Logo
How the use of web scraping can help your business grow in 2020?

How the use of web scraping can help your business grow in 2020?

 uses of web scraping

‘’Estimated $6 trillion in damages by 2021’’

That is the number of cyber-attack damage that is soon to happen. The 2019 market is efficient in its growth when it comes to the development of high-end technology measures. But despite the technology making lives easier, a part of it is also easing the work of hackers across the globe. 

Due to the high attack rates, ‘’Cybercrimes have accounted for trillions of dollars in losses, the amount in 2019 was $2 trillion’’ brands have been forced to safeguard their data with strict measures which become highly impossible to access through. This may be a great mechanism to secure confidential information but it can cause a high impact on growing businesses.

For instance, with the brands rising today, their main agenda is to tackle competitors and align themselves between the top brands, but without having the data to understand what the top brands are doing, how can they start planning and strategizing their growth? 

The online world holds pools of information from different sectors and categories, yet even today accessing relevant data isn’t an easy task. The option of copy-pasting data not only triggers attention to block IP addresses conducting this action, but it also slows the time to conduct research and improvise on the current brand solutions.

This is exactly why web scraping needs to be introduced. An effective and impactful process that helps brands to find the right data without having to conduct much effort and use that quality data to work on assisting clients better.

Post Quick Links

Jump straight to the section of the post you want to read:

WHAT IS WEB SCRAPING?

Web scraping is the process of extracting data from websites, or other sources of information and saving it in a system where the data can be monitored and put to good use. The great thing about web scraping is that the process can be conducted in 3 simple ways:

  • Click on the website or source you want to extract data from
  • Let the data extraction take place
  • Data will be saved in the system in the format required by the user for instance CSV file

The online world has huge data and not all the data you see are relevant to your research work. Conducting it manually will not only consume a lot of time but take up a lot of effort and keep brands at high risk of being spotted as suspicious which is why web scraping can be used. Web scraping can conduct the process of data retrieval without any risks and much faster. It could ideally save half the burden and time for brands like yours to mould products into a successful lead driven solution efficiently.

How can your ‘solution’ be converted into a successful ‘lead driven solution’? The answer lies in the usage of this convenient process.

15 USES OF WEB SCRAPING

uses of web scraping

1. SCRAPE RELEVANT DATA

The online world as mentioned earlier consists of vast data. Any information you need today, the online platform is room to providing them all. But from a business point of view especially brands like yours, not all the information that is available online will serve your purpose concerning brand growth.

Hence this is the reason why web scraping exists. The use of web scraping here helps to extract only those information which is relevant. For instance, scraping information about competitor's pricing strategies, client reviews, feedbacks of clients about various topics such as new product launches and so much more. All these can conduct quality actions to serve such clients more easily and quickly. 

2. CONDUCT IMPACTFUL IMPROVISATIONS QUICKER

Did you know that the quicker you assist leads, the easier it becomes to convert them into a sales lead? The competition is getting tougher, more and more competitors are joining in the race with you to capture qualified leads much quicker and if your brand is going to step down slower, don’t be surprised for witnessing lower lead conversion rates.

The use of web scraping here is it helps to reach out to clients before the competitors can even realize. With web scraping, extracting information such as client's views on similar products like yours, their expectations on a particular product, what solutions they expect a product should deliver will all impact in the improvisation of your current solution. When the data comes in quicker, the process to sell an exceptional solution becomes easier to cover through. 

3. HELPS TO ACCESS COMPLETE DATA FROM VARIOUS SOURCES

Fewer brands today display their data to their audience. But despite providing such an advantage the data shown is normally not the data that a brand could benefit with. For instance, say a brand displayed its organization roots, history and achievements, how can a brand like yours benefit from it?

Due to this gap, the use of web scraping can benefit here. With web scraping, you can easily extract all the other information that a brand hides from the public eye. This would be the data that you can use to improvise and update your current solution to become the one ultimate source for leads to draw towards your brand. Since the solution created meets every lead's expectations, the conversion rate of such leads is higher. 

4. ENRICHES LEAD GENERATION ACTIVITIES

Web scraping can be very beneficial for this pointer. Tapping leads and converting them into a qualified sales lead isn’t just a tiresome task, it is tougher than it used to be. Today’s leads are more knowledgeable which is why they need to be tapped at the right time. With web scraping finding those leads can take the huge burden away from conducting this activity far away. Web scraping can help extract data of leads from various sources for instance, if few leads have commented on the competitor's website, leads that are showing interest in a blog relevant to what your brand to offers, a website with many followers and you believe that your solution is better than what it is offering, all of this information can be extracted with just one click.

The benefit here is that sales agents will be able to tap them quicker since these are all the warm leads that are looking for their needs to be satisfied in unique ways. For instance, a user on your competitor's website is simply following them because the solution being offered is similar to their needs. But since the market keeps changing needs to change, sales agents can take advantage by offering them a solution that will meet the next possible preference of that lead and win them over to their side. 

5. CONDUCTING EFFICIENT AUTOMATION ACTIVITIES

Nurturing leads is crucial because when it is nurtured well, there is a high chance that it can be converted into a qualified lead. But with so many changes, strategies and other works to focus on, how can brands conduct repetitive tasks such as daily nurturing of leads? The easiest way to answer is through the process of automation. With web scraping, this automation can be conducted successfully. With the use of web scraping, relevant data will be collected, the data will then be monitored and applied to different strategies conducted by a brand, once the data has applied a brand can conduct efficient automation for nurturing the leads where the outcome will match the expectations set by the brand.

To ensure that the automation is conducted efficiently, conducting automation for web scraping can help speed up the process and retrieve quality data whenever needed. This data can then be applied to other works that can be conducted in an automated manner hence delivering effective workflows.

6. KEEPING A CLOSER CHECK ON BRANDING ACTIVITIES

A brand can remain successful when it retains its good name while catering to the client’s needs. But this can’t happen if a brand is never up to date with the changing trends or isn’t applying what it’s current clients needs are. With the use of web scraping, this issue can be easily resolved. Many web scraping applications offer a great advantage of conducting this activity, with regular web scraping activities that can be selected by a brand for instance if you want a daily, weekly or monthly web scraping process to take place, this activity can be conducted accordingly.

When this happens it becomes easier to stay updated about the trends as well as the client’s change in preferences, it becomes even easier to identify what is new with the industry you are in and immediately provide you all the insights required to modify you current solution and trigger the attention of warm leads to come closer to you. 

7. CONDUCT EFFICIENT MARKET RESEARCH 

The market will keep changing. Trends that are working at the moment will not be an attention seeker 5 years from now. With the growth of technology and the rise in competitors, it is important for any brand to always keep a closer check on what is happening in the market. While this may seem like a great way to prepare for the next change it can be difficult for a fewer brand to adapt to the change quicker. For a technique to be trending the only way many find out is when another brand has already started implementing it. When this happens it takes a lot of time for brands to learn about it and then adapt which again slows the process of lead generation.

With web scraping, this action can be conducted a bit faster. Web scraping can extract the data in the past and currently and use that data to not just provide the current focus but also help in creating a prediction which can help brands to make decisions accordingly. The process of data mining creates an analysis with the data which is provided by web scraping to predict a solution which will most likely take place in the next few years. This can prepare brands to take measures and be able to adapt and prepare for what the next possible change will offer. It will become easier to tap the leads and garner their attention and drive them towards you at such a right time. 

8. CONDUCT PRODUCTIVE SEO ACTIVITIES

SEO stands for search engine optimization and as its meaning states, it works on optimizing all the SEO activities that take place. In SEO from implementing the right keywords to conducting efficient backlinks which will help rank brand’s SEO activity, conducting this process however isn’t that easy. Finding the keywords which clients will type to find their solutions isn’t easy, since there are millions of them, even with backlinks the purpose of them is to rank a website but if an article doesn't hold quality backlinks, the ranking factor reduces the brand's opportunity to appear in the eyes of clients.

Hence with the use of web scraping this problem can be resolved. With this process, brands can efficiently scrape through the keywords and backlinks used by competitors and also from other sources. With the keywords and backlinks saved in the system, brands can easily monitor and identify which are the efficient ones that can be placed in the content and improve their ranking. 

9. COMPARISON OF ESSENTIAL FACTORS

The best way to outsell your competitors is by understanding what strategies they are implementing to retain their position above yours. Seems to unrealistic? But with web scraping, you can know how your competitors are positioning their solution. With web scraping, you can easily extract information about their product descriptions, pricing, SEO activities such as the keywords they use, lead information and many more. This all helps brands like yours to improvise and work better in the framework of your current solution.

When you can see what your competitors offer to the market, a brand like yours can easily shape the way you’ll your solution. For instance, if your competitors sell their software for $15 a package, you could sell your packages for $10 and add in an extra feature which will compel your audience to consider looking at what is being offered by you.

10. RETAINS THE BRAND’S IDENTITY

When a lead has to learn more about a brand, the first place that they could start their research would be the review category. But in today’s scenario for unrealistic reasons or to spread hatred or to crush a well-established brand, many reviews fall under the negative category. This may seem unfair but it is happening on a large scale wherein the end the brand itself faces the loss. To avoid this web scraping can help.

With the use of web scraping, it can help to crawl out all the reviews, so if there is a bad review web scraping can help detect it and eliminate it as soon as possible. When such actions take place, it becomes easier to clear up any mess before it becomes a big thing. Keeping a regular crawling activity of bad reviews ensures the brand that is not being preyed under any negative comments. 

11. PERFORM BETTER THAN THE COMPETITORS

If you aim to sustain your brand higher amongst the crowd you must always have a close eye on what's happening with your competitors. From their website ranking to their social media activities, keeping an eye on what makes them always ahead of you can help you function better than them. Lucky for you, web scraping can be a great solution to help you out.

As it extracts data from relevant sources of your competitors, you and your team can easily monitor how their strategies are aligned for instance, how much do they price their additional features, what offers are being given, what boosts their website ranking and much more. With such quality information in hand, it becomes impossibles to rank lower than them in any aspect. 

12. CONDUCT BETTER CONTENT MARKETING ACTIVITIES

‘’In 2018, B2B marketers rate blog articles as the most effective content format in the awareness stage, whitepapers during consideration, and case studies during decision. ‘’

With content’s demand growing well with numbers, it is always right to continue to retain its position when the activity is conducted by a brand. But with the market changing and client’s preferences changing simultaneously how can a band detect what type of logs or what type of content their audience would like to read. Here is when the use of web scraping can benefit them.

With web scraping, extract data that your clients generally speak about in the comments of blog posts or social media interactions or while giving feedback, they always give their inputs and by scraping that any band can easily detect what they have in mind when it comes to the content platform. To make things easier, scrape through the content category of your competitors, what topics they are using, what do they speak about all can help brands like yours to determine how the content selling can be formulated more efficiently. 

13. CAPTURING THE MAIN PERSPECTIVE OF BUYERS DECISIONS

Many times a buyers would invest their time and money in a brand because they were able to connect to their ads emotionally. Emotional connect is another way to drive leads to trigger their attention to investing in a solution that regards them on a more personal level. Emotional connect is a great asset because ‘’it is creating an emotional connection to one company that separates it from the rest, creating brand loyalty over time.’’This is crucial to conduct because it can garner a lot of attention from the leads and start to develop trust and good bondage simultaneously.

But how do you know what creates that emotionally connect? Web scraping can help to identify that. Web scraping such information from the records or monitoring how a lead reacts to a particular ad can all be extracted. For instance, now on Facebook, many users imply an impression with the emojis mentioned there to give their opinion on a post or topic, Web scraping can extract that information and witness how many people approve or dismiss a particular action. 

14. HELPING IN MACHINE LEARNING

Today for the bots that are taking over the business industry and are operating to help bands function quicker and better also require the help of all sorts of data which can help it to function better. From setting up its command, conducting numerous tests to ensure a bot can function likewise a human, the right amount of data is required that can make this happen.

Hence it is easy to interpret that the use of web scraping can easily be incorporated to cater to all the data required for the efficient use of a bot that will enhance a brand better with many factors. 

15. FINDING THE RIGHT AUDIENCE 

A company can incur a heavy loss when they are not selling to the right target audience. This is a huge problem as it consumes a lot of time and money spent to cater to such leads and when the audience itself is wrong it can slow down the growth further of a brand. To eliminate such an issue, web scraping can help.

As it extracts data, this process can pull out information from many sources be it the social media accounts, the follower of your competitors or even the prospects who comment on relevant posts, all these information can be extracted and saved in your system so that it you can easily identify which audience is the right fit for your brand and start engaging with them further.

FAQ's

THE BOTTOM LINE…

Web scraping is a great mechanism when it comes to retrieving quality data for a brand’s enrichment and growth process. From securing high-quality SEO data which will enhance your brand better for managing and organizing a brand’s identity and monitoring activities, the uses of web scraping can breed good benefits that offer high-value services. 

But with a web scraping conducting numerous actions, at times scraping through struct and complex sources requires the right kind of protection. To conduct efficient web scraping activities, the use of good proxy servers can help create a secure and better foundation. Proxy servers help in shielding user's identities when it comes to conducting any online activities and with today’s online world detecting even small minute actions as suspicious, it seems wise to have a proxy server who is well versed in providing security and protecting identity measures. 

With proxy servers, brands can now worry less about any risks and focus more on enhancing their brand with quality data at hand.

About the author

Rachael Chapman

A Complete Gamer and a Tech Geek. Brings out all her thoughts and Love in Writing Techie Blogs.

Icon NextPrevHow proxies can help in conducting efficient SEO activities?
NextFuture of Web Scraping and how it matters in 2020 | LimeproxiesIcon Prev

Ready to get started?