UK, you can use “https://www.domain.co.uk/”.
Many websites affiliate with certain referrers to redirect traffic. To find the common referrer to a website, you can use Similar Web. These referrers can be found on social media sites such as YouTube and Facebook. Being able to identify the referrer will help you look more authentic. Your target website will believe that your usual referrer directed you to their site. The target site will consider you a legitimate visitor and not block you.
5. Avoid Honeypot traps
Website handlers became smarter as robots got smarter. Many websites place invisible links that scraping robots can follow. Websites can intercept these robots and block your web scraping operation. You can protect yourself by looking for hidden CSS properties such as visibility: hidden or display: none in a link. These properties can be detected in a link and it is time for you to go back.
Websites can use this method to trap and identify any programed scraper. They can then identify and trap any programmed scraper, and block them forever. This is the web security method web crawlers are unable to access. You should check every page for such properties. Webmasters may also alter the background color to make their links appear more appealing. For additional security, you can also look for properties such as “color #fff” and “color #ffffff”. You can also save yourself from links that are invisible.
