Acquiring Quality Data for Web Scraping

Web scraping is undeniably one of the best ways to collect data for a wide range of purposes. However, the process is not as simple as it may seem at first glance.

Whether you’re using a self-made scraper API or a pre-made solution, in order to get the most out of web scraping, it is important to ensure that the data being collected is of high quality.

Here’s an overview of how to do that.

Why Is Reliable Data Important?

Since you don’t want your web scraping efforts to go to waste, it is important to focus on acquiring data that is accurate, timely, and reliable.

If the data is of poor quality, it can negatively impact your business in a number of ways, including:

• Inaccurate information is being used to make decisions
• Wasted time and resources spent on collecting and cleaning bad data

Suppose you’re collecting data for market research. If the data is inaccurate, it will lead to bad decision-making that can cost your company a lot of money.

On the other hand, if you’re collecting data for lead generation, and the data is outdated or contains inaccurate contact information, you’ll waste time trying to reach out to people who are no longer interested or were never interested in the first place.

Keep in mind that evaluation is crucial when picking data sources. You want to be able to trust the information you’re getting, and that can be difficult to achieve if you’re scraping from an unreliable website.

How to Acquire Quality Data?

Once you’ve got your scraper API, it’s time to start scraping the web. By the way, if you’re looking for a great scraper API, check this Oxylabs page.

There are a few key things you can do to make sure that the data you collect is of high quality:

Avoid Scraping Websites That Discourage Bots

While it’s possible to scrape websites that discourage bots, you should not keep them on the list of websites you want to scrape. What if the website improves its blocking technology a few months or years from now?

You might lose the data you’ve collected, and you’ll have to start from scratch. Or, you may end up with incomplete data that is of no use to you. So, it’s always best to avoid scraping websites that discourage bots.

Check For Data Consistency

When you’re using scraper API for data collection, it’s important to check for consistency. It means making sure that the data is accurate and up-to-date.

There are a few things you can do to check for data consistency:

• Use Multiple Sources: When you’re scraping data, make sure to use multiple sources. It will help ensure that the data is accurate and up-to-date.
• Compare Data Points: Another way to check for data consistency is to compare different data points. If there are discrepancies, it’s likely that the data is inaccurate.
• Use Data Filters: Data filters can also be used to check for data consistency. For example, you can use a filter to only scrape data that was published in the last month.

Doing this will help ensure that you’re only collecting accurate and up-to-date data. It’s especially important for time-sensitive web scraping, such as when you’re scraping the web to gauge consumer sentiment about your current marketing campaign or the new product you recently launched.

In such a situation, you only want to scrape data that is relevant to your current needs.

Check For Data Completeness

In addition to checking for data consistency, you also need to check for data completeness. It means making sure that you’re getting all the data you need and that it’s in the format you want.

For instance, if you’re scraping a website to get product information, you’ll want to make sure that all the data fields are filled in and that the data is in the right format.

You can use data filters to check for data completeness. For example, you can use a filter to only scrape data that has a product name, price, and image.

Avoid Websites With Broken Links

If a website has too many broken links, it’s best to avoid scraping it. The reason is that broken links can lead to incomplete data.

To check for broken links, you can use a tool like Xenu’s Link Sleuth. It’s a free tool that scans websites for broken links.

If you find that a website has too many broken links, avoid scraping it.

Avoid Websites With Poor Layout and Design

While a web scraper can scrape data from any website regardless of its design or layout, you should avoid scraping websites with poor design. Websites with an easy-to-use design and swift navigation are generally considered reliable information sources.

On the other hand, websites with poor design are often difficult to navigate. They also tend to have a lot of advertising and pop-ups, which can make it difficult to find the data you’re looking for.

Websites with poor layout and design can also be slow, which can lead to incomplete data. Thus, you should not scrape them.

Conclusion

To sum up, when you’re web scraping, it’s important to avoid scraping websites that discourage bots, have broken links, or have poor layout and design. Additionally, you should check for data consistency and completeness.

Doing all this will help ensure that you’re only collecting accurate and up-to-date data.