Web scraping is a vital technique that uses automated scripts and tools to extract data from websites. It grants us access to valuable information from the internet.
Web scrapers use different programming languages, including Golang, Ruby, Python, etc. Golang has become popular in the web scraping ecosystem because of its simplicity, built-in concurrency support features, and more.
Many websites employ bot-detection measures to detect and block the actions of bots. However, because we cannot waste tangible time getting data from different websites manually, we need to find a solution. This article outlines helpful tips to avoid getting blocked while carrying out web scraping in Golang.
Why Golang?
Golang offers multiple tools and libraries that make web scraping seamless. It stands out for its inbuilt concurrency support, i.e. allowing the user to perform requests simultaneously. This feature, with its short execution time, makes it ideal for scraping on a large scale.
Golang’s libraries and third-party packages like Colly or GoQuery are effective for parsing HTML, moving through web pages, and extracting the desired data.
Owing to its clean and easy-to-read syntax, developers may find it easy to understand the basics of web scraping. It also has cross-platform support. You can run Golang code on different operating systems without the need to modify it.
How to Avoid Getting Blocked While Web Scraping in Golang
Let’s examine different ways to avoid being detected and blocked while web scraping in Golang.
1. Use a Web Scraping API
A web scraping API is a service that enables developers and other web scrapers to get data from websites without doing so manually, by making API requests to receive the data.
The service provides a toolkit to bypass anti-bot measures, such as a rotating proxy, User-Agent rotator, and more. All you have to do is writing a script to carry out the logic and get the data for your desired purpose.
Using a web scraping API like ZenRows, highly compatible with Golang, will save you plenty of time and will provide more reliability to reaching your data extraction goals.
2. Take Advantage of Golang’s Concurrency Support with Parallel Scraping
Parallel scraping means carrying out multiple web scraping operations at the same time by splitting them across multiple concurrent requests. It is a great way to save time and increase your output.
Colly, a package in Golang, is known for its excellent support for concurrency. With Golang and this package, you can access a seamless workflow and avoid the truncation of your web scraping process.
3. Use a Headless Browser
Headless browsers are like regular web browsers but without a graphical user interface (GUI).
With a headless web browser, you can access websites that rely on JavaScript-rendered content and interact with them as a human user would. It simulates user actions, like hesitating and scrolling, reducing your chances of being detected as a bot. Choose one of the various headless browser library options available for Golang for smooth web scraping.
Conclusion
Web scraping in Golang offers great advantages for web scraping. In this article, we discussed why Golang is good for web scraping. We also explored different ways to minimize your chances of getting blocked, including headless browsers, parallel scraping, and using a web scraping API.
Other ways to avoid getting blocked include using a rotating proxy service, a user agent switcher, or a CAPTCHA-solving service. Instead of paying for these individual features, using an all-in-one solution like ZenRows will further simplify your web scraping process.
By utilizing the tips in this article, you can enhance your web scraping game and avoid getting blocked.