If you’re reading this article, chances are you’re already familiar with the basic concept of proxies which serve as a means to protect your identity when surfing the web. Basically, proxies provide you with alternative IPs based elsewhere in the world and allow you to hide your real IP address from websites and the eyes of other users.
But what about residential proxies? How are they different from other types of proxies favored by casual users, and how exactly can you benefit from using a residential proxy solution? In this article, we’re going to address these and some other frequently asked questions to help you get a better understanding of how residential proxies work and why you might need them.
What are residential proxies?
Essentially, residential proxies are IP addresses leased out by real internet service providers for various web scraping needs. Residential IPs are tied to real devices connected via Wi-Fi, which means that you’ll always be recognized as a genuine user of a specific wireless network, no matter where you physically are.
Residential proxies are carefully selected, whitelisted IP addresses which makes them more expensive than any other types of proxies designed for casual use. However, the level of maximum authenticity delivered by residential proxies provides you with much higher stability and anonymity when doing any kind of research on the web.
How residential proxies work
When using residential proxies, all of your outgoing requests are routed through a dedicated proxy server which basically substitutes your real IP address with that of another device located in another corner of the world. In other words, residential proxies allow you to remain a real, but also anonymous user, and help you bypass captchas or any other kind of website restrictions.
A residential proxy platform, in turn, lets you pick from a variety of residential IP addresses and internet service providers, fine-tune your proxy and geo-targeting settings and conveniently manage thousands of IPs directly from a user-friendly dashboard. Ideally, the best proxy platform allows you to target specific countries, regions, cities, or even internet service providers.
Why you might need residential proxies
Here are some of the scenarios where you might need to use residential IPs instead of any other type of proxies.
Data collection
Whether your goal is to collect and study huge amounts of data, you need a reliable and cost-effective proxy solution, stat. Typically, residential proxies are rotated automatically which allows you to do mass scraping without the need to worry about proxies going down or manually switching between different IPs.
Price monitoring
Residential proxies are a must-have tool if you need to monitor market pricing trends, analyze your competitors’ prices, or collect pricing data from e-commerce platforms. Paired with the right analytics and sales intelligence tools, residential proxies enable you to keep up with the latest market trends, price your products or services competitively, keep existing customers happy, and attract more prospects.
Ad verification
As a digital marketer or online business owner you need to know if there’s anything wrong with the ads displayed on your website. By providing the ability to anonymously visit webpages from any location, residential proxies allow you to easily identify fake or fraudulent ads and improve the overall ad performance on your website.
Social media management
Residential proxies enable you to create multiple social media accounts and easily manage them without the risk of getting blocked by platforms such as Facebook or Instagram. This makes residential proxies a powerful tool in the hands of any digital marketer or social media manager.
SEO management
Your SEO strategy must be constantly audited and tweaked. Links must be built. Keywords used by competitors along with their sources of traffic must not be overlooked. That’s where residential proxies come to help. Coupled with different SEO and analytics tools, residential proxies allow you to harvest huge amounts of actionable data and significantly improve your website’s search positions and performance.
Digital marketing
Your digital marketer’s job requires you to always be one step ahead of your competitors. Residential proxies allow you to gather and analyze competitors’ data and activities and make use of this market intelligence to fine-tune your own marketing strategy, improve ads’ performance, introduce better deals, run creative social media campaigns, and thus maximize your overall marketing potential.
Things to consider when looking for a residential proxy solution
With so many options out there, choosing the right residential proxy platform for your needs may be an overwhelming process. Here are some of the top things to consider when looking for a residential proxy solution.
Affordability
If you’re new to the world of residential proxies, the cost of the majority of solutions out there might seem a bit too high at first. However, they provide you with greater security, flexibility, and reliability, which means that in most cases you get even more than what you pay for. When choosing your ideal residential proxy platform, be sure to compare packages from different vendors and try to get the best possible deal.
Compatibility
Your ideal residential proxy platform should be compatible with the SEO tools, analytics, or sales intelligence tools that you use.
Geo-targeting options
Most known residential proxy providers offer geo-targeting options. It’s worth, however, to look out for some extras such as the ability to target specific internet service providers or create customizable geo filters.
Reliability
Your residential proxy solution of choice must be deadly reliable. The SOAX Proxy Exchange Platform, for instance, offers exclusive, whitelisted residential IPs from genuine internet services providers and ensures automatic IP rotation which guarantees that you will always use a live IP address even if your previous proxy goes offline.
