Proxy servers come in all shapes and forms. From a residential proxy server to an anonymous proxy server. With each having massive drawbacks and advantages. As a company it is your duty to decide both what fits your budget and make sure that you can collect data. Or as it’s commonly known, scraping data from websites. Below are the different types of proxy servers and how you can benefit from collecting data using these.
Our first middle ground and most well-known form of a proxy server is what we call a residential proxy server. These are servers that use IP addresses instead of a data center like the other two. It’s the harder of all three to completely get blocked on and allows you to safely collect data. There are various types of residential proxies but essentially you can gather data by using someone else’s IP address to gather information. Companies are less likely to fully catch onto you as easily.
The more expensive option is the dedicated proxies. A dedicated proxy is your own personal proxy that allows you to easily hide your IP and allows you to collect data and avoid getting blacklisted from various sites. It’s among the most secure forms of our proxies but also lets you stick out like a sore thumb if you raise flags. It’s best to be safe when trying to collect data with this.
The last option is to use an anonymous proxy. This leaves you more vulnerable to scraping data as some sites may already blocked your IP and this becomes a problem when trying to scrape for data. Anonymous proxy may sound pretty good since its main usage is a VPN but the moment a company catches onto your need to steal your data. You may become quickly unable to with this option as your information may not be completely hidden. The recommended option is to decide your budget and figure out what works best for your team and needs.
Still, the question remains if you know what these proxies are, how do you even begin to benefit from using these services? Data scraping is an easier and more expensive way of trying to get keywords and gain an edge on the articles that you write. You can challenge them with what they wrote and perhaps write it better. Or maybe you can challenge a keyword that they used. Data scraping can be handy. Or it can become the most dangerous thing you’ve done. Or even more simply, just take all the location data that you need from them and target accurately!
As a company using those services is dependent upon whether you agree on the need of anonymity and how big the company is. For example, I would recommend probably using a residential proxy server to collect data.
However, you can use any of these to have individual people scrape for data and avoid detection. You could also take the information from them and use it to better target your age group. That’s what this whole idea that we are talking about is for. Different proxies offer more security and others offer more capabilities in getting the data that you may need. Using the information above make a more informed decision by checking out some companies that offer these services and choose your favorite.
