What is Web Scraping: Function, How It Works, and Examples
Have you ever heard the term web scraping? This term may still be rarely heard by ordinary people. But for business people, web scraping is a term that may be familiar. In this article, I will fully explain What is Web Scraping, its function, how it works, and examples. So don’t miss this discussion. Let’s get started.
What is Web Scraping
Web scraping is one of the most efficient methods for extracting data from a website. The data or information taken is usually in large quantities and is used for research or analysis purposes.
This method is very useful for people who want to run an online business. One of them, you can collect information to create a business strategy.
The data or information taken can be in the form of product details, item prices, and other parts. This data is then taken and stored in the form of Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel, and the like.
You can do it manually or automatically. To do it manually, you can copy-paste data from a website to Spreadsheet, Google Docs, etc. Meanwhile, for automatic ones, you can use tools, coding, applications, and even browser extensions.
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Web Scraping Function
As mentioned previously, the main function of web scraping is to collect data or information. More details about its functions are as follows:
#1. Monitor prices on the market
Through web scraping, you can monitor or monitor the prices of similar products on the market. Apart from that, it will be easier for you to check price comparisons for similar products from competitors.
#2. Analyze Competitors
The next function of web scraping is to analyze other companies in the same niche as your business, aka competitors. With web scraping, you can collect information about competitors which can later be used to develop business strategies.
#3. Market Research
Apart from monitoring prices and analyzing the market, another function of web scraping is for market research. This will be useful in preparing marketing strategies. Because the data collected will be more accurate.
You can also find out various trends or viral things that are currently popular with the target market. This data can also be a consideration for making and marketing products.
#4. Collecting New Leads
Looking for as many contacts as possible from the target market is one way to get or collect new leads. So you can get contacts of potential new customers, such as email addresses.
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How Web Scraping Works
You may still be curious about how web scraping works so that you can collect information or data from a website. First, you need to determine the data source you want to scrape. Usually, the data source is in the form of a website URL.
Next, the scraper (the tool used) will load the HTML code on the page. Scraper can also load other data, such as CSS and Javascript elements.
After that, select the part you want to scrape. For example, images, videos, text, or other information on the website. Finally, extract the data you want and save it in the required format, such as Spreadsheet, Doc, and similar.
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Example of Web Scraping
To make it easier to understand, below Rumahweb provides an example of web scraping done manually.
For example, John wants to collect data about content or news containing their newest products. First, John will enter the product keywords in Google, then check the first page of search results, or go directly to the “News” or “News” tab.
After that, John will visit related online media to view articles containing their products. This news is then collected by copying and pasting it into a Google Docs document.
This step taken by John can be said to be manual web scraping.
Then, what about the automatic one? Currently, there are a lot of software or tools available that can be used to do this automatically. For example, Scrapy, Data Scraper, Parsehub, and others.
Compared to doing web scraping manually, the presence of various software or tools will speed up the process of extracting data from the websites you visit.
Web scraping is a data extraction method for use as research material. That is a complete explanation of its meaning, function, how it works, and examples. Hopefully, this article can help you develop your current business. Any questions, comment down below.