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How to automate the data collection process?
Businesses are basing more of their decisions on Internet data. This includes anything from product pricing to news articles, publications, catalogs, reviews, company listings, and other data that are constantly changing on the web. With so many possible sources, collecting this information manually quickly becomes a problem.
This is where automated web data collection comes in. Simply put, it means automating the collection, cleaning, sorting, and organizing of data published on the web. Instead of opening a page, copying the information, and updating a table by hand, the entire process is performed automatically. This usually involves building systems that visit the page, extract the needed data, and save it in a table or another readable format.
This method allows for up-to-the-minute data collection. Companies can adapt to changes that occur on certain sites. They can organize data in greater volumes and build analytical models without the need for constant manual work. Most teams that look to automate data capture do so to feed the data into an analytics model, a database, or other business systems.
How to automate data collection
With web automation APIs, data collection no longer has to be done manually. Requests for specific pages are sent automatically, and the responses are received and processed without manual work.
Usually, the first step is choosing a particular data source. The source can be a single web page, a collection of URLs, or an entire site. The relevant pieces of each page can then be extracted automatically.
Commonly, the following information is captured:
- textual content
- product prices
- product listings
- data outlines
- descriptions and specs
- images and links
- data tables
Once the information is collected, it goes through a data processing phase in which automated data capture transforms it into a structured format. This format can be worked with easily in analytics, reports, or the organization's internal systems.
Once the process is set up correctly, it can be run on a recurring basis to capture and update information regularly, so the data stays up to date.
Companies often ask how data can be captured from websites without user intervention. In fact, there are a number of ways to automate this process.
You can collect data from HTML web pages by using scripts and parsers. This works well for simple websites, where the data you need can be found in the page code.
You can use browser automation. Here, the web page is opened just as an ordinary user would open it. The page's JavaScript is executed, and the required data is extracted.
An alternative is using a web automation API. Here, the API sends the requests and loads and renders the page in a real browser, then returns the page's HTML for you to parse with your own tools. This keeps your infrastructure simple, since you don't have to install or run a browser yourself.
How to get data from a website automatically
Regular web data analytics relies on automated data collection.
Market research, for example, is a full analytics use case. It collects data from competitor sites to track and analyze products, web pages, price changes, and newly added products.
Automated web data collection can also be used in marketing, by collecting and analyzing published content and brand mentions to track audience engagement and popular topics.
Data collection is also automated in e-commerce. Automated systems help online stores analyze their competitors' pricing, catalogs, and product offerings.
In media analytics, automated systems help gather articles, news stories, and publications from different sources. This helps analysts process information faster.
Furthermore, automated web data collection is used in research and analytics projects where web data is extensive and needs to be processed in bulk.
Benefits of Automated Data Collection
One of automation's most important advantages is saving time. Manual data collection alone can take hours or even days, especially if you analyze many sources.
When using web automation APIs, these steps can be completed significantly faster. Multiple pages can be processed simultaneously while information is kept up to date.
Automation also makes it possible to manage multiple websites and data sources without a matching increase in manual effort.
Automation can also reduce the number of mistakes. When data is extracted manually, the risk of human error and of missing relevant information is high.
Lastly, automated data collection makes data analysis much easier. Once extracted, the information is stored in a predefined format that is easier to use in analytical systems.
Who can benefit from automation of web data collection?
Web data automation solutions are typically used by teams or companies that handle web data on a regular basis.
- For instance, marketing and analytics teams use automation to help with market research and competitor analysis.
- E-commerce companies use automation to track competitor pricing and product mix.
- Data teams use web automation APIs to build their data collection and data processing systems.
- Developers use web data automation to build analytics and other internal workflow automation.
Data automation becomes a necessity when the volume of data to be processed exceeds the capacity of manual processing.