Residential proxies are real Internet Service Providers (ISP) IP addresses that link to a physical location and appear more legitimate to web servers than data center proxies. This allows them to avoid being banned by websites.
Cybersecurity professionals use residential proxies to conduct penetration testing and simulate attacks on an organization’s systems and networks. Businesses use them for web scraping, competitor monitoring and ad verification.
Geo-Restricted Content
Residential proxies are used to bypass geo-restricted content and access websites that are not available in your region. They do this by masking your real IP address with one associated with a home network, making it appear as if you are browsing the internet from a genuine residential device.
When you use a residential proxy, your connection request is sent to the proxy server, which then replaces it with a different one from a real home network. Websites will therefore view your connection as coming from a legitimate residential user and not a bot or script, which prevents red flags and bans.
For example, many sneaker sites restrict access during drops and other limited-edition sales to customers in specific geographic regions. You can avoid getting banned by using a residential proxy to shop for sneakers on these sites. You can also use a residential proxy to monitor market pricing trends, which is important for businesses that rely on sales intelligence tools.
Accessing Ticket Sites
Static residential proxies allow you to surf the web as an organic Internet user, mimicking real-life traffic patterns and appearing less suspicious. They are ideal for data scraping and ad verification, helping you bypass geo-restrictions without risk of IP bans or detection.
Unlike data center proxies, which are typically assigned to specific locations and can be easily detected as such by ticket sites, residential proxy addresses are sourced from the actual Internet service providers of home users. This makes them much more believable to ticket sites, giving you access to their content without the risk of being flagged for IP banning.
Depending on the use case, residential proxies can also support SEO automation tools. If this is important to you, make sure the residential proxy package you choose supports these features before committing to a purchase. Likewise, make sure the speed and latency of a residential proxy package is appropriate for your needs. This will affect how well it performs in your applications.
Getting Ahead of Your Competitors
Residential proxies are a great way to bypass geo-blocks and access content that would otherwise be restricted due to geographic location. They are also ideal for many other applications such as web scraping, ad verification and market research.
Because these proxies are associated with real devices and locations, they are harder to detect by websites than data center proxies and therefore less likely to be blocked. This makes them an excellent choice for mission-critical projects like scraping coupon aggregators, ticket sites and more.
Having access to accurate pricing information and data is vital for online resellers to make informed business decisions. This includes avoiding overpricing (which scares away customers) or underpricing (which leads to doubts about the quality of your deliverables). Residential proxies are commonly used for price monitoring, comparison and analysis to stay ahead of competitors.
Monitoring Market Pricing Trends
Residential proxies are ideal for monitoring market pricing trends because they’re linked to a real physical location, making them more likely to be considered legitimate access traffic by websites. As a result, they don’t trigger red flags or bans on websites like datacenter proxies can.
Proxies are used for a variety of reasons, from online anonymity to bypassing geo-restricted content. Some users use proxies for social media management, while others want to monitor ad placement and performance to ensure that their campaigns are running smoothly. Others leverage them for sales intelligence and reputation management to keep tabs on their competitors’ pricing trends.
For those looking to do heavy-duty data scraping on ticket aggregators and other sensitive sites, residential proxies are the way to go. They’re also perfect for managing multiple social media accounts in different locations without risking being banned. Moreover, they’re great for web scraping because they can rotate IP addresses quickly to avoid IP-based blocks.
