When it comes to SEO, proxies can be super useful in a variety of ways. Like always, with fast datacenter IPs, you can avoid all sorts of bans and geo-restrictions while scraping search results in order to optimize your keyword choice for further website revisions. Also, you can conduct in-depth competitive and backlink analyses backed by some robust residential proxies. And it is absolutely essential for rank tracking, where you can identify your brand’s standings in a certain geographical area.
In this article, we will take a deeper look at what proxies can be used for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) practices on a regular basis and review the proxy offerings from the market leaders related to this field. You will also enjoy our rundown of the top proxy providers of the best proxies for SEO, along their respective features and technical specs.
Best Types of Proxies for SEO
If your question is ‘Which would be the best proxy for SEO?’ Then, let’s consider one of the possible proxy use case scenarios in common for this field. This is significant because it might have an impact on your proxy budget, since for an SEO mission where it is possible to use a set of more affordable datacenter proxies, the use of geo-targeted static residential proxies may be redundant.
So, keeping that in mind, for SEO proxying of search engines like Bing, you can survive with a good set of datacenter IPs. They will not cost you an arm and a leg and can get the job done related to scraping the SERP of these platforms.
For more protected websites like Google, you may need a much harder-to-detect set of residential proxies in your arsenal. This will let you avoid Captchas and scrape data continuously.
For labor-intensive missions, requiring a lot of traffic, you can even go for datacenter rotating proxies or residential IPs with rotating mechanisms. This will entirely depend on how important it is for your specific project to be geo-targeted. For certain locations, the use of even the cheapest residential proxy will be a must.
Best SEO Proxies in the Industry
And now, here are our top picks from the global market of the best rotating proxies and other proxy SEO-ready tools supplied by IP address providers around the world. Before you make a decision on approaching any of the mentioned companies for SEO proxies, you should remember that in most cases, you will have much better results in terms of IP performance if you get a one-to-one consultation from an account manager of the respective proxy provider. This way, you will be able to avoid any unpleasant experience with using servers during your operations. Also, any pricing information mentioned in the top list is subject to change due to the pricing policy changes of each specific proxy provider, so check with the companies on payment conditions prior to committing.
1. PrivateProxy
PrivateProxy is a dedicated proxy provider with extensive experience in supplying IPs (datacenter and residential proxies) for the marketing industry. The company has a range of well-documented cases for proxy applications in Local SEO, Lead Generation, Ad Verification and other geo-specific areas of marketing research.
Clients of PrivateProxy use the provider’s networks for IPs inside SaaS tools that allow them to scrape information on business rankings in certain areas. With this information at hand, businesses can make weighted decisions on handling negative reviews, malpractice in advertising, or keyword management for a given location.
The provider conducts tests on its high-performing datacenter proxies before supplying them for SERP scraping for SEO purposes. This way, you can avoid Captchas on all popular search engines (including Google and Bing) even before you commit your funds. You can also implement scraping using the company’s proprietary rotating mechanism, with a handy interface featuring customizable “sticky” sessions.
Residential proxies from the pools of PrivateProxy are also successfully used for geographic location testing. With such IPs (UK, US, EU, or Asian proxies, for instance), you can see how your product site ranks in certain regions. Understand if its content is tailored to the local audience and verify the keyword optimization from the perspective of local searches.
The same proxies can also be used for accessing GMB (Google My Business) profiles from different locations. This is vital for keeping your Google account updated to match the requirements of local reviews.
Conclusion: Great selection of SEO proxies, from the best datacenter proxies to residential, coupled with industry-level tech support.
2. Smartproxy
Smartproxy can be a one-stop-shop for SEO proxies if you are a small or medium business looking for such IPs. The provider has to offer over 50 million IPs in its network, ready to be deployed for SERP scraping via your own scripts or through Smartproxy’s API.
We can also say some good things about the user-friendly interface for buying and launching your proxies here. The customer support team has also gained some industrial acclaim and will do its best to keep your IPs up-and-running continuously.
As far as payment goes, you can choose from flexible plans to add new traffic when and where you need it. The Pay-as-you-go options for residential IPs start from $8.5/Gb with Smartproxy.
Proxy compatibility issues and integration concerns are also taken care of. You can use IPs from Smartproxy with any popular software out there. Just copy the proxy credentials into your script, code, or bot to start using the servers.
Conclusion: Impressive pool of residential IPs you can use for SEO scraping with flexible payment options.
3. Oxylabs
With Oxylabs, you can untap an almost endless list of whitelisted IPs for SEO purposes. The provider can sell you residential, datacenter, ISP, or mobile proxies that would support all demanded protocols (HTTP, HTTPS, and SOCKS) tailored to your specific mission requirements. However, Oxylabs targets large corporate clients primarily, so if you are a novice proxy user or have a limited budget, you might have a feeling that it is too upscale for you.
As far as the proxy network, here we have a serious leader with 100M+ residential IPs alone available for all kinds of geo-targeted scraping missions. You can be country, state, or even ZIP-code-specific with such proxies to get accurate results for ad verification, brand exposure analysis, or review management.
Another great feature of Oxylabs is the availability of a wide range of APIs for proxy integration for various use cases. You can find a script or API for your particular mission and enjoy seamless integration with the most popular software solutions on the market. And all of these APIs come with detailed documentation to help you in the process.
Conclusion: Top quality, highly acclaimed proxies for SEO and marketing purposes, mostly for enterprise-level users.
4. Bright Data
Another big player in the industry, Bright Data, offers over 72 million IPs in its residential pool alone, available from 195 countries, that can be suitable for SEO applications by individual and corporate users. It comes as a standard from this provider to enable very accurate targeting of IPs; you can fine-tune it to country, city, ZIP-code, or even ASN (carrier) level.
With proxies from Bright Data, you will have the hassle-free ability to overcome geo-restrictions and Captchas on all websites, topical for scraping. In order to engage in fast and reliable scraping with these IPs, you will have a proxy rotating mechanism at hand to change your IP for each connection or a certain scraping timeframe.
The quality of SEO proxies from Bright Data has been verified by thousands of companies that use the IPs on a daily basis. This list of users includes Fortune 500 names, and the success rate of proxies claimed by the provider is close to 99.99%. The types of servers supplied inside residential, mobile, ISP, and datacenter proxies.
As for pricing, Bright Data can offer you both prepaid and pay-as-you-go plans. With the latter, you can start at $15 per GB of traffic, and prepaid plans start at $500 ($12.5 per GB).
Conclusion: One of the best choices in the industry for SEO proxies for enterprise-level clients with needs for scraping project expansion.
5. ProxyEmpire
ProxyEmpire is a solid mid-range proxy provider with an impressive pool of rotating residential proxies ready to be deployed for your SEO missions. The company claims only ethical sourcing of proxies, and with its geo-specific IPs you can target websites at the country, regional, and ASN (carrier) levels.
With every residential plan you order from the provider, you get premium-level tech support that will help you set up your proxies. This way, the provider differentiates itself from the market leaders with the largest proxy pools; here, you can expect more attentive customer care for proxy integration with any customized software that you might be using for SEO scraping.
Another distinctive feature of ProxyEmpire is its robust pool of mobile proxies. This can be interesting for those clients who are less concerned about the scraping speed than the accuracy of the process. With mobile proxies, you are much less likely to be detected by any anti-spam or anti-bot systems. This service is available in 170+ countries and can be useful for everyday SEO practices.
As for pricing, ProxyEmpire offers a paid trial from the provider for $1.97 or a pay-as-you-go plan for $15 per GB for rotating residential proxies.
Conclusion: Robust proxies for SEO practices, including some rare mobile IPs, coupled with client-oriented customer support.
6. Proxy-Seller
Proxy-Seller has built its business around the ultimate automation of all proxy-related tasks. The users on the Proxy-Seller’s website are carefully routed to the right proxy package that will suit them best without any direct consultations from the customer support team.
On the plus side, you see all possible offers from the provider right on the home page, but on the downside, you can get somewhat frightened by the choices that you have to make. This is true for newcomers in the proxy business, but it should be OK for regular proxy buyers.
Also, in each of the ordering subsections, you will have two types of accounts available: Customer or Enterprise. This can be a good feature that tells you right there about what discounts to expect for bulk proxy purchases. Trials on proxies here are paid (for example, a three-day trial on residential IPs for $1.99), which can be seen as a good practice for providers confident in the quality of their proxies.
As for SEO-specific proxies, the provider has come up with a package of proxies capable of efficient Google scraping. The proprietary tool called Big-G Stealth Extractor will help you send thousands of requests to scrape the Google SERP with confidence. The number of IPs in each plan is determined by your requirements. You can request a customized SEO proxy from the provider plan as well.
Conclusion: Top provider with automated proxy checkout and plan management, featuring some useful custom-made SEO scraping tools ready to do the job for you.
7. Rayobyte
Rayobyte was formerly known as Blazing SEO before the company rebranded in 2022 and turned Blazing SEO into a marketing company that enjoys the full support of the infrastructure of Rayobyte, the proxy provider. This said, the company has a lot of experience in SEO-related projects when it comes to supplying the right kind of proxies for them.
Rayobyte can be described as a solid mid-range proxy provider with good network infrastructure, with proxies covering 150 locations and residential IPs capable of city-level targeting for geo-specific SEO missions.
The customers of Rayobyte mention the ease of use of the company’s dashboard interface for managing the IPs and monitoring the proxy stats. The provider also does a good job of supplying well-documented use cases and even video materials for novice and experienced proxy users.
On the downside, some open sources report “inflexible IP rotation” and somewhat slow proxies. The overall proxy pool is also rather limited outside major locations. But this is understandable for a provider of that size.
Conclusion: A good mid-range player in the SEO proxy business with lots of practical experience to share.
Frequently Asked Questions
Please read our Documentation if you have questions that are not listed below.
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How can you use proxies for SEO?
You can use proxies for data gathering, conducting marketing research, and maintaining anonymity while accessing sites with anti-bot protection systems.
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What is the difference between datacenter and residential proxies when it comes to SEO?
With fast datacenter proxies and rotating DC servers, you will be able to conduct SERP scraping for SEO in a very prompt fashion. With residential proxies, you will be able to access specific geographical regions that interest you from the perspective of brand exposure.
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Can I use free proxies for SEO?
Free or public proxies are likely to cause all sorts of use failures due to their inadequate reliability and security. If your SEO practice is essential for your business, it makes sense to invest in private and dedicated proxies from experienced providers.
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How can proxies help with web scraping for SEO?
Your scraping activities will have a much lower chance of getting detected with proxies, distributing your requests to multiple IP accounts. This can be done through the use of rotating proxies or special IP-switching proxy-powered apps.
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How can I use proxies for local SEO?
With residential proxies, you will be able to access search results and content from specific geo regions. This should give you enough data for optimizing your SEO practices for a specific area.
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Is it legal to use proxies for SEO?
While using proxies, you should follow the terms of service of each site you approach. Unethical practices in this respect may lead to legal repercussions in some cases.
Top 5 posts
Nowadays, digital marketing and overall work of IT related companies in one form or another addresses the use of web scraping. Companies tend to use scraping technologies for analyzing markets, GSA (search engine ranking) and other marketing research tasks. However, your scraping activity can easily be tracked and blocked if you are not using special tools that can protect you. The main tool in this category is proxy server, and in this text we will talk about what to look for when picking a proxy for scraping software.