It is now estimated that over 83% of consumers in the US use data from e-Commerce websites to decide whether to buy a product or not.
In other words, a huge chunk of people that buy online use relevant data to influence their buying decision.
In light of this information, one can only begin to imagine the world of benefits that gathering data holds for online companies.
One of the most efficient ways to gather data from the web is through web crawling, and in this article, we will evaluate what is a web crawler, how it can be used, and the benefits it can bring to your business.
Description of a Web Crawler
A web crawler can be defined as an internet tool used for systematically navigating the internet, gathering information, and methodically storing that information in a way that creates an index.
An index is a repository that shows what something is and where it can be found on the web. In the first step of web crawling, the crawler is first fed some URLs, which it follows to other URLs and collects all necessary information while crawling.
The process is fast and quick because it is automated, and this also ensures the elimination of strain that comes from performing large-scale operations repetitively.
Most web crawling exercises involve millions of web pages at a time. These pages need to be revisited frequently to harvest updated information and refresh what has been previously stored.
Hence, without these automated tools, not only will the entire process be slow and inefficient, but it would also result in outdated data with too many errors in them.
The Uses Cases of Web Crawlers and How They Can Help Your Business
Having described what is a web crawler, let us see the different ways this tool can be used to improve your business:
- Brand and Competition Monitoring
The internet might be your best ally as it provides you with the avenue to reach a global customer base, but it can easily become a pitfall if you fail to do certain things.
Seeing how much people use online data to judge whether or not to make a purchase, it would be counterproductive not to monitor your brand and how it is mentioned online.
A bad mention or review could influence how buyers view your brand and drive sales away.
You can use web crawlers to monitor your brand across different spaces on the internet.
You can also use these tools to know what your competitors are doing and develop a strategy to outdo them.
- Checking Supplies, Availability, and Pricing
But the benefits of web crawlers are not reserved for manufacturers alone. Small businesses in retail can also perform better by deploying web crawlers now and then.
You can correctly check and confirm when supplies will be available and what new prices the products are selling for.
- Generating Leads
If you must sell consistently, you must have a pipeline filled with leads that can be easily converted to buyers.
These leads can often be found on social media and e-Commerce platforms, and one of the major ways to reach them and collect their information is to use a web crawler.
- Understanding Market Sentiments
Your products and services will hardly sell if they don’t align with the current and most prevalent sentiment in the market.
Market sentiments often cover everything from how buyers are feeling to how they are deciding what to spend their money on.
And you can easily use web crawling to dig into the market and collect all necessary data that tells you what is going on with the buyers.
The Features of Web Crawlers That Make Them Useful to You
Web crawlers work so well because of how they are designed and built, and below are the most common features that can make these tools very useful to your business:
- Automation
The core ingredient when writing a crawling script is automation. Data extraction is not an easy feat, and when it comes to browsing millions and billions of web pages, it will not take long before anyone burns out.
Web crawlers are designed to be automated and work to remove the stress of dealing with a large quantity of data.
- Intelligence
Automation alone takes a huge chunk out of the work you would have to do during web crawling.
And the next feature takes things a lot higher. Crawling bots use intelligence to identify qualities that make a web page crawling-worth and a URL relevant to the given topic.
This feature also helps to ensure that you don’t have to get involved at every turn as the machine can practically learn on its own and perform tasks effectively.
- Scalability
This feature is also very important and makes the tool very desirable. Scalability comes in handy in so many areas. For instance, if the tool needs to handle a different type of operation, it needs to do so without breaking.
Web crawlers are made to be easily scalable to handle new requirements and changes in the target destinations.
Conclusion
If one tool can help you get more data to grow your business, it is a web crawler. They offer several benefits and are very attractive to use due to their many features. Here’s a great blog article for anyone curious to know more about the various intricacies that make crawling useful and why it’s such a common choice nowadays.