The words ‘crawling’ and ‘scraping’ are used interchangeably, but there is a difference between the two. Scraping refers to the process of collecting information from any source, rather than only the web. A website crawler, on the other hand, is primarily used for web indexing, but you can also use it for web data extraction. Businesses can develop their own crawlers to extract data from multiple pages of a website, based on given instructions. If you need loads of information from a website, but don’t know the URLs of each page, you can use a website crawler tool for the job. In a world where knowledge is power, a website crawler tool could be an asset for any business organization.

Why your business should use a website crawler

One benefit of website crawlers is that they crawl through almost every page of a website. As a result, the information they collect is usually comprehensive. All you need is to process the collected data to find out relevant information for your business. If the data you are looking for is spread across multiple pages or a website, it would be a good idea to use a website crawler tool.

For instance, if you want to extract product data from an ecommerce website with hundreds of product pages, your website crawler tool will help you do that at a fraction of the time. This helps save time, so you can put more focus on your core business. Plus, the information you get through web crawling helps you make informed decisions.

In a nutshell, a website crawler helps your business to;

  • Collect data for business intelligence
  • Monitor your competitors round-the-clock
  • Keep track of market trends, so you can respond timely
  • Devise a better product strategy
  • Understand customer behaviors and patterns

Now you know why a website crawler tool is a must-have for your business!