Every aspect of your business relies heavily on data. You need data on employment trends if you want to hire top talent. You need target audience data to improve your lead generation and conversion. You need competitor data if you want to outperform others.
At first glance, it doesn’t seem like collecting such data is all that difficult – you can deploy web scraping bots to crawl through websites, gathering every relevant bit of information you need.
However, before long, you’ll find that many websites you need have outright blocked your access. It’ll become increasingly more challenging to collect unbiased, accurate data.
Using a mobile proxy is the only way to get around these restrictions and continue your data-collection processes without obstacles.
Mobile proxies are indispensable tools that present an array of benefits for businesses. Learn all about them below.
What purpose do proxies serve?
When you’re using web scrapers to collect data from the web, and even when you’re just browsing through web pages for entertainment, your device needs to communicate with the websites you’re visiting. It needs to request information from the website in question – the website needs to process that request, then send back a response.
To send a response back to you and not another random visitor who happens to be on the site simultaneously, the website needs to collect some identifying information from your device, including, but not limited to, your IP address.
Your IP address contains some relevant information about you. It tells the website your rough geographic region and helps identify you as a unique user.
If you use web scraping bots, for instance, from your IP address, the site will quickly recognize bot activity, block your IP, and prevent you from collecting necessary data.
That’s where proxies come in handy.
Proxies are a gateway between your device and the website. They route your traffic, requesting information from a specific website on your behalf and sending the site’s response back to you. In the process, they hide your real IP address, assign you another one, and prevent sites from collecting your identifying information.
With proxies, you won’t have to worry about your IP getting blocked when you’re using bots, as the sites you’re visiting won’t have insight into your actual IP address.
What makes mobile proxies different
Regardless of the type of proxy you use, you should know that they all mostly work similarly. They all route your traffic and hide your IP from websites. However, sites are becoming increasingly better at detecting users with proxies and fake IP addresses and blocking them.
After all, regular proxy providers tend to assign the same IP addresses to a large pool of users, making it easy for websites to discern when there’s unusual activity.
There are risks even when some proxy providers offer rotating IP addresses to their users. You can still find yourself banned on multiple IPs because of your or other users’ behaviors.
Mobile proxies offer an additional layer of protection.
You don’t get a fake IP when using a mobile proxy – you get an authentic IP address provided by a real Internet Service Provider (ISP) and connected to a genuine mobile device.
Over 59% of all internet traffic comes from mobile devices. Mobile networks are generally seen as reliable and trustworthy, and sites don’t want to risk blocking genuine users from visiting them. Thus, when you use a mobile proxy, you’re likely to come across unnecessary blocks and restrictions.
What your business gains from mobile proxies
Mobile proxies are essential to businesses that rely on data to survive. Some of the main benefits they bring include:
- High-speed connection – mobile proxies offer 3G, 4G, and 5G connection, ensuring excellent browsing speeds;
- Anonymity – mobile proxies with rotating IP keep your identifying device information hidden, allowing you to scrape even competitors’ data without getting caught;
- Seamless web scraping – with mobile proxies, you won’t encounter many anti-bot technologies such as CAPTCHAs;
- Reliability – a mobile proxy assigns you a genuine mobile IP address that isn’t likely to be blocked;
- Access to geo-restricted content – you can connect to proxy servers in any location, bypassing geo-restrictions and accessing relevant content.
Mobile proxies allow you to collect relevant, unbiased data in real-time. They increase your privacy and security, enabling you to perform competitor, audience, and market research without anything getting in your way.
Choosing free vs. paid proxies
Like any other proxy type, not all mobile proxies are made the same. The most significant difference is between free and paid options.
As a general rule, it’s in your business’s best interest to avoid free proxies. Most commonly, they don’t have enough authentic IP addresses, and the ones they do offer have probably not been sourced ethically.
To offer reliable mobile proxy servers, providers need to use genuine IP addresses from real users. Moreover, they need to compensate those users for lending their IPs to them. They must create a resilient infrastructure, ensure the utmost safety and security of all users, and protect their data. However, all that costs money.
You can use paid mobile proxies if you want a safe, reliable solution. Check this out to learn more from a trusted provider.
Conclusion
Mobile proxies are quickly becoming a necessity for businesses. They’re reliable, secure, and powerful, allowing you to collect data from the web seamlessly.
They can easily bypass restrictions and geo-blocks, go around anti-bot technologies, and protect your privacy.