How Static Proxies Improve Web Scraping and Data Gathering

As the corporate landscape becomes increasingly competitive, businesses must implement out-of-the-box strategies to stay ahead of the pack. Making strategic, data-driven decisions is one way to gain an edge over your competitors.

While collecting actionable market insights can be time- and resource-intensive, you can accelerate the process using web scraping.

Web scraping is a data-gathering technique in which massive volumes of unstructured data are assembled from website content. The information is then structured and exported to data visualization platforms for a more in-depth analysis.

Web scraping can provide key insights into competitors’ behavior, such as pricing models and lead generation techniques.

Now, the efficacy of web scraping largely depends on the internet access software used. One such program is static proxies.

In this post, we examine the role of static proxies in facilitating web scraping and data collection.

What Is A Static Proxy?

Proxy servers are systems or routers that provide a gateway between clients requesting information from the internet and the servers that avail those resources. They receive traffic from your device and reroute it to the destination server using their IP addresses, thereby protecting your online identity.

Now, static proxies are a type of proxy server that lets you connect to the website from a single internet protocol (IP). They’re commonly contrasted with rotating proxies, which offer a pool of regularly changing IP addresses.

Despite supporting connections from a single IP location, a static proxy tool can improve your online reputation by registering all your browsing sessions as emanating from a common location. This is particularly useful when web scraping or managing multiple online accounts by similar providers.

What Makes Static Proxies Ideal for Web Scraping?

1. Static Proxies Load Faster

Web scraping is a bandwidth-intensive undertaking whose success depends on quickly accessing multiple websites while maintaining stable internet speeds.

Fortunately, devices that connect via static IP addresses enjoy relatively higher speed and connection quality than other proxy types.

You can unlock even better connection quality if you implement other speed-enhancing techniques, such as proxy caching.

2. Static Proxies Help Bypass Website Restrictions

Many websites implement robust anti-scraping measures, enabling them to block suspicious data gathering. It’s for that reason that some data scrapers prefer rotating proxies.

Unlike static proxies that maintain a singular IP address, rotating proxies let you switch to different IPs after a predefined duration.

However, static proxies can improve your online reputation by facilitating internet access from a constant location. Sending out similar requests frequently from one IP is less likely to arouse suspicion, as it portrays you as a human user genuinely questing for information rather than a malicious bot.

Even if your IP is unfortunately banned, you can easily appeal to the website administrators to lift the restriction.

However, ensuring uninterrupted access to webpages isn’t only imperative for web scrapers. Browsing from a static IP address may also help bypass geo-targeted website blockages by letting you maintain a consistent online identity.

3. Static Proxies Minimize CAPTCHAs

CAPTCHAs have become a common standard for detecting human internet users from automated bots. But while CAPTCHAs are reasonably easy to solve, the challenges can significantly impact your web scraping sessions when they only keep coming.

Fortunately, CAPTCHA challenges tend to be less common when connecting to the internet through residential proxy servers, such as static proxies. This can minimize disruptions and improve the efficiency of data collection.

By reducing CAPTCHAs’ security checks, each minute you’d have wasted solving these puzzles can now be invested in the project at hand.

4. Static Proxies Foster Ethical Data Collection

As mentioned, static proxies simulate genuine human behavior.

Sure, these proxy servers will route your internet queries from a common IP location. However, the fact that your address remains unaltered may cause the destination websites to reconsider any plans to ban your IP.

By facilitating internet connections from one address, static proxies allow web scrapers to align with the expectations of their destination websites. This can prevent DNS server overload, offer consistent access to critical resources, and foster ethical data collection.

Besides, the mere fact of using a static proxy for web scraping encourages scrapers to implement unaggressive scraping techniques for fear of blockages.

When you implement ethical data collection techniques, it’s easier to undertake long-term scraping projects without the nagging fears of getting your IPs blocked. It also enhances the quality of collected information by controlling where it’s gathered from.

5. Static Proxies Are Reasonably Affordable

Hopping from one IP to another may seem attractive for web scrapers who frequently get blocked from restricted websites.

However, there are cost implications to contend with.

As long as you practice ethical data scraping techniques, the cost of maintaining static proxies can be significantly lower than the cumulative fees charged for rotating IP services.

The Bottom Line

While web scraping isn’t entirely illegal, many websites consider it unethical due to the sheer amount of strategic data you can obtain in one go.

Using static proxies can minimize IP bans for suspicious bot-related activity, enhancing access to otherwise restricted websites. You can also rely on static proxies to maintain a common IP address and avoid account flagging while managing multiple accounts by the same company.

To make the most of a static server for web scraping, it’s best to introduce delays between requests. Overloading a website with a barrage of traffic might have them restrict your IP address, grossly inconveniencing your web scraping project.