A proxy is an intermediary server which helps you to connect to the internet while changing your IP address and making you anonymous. There are many types of proxies that differ in their connection type, number of uses, level of privacy provided, and more.
If you are looking for a legitimate connection from a specific geo-location, the search ends here. It’s residential proxies you are after.
Ordinary IP
Residential proxies provide an IP address from a real, physical device assigned to it by an internet service provider (ISP). When a homeowner sets up an internet connection his devices get a dedicated residential IP. Only these IP addresses are used for such proxies and from here the name residential arises.
The IP address itself contains a lot of information to identify you. Many websites use it to exclude unwanted activity by banning the connection. IP address will let websites know:
- Who is your internet provider,
- What is your IP hostname,
- Where is your location (including, country, region and even city or area),
This is worrying but if you choose residential proxies, your original IP address will be hidden by another legitimate IP of your choice. This will allow you to surf the web without providing any IP-related information. Additionally, you will be able to access location restricted content.
As residential proxies use only regular IP addresses, they will be less likely to arouse suspicion. By contrast, other types of proxies, such as ones from datacenters, frequently come from cloud servers and are not affiliated with an ISP. This is visible from their IP addresses and websites can notice that to differentiate proxy users from regular ones.
You have to avoid this, otherwise you might get banned. Therefore, if you want to privately surf the web from specific locations and look like a regular user without any suspicion, residential proxies are your best bet.
A Drawback To Consider
It should be clear by now why residential proxies are more legitimate than their counterparts. The source of their IP’s is as unique as the location of the physical device used. But how come residential proxies have what others lack?
It’s all about quality IP’s. Good providers source their pool of possible residential IP’s voluntarily from selected associates. While excellent providers will have a large amount of such IP’s, allowing you to legitimately access content from any continent without leaving your couch.
This is a high-cost endeavour as an ethical approach and no compromises in performance is required. For this avoid free or illegitimate proxy providers. They might get you in trouble or hinder your progress with slow speeds.
Cost is the primary drawback of residential proxies as other types are usually cheaper. You can consider going with datacenter proxies, but more know-how will be involved to keep them legitimate. Your time is more valuable than that.
Residential proxies are totally worth their price as you get the legitimacy, avoid being blacklisted and shield your IP without much hassle. Additionally, ease-of-use is why residential proxy is the best for beginners, but bigger projects make use of them as well. Let’s take a look into some of the use cases.
Use Cases
- Social media marketing
No doubt your internet presence will diminish without making your brand visible in social media. With a lot of demographics and locations to target this is impossible without multiple social media accounts. Use of residential proxies is the best (if not the only!) way to create and manage multiple social media accounts. Without them, websites will recognize your activity and your accounts could be banned or marked as spam.
- Ad verification
Another common use of residential proxies is by companies which check and verify ads on webpages. This is crucial for any brand to avoid possible damage which can be caused by competition. Depending on the location of the IP, different ads are displayed, so you won’t be able to check on them all with only your ordinary connection. To solve this issue, it is a must to use proxies. Using legitimate IP’s from different locations will allow you to see different ads and residential ones are best at this.
- Web scraping
No good decision in business can be made without sufficient information. To gather data over the internet is risky, especially when you are targeting competition. Your own privacy can be exposed or your connection blacklisted. Residential proxies are crucial here to allow you to gather data anonymously and in high numbers. Make sure to choose a provider with automatic rotation. So you could save time and concentrate on analysing the data itself.
- SEO
Closely related to web scraping is the use of proxies by companies which provide SEO tools. Search engines are difficult to master as you have to gather and analyze a lot of data. Some keywords can be gathered from your own IP but using proxies for this is inevitable. Residential proxies will get you on the next level. With them, it is possible to gather data without any geo-restrictions and look legitimate for the long game. With data available, tweak your own site, gather data again and then repeat until your site is on top.
- Ticketing
Residential proxies shine here as well. They will enable you to change IP’s and access ticket sale sites to compare their pricing in an efficient manner. When the price is right, grab the tickets in bulk first without worrying about bans. This is possible with other types of proxies as well, but with residential, your IP’s will have the highest level of legitimacy.
Wrapping Up
Residential proxies are a superior combination of location targeting and legitimacy. Sure, they might be a bit pricey but high anonymity and low chances of being blocked is worth every penny. There’s no way around it, most of the use cases for proxies are highly dependent on exactly those two features. Residential proxies are simply best at them. So save your time, go residential and reap the benefits.
