You might have heard advanced users often talk about proxies and wondered what this even means. Well, proxies are IP addresses, but they replace your original IP address and help you fulfill certain purposes.

Proxies are used in many different cases, but web scraping is arguably the most common use case of proxies. If you want to use proxies for scraping, you should always pick the best proxies for web scraping.

Read the article to the end to learn more about proxies, why you should use proxies, and their use cases. Let’s get started.

What Are Proxies?

To understand proxies, you must know what an IP address is. An IP address is a set of digits that represent your device’s address on the internet. For example, if you want to download something from the internet, your browser sends a request first. That request contains your IP address and the target web server can see your address. When the server sends the requested information back, it reaches your device using that IP address.

But sometimes, you might not want the target server to know your IP address. In such cases, you use proxies to reroute the data. Your request then goes through the proxy server and the target server receives an IP address other than your original one.

Why Should You Use Proxies?

When it comes to individual use, proxies are mostly used for improved privacy and accessing restricted content.

·  Proxies Make Browsing Anonymous

Your physical location can be traced through proxies. So, surfing the internet can reveal that information to malicious entities. If you don’t want to leave your footprint, using proxies is the best option. As proxies mask your original IP address, web servers can’t track you back.

·  You Can Access Restricted Content

Some content on the internet is location-specific. It means you can only access the content if your request goes from an IP address that originates from allowed locations. But if you use proxies, you don’t have to be in those locations physically. The proxy server will assign an IP address that will pretend to originate from the target location. So, the target server will allow access to the restricted content.

·  Proxies Help You Buy Rare Items

When the demand for something is high, it may be difficult for you to buy that item as many users might try for that item at the same time. If you use bots to send multiple requests, web servers can block fishy requests from the same location. If you use proxies, web servers won’t detect them as coming from the same person.

Use Cases Of Proxies

Other than individual use, proxies are commonly used in business operations. Here is a quick overview of the common use cases.

Web Scraping

It refers to collecting huge data from websites. Similar to buying limited edition items, websites block the IP address if it receives numerous requests from the same address. The best way to deal with this is to use proxies. Proxy servers rotate your IP address continuously, so web servers can’t detect that the requests are made by the same user or bot.

Market Research

Businesses always study the market to understand the demand for their products, competitor performance, and scope for new products. These require a lot of data, which isn’t possible to collect with the same IP address. So, businesses use proxies to bypass various restrictions and gather the necessary data to analyze the market.

SEO Monitoring

SEO is one of the most important factors in today’s marketing world. As the search engine is crowded with millions of content, it is crucial to rank higher in search results to get the desired exposure. But it requires detailed insights into the search patterns and other factors. Digital marketers scrape massive data from various platforms to determine their SEO strategies.

Ad Monitoring

This is another important use case of proxies. In this era of globalization, businesses run ads across the globe. But if a business is running ads in a location where it has no office or workforce, it becomes difficult to monitor if the ad is being shown properly. So, they use proxies and virtually travel to those locations to check if the ad is being shown properly. It also helps businesses measure ad performance.

Multiple Account Management

Social media managers are always in need of proxies because they need to handle hundreds of accounts on behalf of their clients on the same social media platform. As these platforms restrict the use of multiple accounts, proxies are the only solution out there.

Conclusion

While using proxies, you just use someone else’s IP address or an IP address provided by a data center to mask your original IP address. It allows you broader access to many operations that would not be possible without proxies.

If you use proxies for business, choosing the best proxies can help you a lot. Proxyway has a list of the best proxies for scraping on their website. Check it out to get your desired service.

Read Also:

• How Do Residential Proxies Work?
• What Is A Proxy Server And What Is It Used For
• How To Get Reliable Access To Geo-Restricted Websites