Would Web Scraping Benefit Your Company?
In today’s world, there is so much public data on the internet. With millions of websites developed worldwide, anybody can access this information. A number of entrepreneurs, data analysts, and marketers use this information to make valuable decisions to grow their companies. However, obtaining the right data using manual methods for your business expansion can be tedious. That’s when web scraping makes the process more efficient and effective.
Web scraping uses bots (scrapers) to gather data from web pages and organize it into different formats. It can crawl web pages within the site and automate the endless task of manually copying and pasting the displayed data. This process not only helps businesses of all kinds find and leverage important information but also compile it for future analysis. To get to grips with the main uses of this process, we have collated the most common use cases in this post.
Main Use Cases for Web Scraping
Web scraping can have many objectives, given the information that needs to be retrieved or the type of market. What keeps them together is that data is crucial for every business wanting to move forward. Data helps business owners make informed decisions. Here are the primary uses of the web scraping process:
Market Research
All in all, market research can make or break a business. It is an important source of information and a good starting point, especially in complex industries. Market research helps companies get an idea of market direction and take advantage of the opportunities this presents. Market researchers use important data for finding market trends, research and development, price analysis, and competitive analysis to create an edge on the market.
With web scraping, companies can get valuable web data that can be a significant turning point in future decisions. E-commerce businesses can use a web scraper made using the Python requests library to examine market trends related to the kinds of products offered. In addition, they can monitor pricing trends and correlate that data with events or seasons to better understand what their competitor is doing.
Lead Generation
Leads are essential to bringing success to an online business. However, trying to collect data manually can be difficult. Through web scraping, companies can retrieve more data in less time and use the obtained information for building a broader customer base. Businesses can use web scrapers to acquire leads, develop an email database, scrape reviews, and export data to a database or CRM – making life a lot easier.
In addition, recruiting firms can use web scraping to learn what their competitors are looking for. Also, these scrapers can obtain data from job aggregation websites and keep them in the required format to get the upper hand. For sales representatives, web scraping can draw leads and find marketing and sales solutions.
Competitor Analysis
Competitor analysis is important for companies to have detailed information about their competitors. Companies should know what their competitors’ marketing plan is, the prices they have, their reputation, etc. Web scraping is useful in retrieving vital information from competitors’ websites. Scrapers are used to timely respond to recent product launches, find potential customers, predict industry trends, and stay competitive. E-commerce brands can use this process to see how their competitors are pricing their products, reviews, discounts, or sales.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Landing on the very first page of the search engine is vital for businesses, with over 90% of people never opening other pages of Google results. So, if your business doesn’t rank on the first page for the search terms defining what you do, then you will struggle to get natural traffic. Through web scraping, businesses can scrape search results to find the keywords used by the sites whose pages are among the first entries on the SERPs. Then, they can strategically integrate these keywords into their digital content. This helps them increase their search ranking and traffic.
Also, while comparing the online footprint of different businesses for SEO purposes, web scraping is used to determine the number of backlinks a company has, where its pages are ranking, and other stats.
Brand Monitoring
For companies, it is important to monitor social media and other channels to discover what people are talking about them and their products. Web scraping can help retrieve all such data from different channels to help executives measure and track their success over time. Using scrapers built with Python requests library, companies can track forums, reviews on e-commerce websites, and mentions of their name for a better understanding of the voice of their customers. This helps brands quickly identify and triage any negative comments to reduce any damage to brand awareness.
To learn more about the Python requests library, here’s a great blog article worth a read.
Real Estate Data Optimization
The real estate world has absolutely changed due to digitization over the last few years. Web scrapers can extract property details provided by real estate websites. Many individual agents and companies populate their database with properties available for rent or sale using real estate scrapers. With web scraping, businesses can delve into new markets and gather historical sales data to ensure that property prices support liquidity without sacrificing profits. For those who target acquisitions for investment reasons, obtaining available data improves their searches and helps them find better offers.
Closing Thoughts
Data is crucial for all businesses, and the above use cases are only a fraction of what web scraping can do. Companies willing to unlock the power of web scraping can obtain a vast amount of important data. Web scraping, if done right, can retrieve essential data that will help any company make optimum decisions.
With a solid foundation in technology, backed by a BIT degree, Lucas Noah has carved a niche for himself in the world of content creation and digital storytelling. Currently lending his expertise to Creative Outrank LLC and Oceana Express LLC, Lucas has become a... Read more