If you are into SEO industry for a while now, you must have heard of using a proxy for SEO. So what is it? How it works, and is it beneficial? It is obvious to have questions like these in your mind.
We are here to answer all your questions. From helping you understand what a proxy is, to focusing on the use of SEO proxies – we will focus on all the aspects here. Let’s get started.
What is a Proxy Server, Anyway?
Consider a proxy server as an intermediary server between your computer and the internet. Since a proxy server has its own IP address, such a server protects your identity and ensures your security online.
This is the reason perhaps why proxy servers are used to download torrents by hiding the identity. Recently, the use of proxies has emerged to be one of the best SEO practices.
This brings us to an important question – why proxies are being used for SEO? We will discuss this in the next section.
Why SEO Proxies?
Proxies have emerged to be an integral part of the SEO industry because of their ability to hide one’s true IP address. Assisting in your day to day SEO activities, here are a few ways in which proxies for SEO can help you in boosting your website’s ranking organically:
To access competitor’s websites
As they say – keep your friends close, but enemies closer, it is essential to keep a sharp eye on your competitors, and analyze what they are doing. Track their SEO keywords. Monitor their SEO campaigns, and visit their website quite frequently.
But here is the problem – you want to visit their website and other online assets, but you don’t want to disclose your identity to them. Right? The ideal solution here is to use a proxy server to access their websites. This way, your identity will remain hidden, and you will still be able to trace their activities.
To prevent your IP address from getting blocked
Have you come across this error from Google – Unusual traffic from computer network? Well, this is a real problem that most SEO agencies struggle with. Most search engines block your IP address when they detect too much activity from the same IP address.
Since an SEO agency makes use of a range of keyword ranking software and others, most search engines perceive this as a potential Denial of Service attack. This is when a proxy server for SEO comes to your rescue and helps you in accessing online tools and websites from a different IP address.
To circumvent geo-location
You might be an SEO agency based in the UK with a client base in the US. It is likely that Google will provide you with the results that are native to your location. This might create a gap between your search engine results, and the results that your client gets.
A proxy server can again prove to be of great help here. A proxy server based in the US will provide you with the exact results that your client is witnessing. This will help you in understanding your client’s requirements flawlessly.
Risks Associated with Using Proxy Servers
The most commonly used proxy servers are available for free. These servers are also called open or public proxy servers.
As expected, these servers are unreliable and could stop working anytime. What’s more, open proxy servers are often infected with malware, and this might create a huge security lapse at your end.
This is the reason why it is highly recommended to use proxy servers only from a reputable and reliable source, and more often than not, these servers are not available for free!
Things to Keep in Mind while Choosing a Proxy Server
Speed
The main use of a proxy server is to scrape, crawl, audit a website, SEO monitoring, and simulate traffic. All these tasks need enough amount of bandwidth. The least you will expect is spending hours on these simple activities. Thus, it is essential to ensure that your chosen proxy provides you with a quick response.
Proxy threads
Choose a proxy server with unlimited threads. Such a server will help you in sending a range of concurrent connection requests as per your requirements. This way you will be able to scrape, audit, and crawl easily and effortlessly.
Wrapping Up
Of course, if you are a little bit overwhelmed, I highly recommend reading this proxy providers blog post on their unique solution called Real-Time Crawler. It is perfectly optimized for SEO monitoring tasks with the added benefit of the end-users barely breaking any sweat.
The bottom line is that the use of proxies plays a vital role in SEO campaigns. Make the most out of them, and be a pro at SEO!
What are your views on this? Let us know in the comments below.
