Headline: There are a lot of reasons why proxies are always popular. Various companies are using them for several reasons, and one of them is accessing geo-blocked content. Find out more advantages here.
A proxy is a simple intermediary between your computer and other networks such as the internet. It allows you to connect to another network indirectly by masking your original IP address.
Additionally, a proxy has its unique IP address, which it makes public instead of using your IP address. Yet, most people think that the only use of proxies is to help them access the content from another country (e.g., Hong Kong websites by using a Hong Kong proxy). However, that’s not the only way you can use proxies, especially in a business setting.
Here are some of the other advantages of proxies you might haven’t heard before:
The Main Benefits of Using Proxies
1. Improved corporate security
In this digital era, every company is concerned about getting hacked. After all, experiencing a data breach can be costly for any business. Besides monetary loss, hacking could result in a poor public image, and consequently, loss of clients.
Using a proxy reduces the chances of your company getting hacked. Moreover, proxies offer additional security between any outside traffic and your server. Since proxy servers relay any requests from your computer to the internet, they serve as buffers.
So, while hackers can obtain the IP address provided by the proxy, they will have trouble accessing your actual IP address. Therefore, they can barely reach your server and gain access to your data.
While proxies alone can’t offer maximum protection by themselves, they make you less vulnerable to hacking.
2. Come up with an SEO strategy
Undoubtedly, there are numerous SEO tools in the market. However, to come up with an effective SEO strategy, you need to carry out extensive research. A proxy can help you do extensive research on your competitors anonymously.
With a proxy server, you can quickly engage in web scraping data from other sites and obtain SEO-related information.
For example, you can find out the top keywords which can help your site rank higher. Also, you will know which words to use in your web pages to get the attention of your target audience. Web scraping improves efficiency and saves time by accessing and pulling necessary information from web pages.
It also delivers the results of your search in a readable and easy-to-understand format. This allows you to come up with an effective SEO strategy after obtaining information from web scraping.
3. Balance traffic to prevent your server from crashing
If a customer tries to access your site and the site goes down, it’s most likely that they won’t return the next time.
Proxy servers can help balance your traffic to ensure that your server never crashes. Thus, you get to improve your overall customer experience.
Usually, the data on your website is stored in the cloud and across many servers. However, you cannot ask your customers to try several Internet Service Providers where information is stored to access said content.
A proxy server offers one web address that serves as the access point for all the information stored on your site. It also helps balance all incoming requests to make sure that none of your servers will overload or crash.
4. Bypass geo-restrictions
Some companies have set geographical restrictions. For example, the restrictions ban members from a particular country from accessing their sites.
So, what do you do when you want to expand your business in a different market but can’t access information from any website in the country? Well, you use a proxy server.
Proxies will help bypass any geo-restrictions, thus giving you access to a restricted market. For example, you can use Hong Kong proxy servers to access websites in Hong Kong if you are from a different country.
5. Faster speeds
Most people tend to assume that proxies are slower because they act as intermediaries. However, contrary to popular belief, proxies are actually faster, which is why some companies use them to increase their speeds.
Through this, businesses can save the bandwidth on their network. A proxy can do this by caching files, compressing traffic, and stripping ads.
By helping free up bandwidth on the company’s busy networks, the team will be able to easily and quickly access the internet.
6. Conceal your identity when carrying out sensitive tasks
The main reason people use proxies is to remain anonymous. Unfortunately, most businesses do not comprehend how important remaining anonymous is for sensitive business functions.
Additionally, whistleblowers, reporters, and security officers can make good use of the additional identity protection which proxy servers offer. Finally, using a proxy can help a business protect its sources, clients, partners, and themselves.
When conducting any sensitive tasks, it is essential to use a proxy. Any curious spy looking to figure out what your company is researching or developing won’t be able to track your company or your employees if you use a proxy.
7. Control and track how employees use the internet
You wouldn’t want your employees accessing inappropriate or unsecured websites using your company networks. After all, many risks come from accessing unsecured websites, so most companies opt to use a proxy.
With a proxy server, network administrators can control devices that can access the network and various sites. This allows you to easily block undesirable sites and content which you wouldn’t want your employees visiting.
In addition, network administrators can also record what employees do on their computers. For example, they can track their internet searches and use them for internal purposes. This allows security officers to easily monitor any security breaches or illegal activities by any employee.
Conclusion
Using proxies can benefit your business in numerous ways. For example, it improves your security, enhances market research, and helps you scrape data off websites for a better SEO campaign.
