Oct 17, 2020

"In this article we will dive into what residential proxies are, how they work, why would you use them, where are they applicable, and what to consider before making a buying decision".

What are Residential Proxies?

Residential proxy refers to intermediary or in simple words the "middleman", which provides you with an IP address from a physical location rather than a data center. Residential proxies always have physical locations. Everyday when you are surfing the web you come across cookies which remember information about your behavior on the site or data that you provided to that site. At the same time the site that you are visiting collects your cookies, browser preferences and your real time IP address. So why would you need a residential proxy after knowing all this? You guessed it, to keep your data private is one of the most common reasons. Why would you give someone such data as your real location? This is where a residential proxy comes in handy, to protect the data you provide to the internet.

How does a residential proxy work?

In technical terms residential proxies route the internet traffic that you provide to the web through a third party server. This proxy server gives you an IP address that actually is assigned to a real time device. So, when you make a request or search something, it will be transmitted through the resource server by the residential proxy that you have been assigned at the moment of your search. Since residential proxies are IP addresses of real devices the sites that you visit will consider your activities as those of other users. This way your real IP address will be safe and won't be collected by any website, so your privacy will remain secure.
The advantage of using residential proxies is also that based on your chosen residential proxy package you will have the option to choose IP's of different countries, and target locations on various cities.
This is where things get interesting with residential proxies. Let me show you some appliances where residential proxies are used in the next section.

Where are residential proxies used?

Despite privacy concerns which is one of the reasons why people use residential proxies, their usage extends also to the following:

• Authentic sneakers sites

  Buying new sneakers at the time of their release and selling them afterwards when they're out of stock for a profit, has become a thing for years now. People who are in this business know that coping sneakers manually is impossible, that's why they use sneaker bots. These bots work as automation tools where you give them some values and they automatically search for those parameters and buy your desired sneakers.The problem with sneaker bots is that sites who sell authentic sneakers block them, that's where sneaker proxies come to play. Sneaker proxies could also come from data centers which would still mean that you would get banned from major sites in this industry such as Nike and Supreme. The workaround to this issue would be to use residential proxies so you would eliminate the possibility of getting blocked by major players.

• Sites selling tickets

  A similar case to that of the sneakers above applies to sites which sell tickets. Tickets sell fast and residential proxies would help you to compare their prices among providers who offer them. There are ticket proxies which are used in these cases but most of their IP's are generated from data centers which could be banned from repeated user activities. On the other hand residential IP's are trusted by these sites and you will be able to retrieve information from various ticket providers.

Market Research

• Web scraping

  Internet marketing in today's area has become a very competitive space. Thus, in order to achieve results you have to study your competitors and adopt their strategies. This is the reason web scraping is being used. In order to do web scraping smoothly even in major sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Google, Instagram, etc, residential proxies will give you the ability to scrape large data fast, and without getting banned.

• Ads verification

  Another common usage of residential proxies is found on ads verification. In order for you to test your ads in different locations of the world residential proxies will come handy. At the same time you will spot any irrelevant ads which are displayed by your competitors with the motive to sabotage your brand.

• Price Monitoring

  As a business owner you always have to keep up with the pricing trends of the market you're in. In order for you to do that you need to make use of sales softwares or tools which will keep you constantly updated on current market prices. To be able to retrieve such data without any interruptions the use of residential proxies is a must. Having such market insights helps you to keep your customers happy without overpricing your products, and maintain your brand's reputation.

Digital Marketing

• Social Media Networks

  Social media has taken a vital role in today's marketing, that's why marketers have to look at different aspects of their marketing game. Using residential proxies helps them to create multiple accounts, and access their campaigns from different locations to see how their ads are performing. The big names of social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc., are very careful at monitoring unusual activity on their platforms. For example when you open an account in LinkedIn and give a different location than your IP address you will get immediately prompted to verify your identity by providing your ID. You would easily bypass such issues by subscribing to a residential proxy plan.

• SEO Optimization

  People in this space are very well aware of the importance of research on other sites. In order to properly gain insights about your competitors' sources of success you have to use various SEO tools which will make this process more time efficient and cost effective. Link building being a lead factor in this area, costs a lot to implement and takes time but with the help of residential proxy networks you could save yourself some time and money by getting them on your own, and increase your site's authority online.

• Online Marketing

  The importance of internet marketing can't be emphasized enough in today's business world. Sites are looking for different ways to stay relevant, and improve their marketing game while spying on strategies of their competitors. To maximize your resources the use of residential proxies will help you with the automation of email marketing, ads, social media campaigns, so you will get more reach in your market.

Things to consider before buying residential proxies and FAQ

Can you legitimately buy residential proxies?

Yes, residential proxy IP's are legitimate to buy and use. Your right to privacy can't be taken away so changing your IP's using residential proxies will keep your real location anonymous which is completely legitimate.

Can I use my residential proxies in different locations?

When buying residential proxies you will be assigned with real device IP addresses. Rainproxy offers you residential proxies with millions of IP addresses worldwide. You can choose to use residential proxy IP's from various locations of the world.

How can I set up residential proxies?

Setting up residential proxies is pretty straightforward, please check out our residential proxy guide set video below and follow the steps and you will be good to go in a matter of minutes. We also have a video tutorial which you can watch and set up your residential proxies step by step while following our video.

Residential Proxy Guide Set Up

What can I use residential proxies for?

The usage of residential proxies varies to individuals needs, but you can use our proxies easily for market research, retail, digital marketing, and most importantly for keeping your online presence in the internet private. Residential proxies are suitable for everyone who takes privacy seriously, business owners who want to gain data on marketing patterns and strategies of their competitors, people who buy and sell shoes for a profit, people in the SEO industry which audit competitors sites and try to implement them in their own ones, etc.

Should I use Residential Proxies?

Using residential proxies is not restricted to anyone, it is even suggested that you use them to keep your personal information safe. This article serves as an educational guide on the meaning of residential proxies, the way they work, in which cases you would make use of them, and consideration before buying them.