All popular search engines like Google or Bing have one thing in common: they want to provide search results to humans not robots. And, whenever you want to engage in scraping the search engine results with a proxy, you will have a certain risk of getting banned or facing Captcha.
So, does Google block proxy servers? The short answer is “Yes”. Google blocks proxy programs or bots if it detects them.
When you fail to access one of your target sites with a proxy via a search page, sometimes it is the search engine to blame. We totally understand your frustration when your research marketing mission on Google gets blocked half-way just because the search engine confused you with a bot activity and banned the IP currently in use.
To help you overcome these types of situations, we hereby came up with a list of recommendations on how to work with your proxies more effectively to avoid search engine blocks.
6 Ways to Avoid Search Engine Blocks While Using Proxies
Here is a list of Top 6 ways to avoid getting banned by your search engine while you employ proxies for online missions.
1. Use Private Proxies
The use of private or dedicated proxies is justified for three main reasons: security, performance and bypassing geo-restrictions.
Security. With a dedicated or private proxy you will get an additional layer of security by masking your IP address and keeping your online activities private. Outside of avoiding captchas it will also help protect you from cyber threats such as hacking, identity theft, and malware.
Performance. Such proxies will offer you faster connection speeds and lower latency as they’re not being shared with other users. This is particularly important if you’re running time-sensitive applications or tasks, such as web scraping or data mining.
Bypassing geo-restrictions. With private proxies you will easily bypass geo-restrictions and access websites and content that may be restricted in your region.
All of these make good residential dedicated proxies the best choice for avoiding blocking on search engines. Yes, these features may come at extra cost but it is easily worth it in proxies for local SEO or other mission-critical operations. And, if you want to know more details on how to bypass reCaptcha on Google, read this article to find out.
2. Use Rotating Proxies
It may also sound obvious, but rotating your IPs while scraping a site can be a lifesaver. Most proxy providers use proprietary mechanisms for avoiding search engine blocks. Some missions may require sticky IP sessions where your proxy will change the IP after a certain timeframe. It may be useful when you need to fill out an online form manually.
If you use Google rotating proxies for ad verification, it is also a good practice to set various intervals for various missions. Over time, you will come up with an optimum number of IPs to be used for a certain region.
3. Use Various Proxy Pools
Even if you are using a single proxy provider for all your search engine proxies, it is totally recommended to request residential proxies from various pools for some missions. When you rotate proxies with IPs from different pools you will have less chances of getting blocked.
But be careful here with geo-specific operations. You don’t want to swap proxies before your current mission is complete for a certain location. Changing your pool clearly will result in a different SERP. If you are not sure about the number of proxies from each pool or subnet, feel free to consult your provider at any time. We offer our customers around-the-clock customer care to identify blocking risks and resolve search engine proxy errors promptly.
4. Do Not Use Free or Shared Proxies
It may sound corny but still we want to emphasize the risks you are taking while using free and shared proxies. You guessed right! Google blocks proxies faster if they are publicly available or shared.
Although, the main risk of going with a free public proxy is security. In this case, you become a source of personal data for the provider of such a proxy and make your system vulnerable for hacking, malware, and other cyber threats. Also, free proxies may log your online activities, including your browsing history. This can compromise your privacy and put your personal information at risk.
Another substantial downside of free and shared IPs is the performance of such proxies. They are significantly slower and unreliable. This can be frustrating and time-consuming, especially if you’re running time-sensitive tasks on a website.
Popup ads can also be present while you are using some free proxy service. This alone can be intrusive and annoying. And, by the way, these ads can also be a source of malware and cyber threats to your network or firewall.
As for a shared proxy, you need to realize that there will be a whole number of other users that will use the same IP on other platforms. This means that the proxy will be exposed far more often than a dedicated IP. And, you cannot expect a high level of performance from a shared proxy in any event.
5. Limit The Number of Your Requests
If you’re accessing Google or Bing in a way that generates a large number of requests, for instance while using proxies for web scraping, it’s important to stay within the human-like limits. By limiting your requests, you can avoid triggering Google’s proxy detection systems and reduce the risk of being blocked.
While combining the use of reliable proxies for Bing or Google with a limited number of search requests, you significantly reduce the risk of proxy blocks on the search engines.
6. Avoid Using Too Many Search Modifiers
How can search modifiers block Google proxies? If you use them excessively in Google you can significantly improve the results of your scraping but, at the same time, this practice may result in exposing your scraper to Google’s proxy detection system.
If the search engine detects repetitive search attempts with modifiers (featuring URLs, titles or other info), it may red-flag this activity as potential proxy-powered scraping. If this happens, your IP may end up in the black list of IPs and your mission will be put to a halt.
But do not worry, blocking of IPs or VPNs occurs on Google even with the most reliable residential proxies. What you need to remember is to avoid appearing as a scraping bot in your behavior and adjust your scraping conditions to appear more natural.
Final Thoughts
As you may realize by now, preventing Google proxy blocks requires using a reputable and reliable proxy provider, rotating IP addresses, and limiting your requests. These steps will help you avoid being identified and blocked by Google’s proxy detection systems. So, if a proxy causes Google to block search results for your scraping, the recommendations above may come in handy.
And having round-the-clock access to your proxy provider also helps. This way you will be able to replenish your pool of Google, Bing or Yahoo proxies in no time and get back to successfully completing your scraping mission.
Frequently Asked Questions
Please read our Documentation if you have questions that are not listed below.
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What is a Google proxy?
It is a proxy server that is normally used for scraping search engine result pages (SERPs) of Google and Bing. These proxies can have a rotation mechanism to avoid being detected on large scale scraping projects. Also, for geo-sensitive operations such proxies can be residential by origin.
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In what cases is it necessary to bypass the blocking of proxy servers of search engines?
It is essential to avoid being blocked by a search engine for the use of proxy while you are conducting a scraping mission related to business or marketing research. Getting detected and blocked here will mean exposing your subnet of proxies to the search engine with further need to replace the proxy IPs.
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Why do search engines block proxies?
All search engines prioritize search queries of humans above all sorts of bots and scrapers. This is done to improve the engine’s user experience and to decrease the load on the servers. In order to identify the presence of a bot (normally powered by a proxy), a search engine has a special detection system that tracks certain patterns in the request behavior. Tips above will help you avoid being detected by such a system.
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