Residential proxies are an excellent tool for companies who wish to gather and analyze data, comparing prices and products online, and maximizing their market reach without getting detected or blocked by websites.

Beyond hiding your identity, there are many benefits to using a residential proxy, such as web scraping, ad verification, SEO research, e-commerce, price comparisons, and a host of others.

Before we dive deep into the details, let’s get to the basics first;

What is a Proxy?

What is a Proxy?

To understand what a proxy is all about, it is essential you know how IP addresses work.

An IP address performs as a unique identifier assigned to each device that’s engaging throughout the web. They usually take the form of a string of numbers, separated by periods. (e.g., 123.245.116.92)

Your IP address contains sensitive information about you, such as location, ISP (Internet Service Provider), the type of connection you are using, and other relevant features. It then means that anybody can quickly tell your location just by tracking your IP address – and that could be a problem!

Proxies are networks of IP addresses that can be utilized and managed by companies. They act as substitutes for your actual IP address, so they can be used for concealing and cloaking your actual location and identity.

What is a Proxy Server?

A proxy server acts as a middleman between your computer and the internet. It allocates IP addresses for you whenever you visit a site, so your actual IP address is not seen by the website.

There are different types of proxies, such as residential proxies, datacenter proxies, private proxies, mobile proxies, to name a few.

In this article, we focus mostly on residential proxies, but here is a short explanation about datacenter proxies;

What are Datacenter Proxies:

What are Datacenter Proxies

Datacenter proxies are standalone, generic proxies originating from data centers. They don’t belong to any physical device, home address, or an internet service provider (ISP), which makes them untraceable.

The problem with data center proxies is that they are easily detected as proxies by websites, although they hide your IP address. As such, you are likely to get blocked when trying to access a website via datacenter proxies.

Because of their low pricing, datacenter proxies happen to be the most popular type of proxy, though they may not always be the best choice. It all depends on your use case.

What are Residential Proxies?

On the other hand, residential proxies are IP addresses tied to a physical address (mostly home addresses – hence, residential).

Specifically, they were issued to homeowners by ISPs. It means they can easily be traced, and since they are traceable, many websites trust and consider them as legitimate.

For this reason, a residential proxy is a far better alternative when looking to access a site anonymously, with fewer chances of getting blocked.

How Residential Proxies work?

How Residential Proxies work?

The residential proxy network works by masking your actual IP address, and it does this by channeling your internet traffic through third-party servers.

The server’s main objective is to generate a pseudo-residential IP address for you, and the IPs appear as though they are coming from an actual home location or device.

To better understand the concept of residential proxies, consider the following illustration;

Out of the box, an IP address tied to a physical location in the target area would be created and used to mask your actual IP. That way, the website holding the content will “think” your HTTP request is coming from within that location and appear as a residential address with a high trust score.

What are Rotating Residential Proxies?

In several cases, you may want to make multiple requests to a website within a short period. As such, you would like to use a different IP address for each request, or else your activity would be flagged as suspicious or, even worse – blocked and banned from accessing that website.

That is the moment where rotating residential proxies come in handy.

Rotating proxies work by creating a new IP address using time-framed intervals.

So, while making multiple requests to a server via rotating proxies, the server is tricked into believing requests come from various sources, allowing you to access any website content worry-free.

The Benefits of Using Residential Proxies

The Benefits of Using Residential Proxies

The primary benefit of using a residential proxy is anonymity. Staying anonymous online is of the utmost importance when you are looking to:

Access Geo-Blocked Websites and Geo-Targeted Content – A residential proxy surely helps you get around being blocked.

Track and Monitor Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) – Best use for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Use various tools to track and monitor your website performance in Google for specific queries over time, analyze ads for sets of keywords, monitor your competitors in both organic and paid results & build a URL list for particular keywords.

Scrape Web Pages and Extract Data – Using scraping tools to collect and harvest data while keeping your identity and location cloaked.

Aggregate and Compare Prices Across the Web – Using bots and crawlers to harvest data from online assets. For instance, travel aggregation, buying limited sneakers during releases, price comparisons for e-commerce sites, ticketing sites (ever heard of ticketing proxies?), and more, to gain the technological edge and advantage over “humans.”

In addition to anonymity, there are other benefits to using residential proxies.
They are as follow:

Brand Protection – Protect your intellectual properties and ensure that any unauthorized personnel is not using your brands’ copyright and assets.

Social Media Management (SMM) and Multiple Accounts Log-in – Static IPs are the best way to promote your business by managing multiple social media accounts and using automation tools to conduct social-listening practices.

Ad Verification – Promote your business by ensuring your digital campaigns and affiliating links are verified, detecting and avoiding malware on ad placements while obtaining relevant and authentic information without being misled.

• Website Testing – Accurately test websites from different Geo-targeted locations, and make sure the code, content, and appearance are to your satisfaction.

In this article, we did proper justice to what residential proxies are all about and why they are essential.
Perhaps you’re already excited and would like to get started with one of our residential proxy plans.

We are here to help!

NetNut provides users with unbeatable residential proxy solutions that are affordable, fast, and stable. Our unique architecture, combined with direct ISP connectivity, ensures that the days of being blocked and misled are over, and optimal speed and minimal latency are what you should expect from your proxy provider.

NetNut’s direct connectivity to ISPs provides a considerable advantage!

While other proxy providers are using a peer-to-peer (P2P) network, NetNut solutions depend on the unique position and location of DiViNetworks’ existing data delivery and network management solutions.
The result: A highly secure and scalable managed network with unprecedented availability!

With the right architecture on your side, you can achieve a failure rate of less than 1%!

Contact us by clicking the button below and start your 7-day free trial today!

Why Real-IP Proxies Important for Online Anonymity
Senior Growth Marketing Manager
As NetNut's Senior Growth Marketing Manager, Or Maman applies his marketing proficiency and analytical insights to propel growth, establishing himself as a force within the proxy industry.