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Data scraping
Data scraping, also known as web scraping, is the process of extracting information from a website and saving it into a local file or spreadsheet.
What is data scraping?
Data scraping refers to a technique where a computer program extracts data from output generated by another program. It’s commonly used in web scraping, which involves using a program to extract valuable information from websites.
Why scrape website data?
Companies often do not want their unique content to be downloaded and reused for unauthorized purposes, so they don’t make all data easily accessible. However, scraper bots aim to gather website data regardless of these limitations. This creates an ongoing battle between web scraping bots and content protection strategies.
How data scraping works
Web scraping involves three main steps: requesting data, parsing it, and extracting it.
First, the scraper bot sends an HTTP GET request to a website. When the site responds, the bot parses the HTML document to find specific data patterns. Finally, the extracted data is converted into a usable format, such as a CSV file.
- Request: The scraper bot sends an HTTP GET request to a specific website.
- Parse: The scraper parses the HTML document to find specific data patterns.
- Extract: The data is extracted and converted into a format specified by the scraper’s author.
Common uses of data scraping
Data scraping has a wide range of applications. It can be used to gather content, compare prices, or collect contact information.
- Content scraping: Extracting content from one site to replicate it on another.
- Price scraping: Aggregating pricing data to gain a competitive advantage.
- Contact scraping: Collecting email addresses and phone numbers for bulk mailing or scams.
Examples of data scraping
Data scraping is useful for competitor analysis, data aggregation, and in-depth reporting. It allows businesses to extract and analyze large amounts of data efficiently.
- Competitor analysis: Extracting product details and prices from competitors’ websites.
- Data aggregation: Compiling information from various sources into one location.
- In-depth reporting: Using scraped data to create comprehensive reports and analyses.
How to stop web scraping and bad bots
While it is nearly impossible to stop web scraping entirely without removing your content from the web, using advanced bot management solutions can significantly reduce unauthorized data access. These solutions use machine learning and behavioral analysis to identify and block malicious bots.
Websites can employ several strategies to limit the effectiveness of data scraping. These methods aim to make it more difficult for bots to extract data.
- Rate limit requests: Limit the number of requests an IP address can make in a certain period.
- Modify HTML markup regularly: Change HTML elements to complicate scraping.
- Use CAPTCHAs: Require visitors to solve CAPTCHAs, which bots usually cannot do.
The Sucuri firewall contains rate limiting and captcha features designed to help block and prevent malicious bots from attacking your website. Get in touch with our team to learn more.
How marketers use data scraping
Marketers use data scraping to gather information quickly and efficiently. This technique helps them compile data from various sources, expedite research, and automate updates.
- Gathering disparate data: Combining unstructured data from multiple sources into a structured format.
- Expediting research: Quickly retrieving data from specific web pages.
- Outputting XML feeds: Automating updates for product listings on platforms like Google Shopping.
The dark side of data scraping
While data scraping has many legitimate uses, it can also be abused. Some people use scraping tools to collect email addresses or steal sensitive information. For example, spammers use scraped email addresses to send unsolicited messages, and some companies have been sued for scraping data without permission.
Difference between data scraping and data crawling
Data scraping and data crawling are often confused but are quite different. Data crawling involves indexing web content for search engines like Google, while data scraping focuses on extracting specific information from websites, often ignoring guidelines set in the robots.txt file.
Data scraping is a powerful tool for extracting information from websites. While it has many legitimate uses, such as research and competitor analysis, it can also be misused. Protecting your data from being scraped involves a combination of techniques, including rate limiting, CAPTCHA, and data obfuscation.
Get in touch with our team to learn more about how the Sucuri firewall can help block malicious bots and protect your website.
