Is Web Scraping Easy?

The same question keeps coming back - is web scraping easy?

The answer to that question is a resounding YES! Web scraping is easy! Anyone even without any knowledge of coding can scrape data if they are given the right tool. Programming doesn’t have to be the reason you are not scraping the data you need. There are various tools, such as Octoparse, designed to help non-programmers scrape websites for relevant data.

Table of Contents

What Is Web Scraping?

Use Case Web Scraping

How To Scrape Web Data Easily?

Conclusion

WHAT IS WEB SCRAPING?

Web scraping is simply the process of obtaining data from a website. It can be done manually with programming and automatically with a web scraping tool depending on how you want it.

With all that said, our main question is still left unanswered - is web scraping easy?

Not to worry, you will get answers.

USE CASE WEB SCRAPING

The data obtained from websites can be used for different things. Some of the ways people use web scraping include:

1. Frequent Data Update and Monitor

Data monitoring is very important in the eCommerce industry. It is used to monitor competitors, understand customers’ sentiments, and get a general overview of the market. For retailers that want to sell online, it can help them find the best products to sell.

2. Data and Information Congregation

Web scraping can be very valuable when you need a large amount of data. For example, if you want to create a real estate website, sports website, job aggregator, or maybe a news website, you would need to collect data from so many websites.

To gather all these data, you need to employ a powerful web scraping method that can scrape data from multiple sites including complex sites.

3. Text Analysis

When a business is trying to understand how its customers perceive its service on social media, it will need web scraping to get relevant information.

Social media data can provide valuable insights into trends and customers' online perception of a business. Through web scraping, businesses can use the data they’ve obtained to improve their overall customers’ satisfaction.

Is web scraping easy? Yes, and this next section talks about how to do it easily.

HOW TO SCRAPE WEB DATA EASILY?

There are three key ways to scrape data. They are:

1. The traditional way, using python and JavaScript

With tools/frameworks like beautiful soup, Scrapy and so on you can build a web scraper using python. These frameworks help make the coding process simpler. Scraping with Python and JavaScript can be a very difficult task for someone without any coding knowledge. There is a big learning curve and it is time-consuming. In case you want a step-to-step guide on the process, here’s one.

2. Using Web Scraping Applications

For non-tech savvy people who are still left in the dark with questions like, is web scraping easy? How can I scrape data if I can’t code? Your answer lies with web scraping applications.

These tools make the data scraping process very easy, without the user needing to write a single line of code.

Examples of web scraping tools you can use include:

Octoparse

Octoparse is a cloud-based web crawler that helps you easily extract web data without any coding. With Octoparse, you can scrape data from all sorts of websites. All it takes is a few clicks to scrape the data you need from the websites of your choice. You get so many advanced features like scheduled extraction and auto IP rotation at a very good price. The subscription fee is very affordable, with a 14-days trial period.

ParseHub

This is another tool that can help you scrape websites without any need to write codes. It is powerful enough to scrape complex websites and can be very useful for businesses across different industries.

Scrapinghub

Scrapinghub is another great tool that is capable of extracting web data. It can convert an entire web page into an organized data you can use for whatever you want.

There are many more web scraping tools. Check out our list of the top 20 tools for extracting data quickly to see some of the best tools you can use.

3. Octoparse as a SaaS solution

For those who still ask, is web scraping easy? SaaS solutions are the final answer. Thankfully, Octoparse is a powerful SaaS tool.

With Octoparse, you can automatically integrate the contents from websites easily and export them in various formats. You don't need to know how to code; you need no technical knowledge to scrape. All it takes is just some simple steps.

SaaS and Data service

Octoparse provides you with a wide variety of web scraping solutions. You can automatically scrape websites with a few clicks. With Octoparse SaaS, you can filter domains, schedule data extraction, and improve extraction speed.

With Octoparse, you get proxy services, cloud-based extraction, and API access, making the web scraping process easy and seamless. To know more about web scraping SaaS, this is an article you should read.

Strengths of Octoparse SaaS

Ability to deal with a variety of websites

With Octoparse, you can rest assured that no matter the website's complexity or the amount of data contained in the website, Octoparse will scrape the website successfully.

When people ask you, is web scraping easy? you can confidently tell them that it’s thanks to Octoparse SaaS. The tool has numerous features that allow you to extract different types of data with ease.

Cloud service

Octoparse cloud service extraction allows you to extract data in the cloud 24/7. With cloud extraction, you can scrape data at high speed through the cloud. Compared to local web scraping, cloud extraction saves you a lot of local space if you are trying to extract a large amount of data. Your data is saved to the cloud and can be accessed at any time.

API

Octoparse offers API connections that can send scraped data and constant updates directly to your designated database. You don’t have to manually go to the software to download your data. You can simply schedule how often you want the data exported to your in-house database.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, web scraping is easy if you have the right tools to help you with the extraction. Octoparse offers you easy-to-use solutions that make web scraping simple, smooth, and fun. You too can scrape the web because Octoparse got you covered.

Author: David