Using A Glassdoor Proxy To Help Your Business Succeed

Scraping information online is becoming more popular and more necessary. Each day, enormous amounts of data are poured into the world wide web. Manually digging through any website these days is a task that can take months. There is just far too much information out there. And when you are looking for something specific, it is buried under a huge pile of noise. That is bad enough when looking for personal use. It is a different thing entirely when your professional livelihood depends on it. When running a business, you are always on the lookout for a way to get ahead. The job search and employer review website, Glassdoor, is one of these ways. All of those reviews, salary information, interview questions, and more can be extremely valuable. Unfortunately, searching for them all manually would take a huge time commitment. Knowing that, you might ask yourself, “how do I extract data from Glassdoor?” Luckily, the answer lies with scraping tools and a Glassdoor proxy. To find what you need to know about a Glassdoor proxy, use the table of contents below.

Table of Contents

What is Glassdoor Scraping?

In general, scraping is a term that refers to automatically harvesting very large amounts of data. Accomplishing this typically involves using a tool, such as Scraping Robot. When you are looking to extract Glassdoor data, you are looking for publicly available information on different companies. You can scrape Glassdoor reviews, salary information, job openings, and more. Scraping is performed using a software tool. This software is programmed to parse through large datasets and return only the information specified by the user. Based on how the user configures the bot, it can return a wide range of information. You can tell it which fields to display, like name, address, etc. Then, for whatever results match your search criteria, the scraper will return those specified fields for each one.

Why Should I Use a Glassdoor Scraper?

You can get a lot of valuable information when you extract Glassdoor data. Even just learning how to scrape reviews from Glassdoor can give your business some insight into competitors. Part of this is because a lot of the data on Glassdoor is from current and previous employees. The companies themselves have little control over the reviews, salary data, etc. that are posted on Glassdoor. Pulling this kind of data will give you a more genuine look at a competitor or potential client (for the B2B crowd). But why is the information on Glassdoor important? Information is only as useful as its application. There are a lot of different ways companies can find Glassdoor scraping beneficial. Below, we have highlighted three uses with brief explanations. In reality, the applications of this process are endless.

Keeping up with competitors

Aside from job postings, Glassdoor features a lot of content about businesses. The site encourages users to post their salaries, benefits, and their experiences in the interviewing process. This is all great information that gives you insight into your competitors. A sudden dip in their salaries or dropped benefits can let you know they might be struggling financially. A sudden onslaught of new job postings points to possible expansion. Many times, scraping Glassdoor can give you a heads up of the goings on in your local industry. Reviews from previous and current employees can be really telling. It is common to see users rant if the internal systems are shoddy or if there is a communication breakdown. Information like this can help you identify weaknesses in your competitors. Then, you can focus on things like improving that part of your own company and bringing up your competitor’s issue when meeting with potential clients. Also, many different businesses on the web scrape Glassdoor already. They can find just as much use out of Glassdoor as you can. If your competitors are using a Glassdoor scraper to gather information about your industry, you might fall behind if you sit on your hands.

Attracting top talent

There is a lot of data in regards to salary, benefits, and reviews of the interview process. Luckily, this gives you an indirect look at how prospective talent is treated in your area. Instead of focusing on a single company, you can pull information regarding positions similar to the ones you are trying to fill. This way, you get a clear picture of the average salaries and benefits for your target talent. So now you can make an educated decision on what you can offer for the same position. Interview reviews are helpful too. If there are specific elements of the interview process that rub candidates the right way, they post about it on Glassdoor. You will commonly find that job seekers do not like manually typing out their resumes in “job history” sections of the application. Also, too many tedious assessments and assignments can turn talent away from a job pretty quickly. And of course, nobody likes to be left waiting for several weeks without any word from the employer. If you notice any trends, you can account for them in your own process. Now you are getting off on the right foot with your interviewees.

Finding B2B clients

Aside from comparing competitors and scouting talent, you can use Glassdoor information to help find new clients. Especially in the B2B realm, you can find valuable information about what is lacking in your local businesses. An IT security firm may find a local business recently had a security breach from the employee reviews. A staffing agency may find a nearby company continuously posts the same jobs over and over again. Even a snack vendor can bring reviews about pitiful snack offerings in the breakroom in their negotiations. Depending on what you can offer businesses, you can likely find insight on Glassdoor.

Do I Need a Web Proxy for Glassdoor Scraping?

A good Glassdoor scraper works extremely fast. It would not save any time if it moved as slowly as you or me. When one of these tools starts to scrape Glassdoor reviews, the bots that monitor the site take notice. A constant, inhumanly fast stream of requests from the same IP looks suspicious. It is difficult for the bot to differentiate between data scraping and a nefarious attack. To play it safe, the bot will move to block your IP. Now, your scraping project comes to an abrupt end. Worse than that, though, you are now blocked from Glassdoor for good. That is why you need to use a Glassdoor proxy. It is easy to figure out how to scrape Glassdoor data with proxies. First, any reputable proxy and scraping tool will have instructions on getting started. Ideally, they will have intuitive dashboards with a user interface that is easy to understand. Usually, you simply need to access the settings of your scraping tool and specify which proxy you are using. The rest takes care of itself.

What is the Best Proxy for Glassdoor?

So when you want to scrape Glassdoor reviews, what is the best proxy? First, you need a fast, reliable proxy. Scraping involves digging through mountains of data. You need your proxy to be fast so it can keep up with your scraping tool. Any bandwidth limits can lead to progress slowing to a crawl. This can make your already intensive process take exponentially longer. You also want to make sure the company you use is known for having consistent uptimes. Even the fastest proxy does you no good when it is not even available. In case you do encounter a problem, it is a good idea to have access to 24/7 customer support. To still use your computer during the day, it is common to start a scrape in the evening or on weekends. Whenever you see any problems, you need to know that you can always reach support. Nothing would be more frustrating than getting a great proxy only to see that you do not understand how to even use it. Step-by-step guides help, but it is best to find a provider who has an easy-to-use process on obtaining access to and using their proxies. Sometimes, user experience is just as important as performance.

Final Thoughts

It should now be clear that there are a lot of benefits to scraping and using a Glassdoor proxy. They go hand-in-hand when helping you gain valuable information about your industry. Scraping data from Glassdoor gives you a clear look at your competitors. It also helps you to scout talent for employment. And when your clients are other businesses, it can help you pinpoint who needs your services most. Just remember that when you scrape information from Glassdoor, you need a high-quality proxy to make sure everything runs smoothly.

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