Imagine yourself on an adventure, searching for a precious gem amongst piles and piles. This is how fast web scraping feels, when you are sifting through mountains or data looking for the most valuable information. We all know that nobody wants to go slow. Speed matters. You can do it without losing any data or your mind.
Split and Conquer **
Imagine yourself peeling an entire bag or potatoes for your dinner. Impossible, right? You can make it easier if you enlist the help of some friends. Here, the same principles apply. Divide the task into smaller parts. Multiple smaller data sets can be scraped in parallel, which is so much quicker than dealing with one huge file. It’s almost like having mini-yous who are all working to achieve the same goals.
*Play Nice With Websites**
Ever tried to ram your way into a long queue, only for someone to escort you out immediately? Websites can identify desperate scrapers miles away. Chances are you’ll get kicked out of their website if your requests overwhelm the server. Do not shout out your requests. Instead, send them quietly and calmly. Try to imitate human activity. A small break between each request can do wonders. Even a little randomness can add that human touch.
**Go Asynchronous**
Remember the agony of waiting for dial up internet to load? The synchronous approach is painfully slow. Asynchronous requests make web scraping possible. They allow you to download multiple web pages in parallel, using your computer’s full power. Like ten people pulling data in all directions simultaneously.
Avoid getting caught in the web
You know the guy that gets flagged at work for downloading gigabytes and gigabytes with cat videos. You do not want your scraper becoming that guy. Websites have many traps that are set up to stop overly enthusiastic scrapers. Use a headless browsing tool to help you avoid these speedbump. Puppeteer (and Selenium) are tools that can imitate the behavior of real users. The tools can run JavaScript, often required to extract dynamic content.
**Manage Your Resource Wisely**
Ever run a Marathon without Training? When your computer is unable to keep pace, even a slow crawl can become a complete stop. Sometimes, using proxies as a load-distribution tool is just a bad idea. Rotating IP addresses helps distribute the workload across several machines.
**JSON Over HTML**
Ever tried finding an acorn in a bushel? Extracting HTML data can be like this. JSON is a completely different matter – the rows of needles look neatly organized. Some websites have APIs that return JSON data. It’s small, easy to parse and a real time-saver.
**Scrape Responsibly**
Imagine a close friend who shows up at your house unannounced, and eats every snack you have. You’re probably thinking that this is not cool. Some websites limit API requests and rate limits for good reason. Respect these limits. If you violate these boundaries, you may find yourself blacklisted. Spread your scraping out over time and you will keep everyone satisfied.
**Keep It Gushy**
Lost your keys? Would you like to retrace the steps that you have taken? Logging your scraping is essential. It not only helps in identifying errors, it also gives you an alternative if things go wrong. Detailled logs allow you to avoid starting over each time you encounter an obstacle.
**Location, Location, Location! **
The location of your web scraping is crucial, just like it is for real estate. Proxies can mask your true location. Geo-restrictions are easily bypassed with the use of proxies in various regions. It is also less likely for you to get banned from a site.
**Get by with some help from the library**
Don’t reinvent it. Libraries such as BeautifulSoup and Scrapy can be worth more than their weight in Gold. It’s like having a Swiss Army knife of scraping tools. You’ll be able to make your life so easy if you use these tools.