Proxies in SEO Monitoring
The problem is, that there can be only one on the top.
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| Photo by NisonCo PR and SEO on Unsplash |
The more players in the game, the more complex the rules are.
In today’s competitive climate, resourcefulness is key. Leading SEO teams rely on automation tools to gain and retain a competitive advantage, but that’s not enough. While they’re busy climbing to the top, Google’s algorithm remains slippery, and consumer data keeps piling up.
SEO proxies offer a much-needed boost.
What is a proxy, and how can it help?
Here’s everything you need to know, starting with the basics.
What is SEO?
In case you’re new to the game, SEO is a way for businesses to rank higher on search engine results pages or SERPs. A higher position on SERPs ensures exponential growth because it guarantees online visibility and competitive advantage.
Here’s how a consumer sees it:
Let’s say you need a new vacuum cleaner. What is the first thing you do? You’re a digital native, so you google “vacuum cleaner” to discover tips, trends, reviews, and products.
Naturally, you open the first result that comes up, starting at the SERPs top.
Search engine optimization is a set of techniques and strategies designed to help you climb the top. It relies on keywords – the words and phrases that consumers usually google – to bring visitors to your website and hopefully turn them into paying customers once they get there.
How it works
To define keywords, SEO teams must conduct in-depth research of current market demands. Bear in mind that keyword research is an ongoing and ever-evolving practice. It must be automated, so most teams use keyword tools. A better alternative is – data scraping.
Data scraping is the most powerful way to inform an SEO strategy.
It goes without saying that harvesting unstructured data from competitor websites isn’t a manual job. And for more reasons than one. First, it’s tedious – and with today’s amount of data, it’s also impossible. Another problem is that competitors generally don’t like being scrapped.
That’s where SEO proxies come in.
Introducing proxies
First of all, what is a proxy?
A proxy allows you to browse the internet and access any website anonymously. A proxy, which comes from a data center or a residential device, hides your identity by masking your IP address. Instead of your regular IP, your browser and target websites will see a random internet user.
While individuals typically use datacenter proxies for anonymous browsing, businesses usually opt for residential proxies that borrow IPs from physical devices.
That’s because most websites monitor their visitors. If they spot a strange behavior – such as too many returns to the website or a suspicious-looking IP address that seems fabricated – they simply ban and blacklist that IP. That makes data scraping for SEO challenging, even impossible in some cases.
How proxies can help with SEO
SEO proxies, especially residential types, facilitate data scraping.
A reliable proxy will make sure you’re not noticed or banned from your competitor’s websites. In terms of keyword research and competitor tracking, this is invaluable help. However, proxies are key to yet another SEO practice that relies on data harvesting – predictive analysis.
In addition to monitoring current demand, SEO teams must also try and foresee future changes and trends in consumer behavior. In this context, a proxy can help you monitor social media and industry leaders without being red-flagged as a bot or banned as a snoopy competitor.
On top of that, proxies allow you to monitor your own SEO campaigns.
You must first understand that Google SERPs are highly personalized to see how this works. Every IP address carries different information (hidden in cookies and browsing history), so Google tailors our search results to that. You don’t see the same SERPs as your website visitors.
Using a proxy gives you objective insight, which helps you improve your SEO strategy.
Another way to use an SEO proxy is for social media ads.
Since most social media platforms frown upon sharing the same ads from multiple accounts with the same IP address, a proxy is an excellent way to avoid getting banned for spamming.
Conclusion
Once again, what is a proxy for SEO purposes? An SEO proxy is a way to plan, develop, execute, and monitor keyword-based marketing campaigns without being banned by competitors or social media. For this, most businesses use residential proxies with rotating IP addresses.
SEO proxies are commonly used for:
- Keyword research
- Competitor analysis
- Predictive analysis
- Social media advertising
Of course, a proxy is a versatile solution that can accelerate your business growth in many different ways. Your SEO team might think of a new, inventive way to apply a proxy, but in one or another, an SEO proxy can help you beat down the competition and rise to the top.
