If you are an active social media user then you must have a LinkedIn account. The platform is a popular choice of more than 500 million users to meet new recruiters by setting up their professional profiles. The unique and diverse platform has created a buzz among fresh graduates and those in need to become a part of leading cooperations. LinkedIn is considered the digital Rolodex of the social media age. The medium is loaded with data that helps connect people with new industry employees and recruiters. You can scrape LinkedIn information to grow your business connection which can be harvested in many ways. In this blog, you will get to know more about how to scrape LinkedIn whose mechanism is different for public user-profiles and private user profiles. We will be addressing all the FAQs one by one:

 

Why Scrape LinkedIn?

 

Normally it is done to get access to maximum user information as the profile contains all essential contact and skill information like email addresses, names, industries, work experience, etc. Companies hire new potential employees that can fill in the gap in their business functionality. In this regard, LinkedIn is an enriched source of a host of useful data. Although not all information can be scraped by following specific rules you can even scrape information from private user profiles.

 

Does LinkedIn Allow Scraping?

 

LinkedIn is strictly against scraping any kind of information from its platform. Its high-end analytics detects any kind of disturbances and enable timely measures to keep scrapers at bay. LinkedIn even took out a lawsuit against 100s of unknown data scrapers who ended up getting caught. However, the case verdict is undecided yet but it is still important to be noticed by anyone who wishes to extract LinkedIn data. The point to be noted is that one needs to be extra cautious while performing LinkedIn scraping, if you want to do it then do it the right way!

 

How To Scrape Public Profiles on LinkedIn?

 

Moving away from the application status lets us get into a business about how to scrape LinkedIn. LinkedIn is primarily based on a private network. To access its information you will have to create a user account by downloading the app, log in and begin your scraping drive by connecting with new people. There are hundreds of public accounts and pages that hold valuable insights which can be accessed without an account. You can easily view the public account and scrape its information without needing to create a user profile. Like normal scraping, you can begin with a search engine by entering correct search items that include “LinkedIn.com”, which will eventually generate results in your selected search engine let us say, Google, and open your favorite LinkedIn pages.

 

During the scraping process, you will be extracting both Public pages and Google therefore you need to be extra careful to not get caught while extracting information from either of them. You can get to the point with your search of a company or an industry page on LinkedIn via popular search engines like Apple, Google, or Microsoft.

 

How To Scrape Private Profiles on LinkedIn?

 

The scraping process of private LinkedIn user profiles is in the fine line that this platform does not want you to cross. LinkedIn is not happy with your access to use public information but they are publically available and there is no legal issue from this standpoint. However, scraping private pages is another affair. When a user creates a LinkedIn account they are said that their information can not be given to other companies or used for other purposes. When a scraper attempts to grab the information you need to pass the LinkedIn privacy clause. There are various positive reasons why you should scrape LinkedIn information, for example, job hunt, to find programmers, or to get to reach out to companies in another state. Mention, that you can also scrape research.

 

Create Accounts

 

There are many other ways to scrape private pages on LinkedIn but firstly you need to create a LinkedIn account. When you are into LinkedIn you will be better able to search for content that you wish to scrape. To scrape LinkedIn information, Octoparse provides good results to scrape information you are interested in safely.

 

Search & Harvest

 

After successful account creation, you need to figure out what type of content you want to scrape. For instance, if you look for Microsoft employees then you will find hundreds but you don’t want to scrape irrelevant information. General information like email address, position, and name are available to scrape but to access private information you still have to connect with people.

 

Use Proxy Per Account

 

By following the aforementioned points you are using a direct automation tool with LinkedIn. Make use of a proxy IP address to create your account and then begin scraping information. The more you appear human the better for your web scraper. Keep in mind to use the same IP address to scrape the account and do not use different IP addresses after every hour. Once all the parameters are set there will be fewer chances of your IP address being banned or blocked.

 

Number of Proxies

 

The number of proxies is largely dependent on the size of the data that you wish to scrape. Here is a very simple application, the more the proxies the better especially when you are scraping such a large website like LinkedIn. If you stick to a single proxy for a single account then to harvest information faster to scrape 50 accounts you will require 50 proxies to get yourself started. If you wish to use more than one proxy per account then you can grab them double the estimated range and rotate them often to save them from getting blocked, blacklisted, or banned. The fewer proxies the more the chances of them getting captured, web scraping is always an experiment so make sure you are fully prepared.

 

Conclusion

 

Scraping information from LinkedIn requires moxie and proxies. If you want to do it then you should keep in mind that it is not a piece of cake and could result in banned IP addresses. However, when you abide by precautionary measures mentioned in this blog you have a fair chance of scraping LinkedIn information and reaching your data goals successfully.

 

How ITS Can Help You With Web Scraping Services?

 

Information Transformation Service (ITS) offers a variety of exceptional web scraping services. With a leading team of data scientists, we ensure high-quality data solutions for your web scraping projects. We are an ISO-Certified company that works to address all of your big and reliable data concerns. If you are interested in ITS Web Scraping Services, you can ask for a free quote!