What are the best times to scrape Indeed to avoid heavy server load?

Scraping websites like Indeed should always be done with respect to the terms of service of the website and the legal considerations in your jurisdiction. Before thinking about the best times to scrape, you should ensure that you are allowed to scrape the site and that you're not violating any regulations.

Assuming that you have the permission to scrape Indeed and are doing so ethically, the best times to scrape to avoid heavy server load are usually when user traffic is at its lowest. This typically corresponds to non-peak hours for the website's primary user base. For a job listing site like Indeed, these times might be:

• Late Nights: Very late at night or very early in the morning, when fewer users are likely to be browsing job listings.
• Weekends: Depending on the demographics of the job seekers, weekends might see reduced traffic, especially on Sundays.
• Holidays: Major holidays might also see a decrease in traffic, as people are less likely to focus on job hunting.

However, keep in mind that server load is not the only consideration when scraping a website. You should also:

• Limit Request Rates: Even if you're scraping during low-traffic times, it’s crucial not to overwhelm the server with too many requests in a short time span. Implement delays between your requests.
• Respect robots.txt: Check the robots.txt file on Indeed (http://www.indeed.com/robots.txt) to see which parts of the site you’re allowed to scrape.
• Use Headers: Include a user-agent header that identifies your bot, and consider using other headers like Accept-Language to mimic a regular browser request.
• Handle Errors Gracefully: Your scraper should be able to handle errors such as a 404 or 503 without retrying immediately, which could add unnecessary load to the server.

If you're writing a scraper in Python, you might use the requests library along with time.sleep() to control the rate of your requests:

import requests
import time
from random import randint

url = 'https://www.indeed.com/jobs'

headers = {
    'User-Agent': 'Your scraper name/version contact-email@example.com'
}

while True:
    try:
        response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)
        # Process the response if successful
        if response.status_code == 200:
            # your scraping logic here
            pass
        time.sleep(randint(5, 10))  # Random delay to mimic human behavior
    except requests.exceptions.RequestException as e:
        print(e)
        time.sleep(60)  # Wait a minute before retrying

Remember that even with these precautions, scraping can still be detected and your IP address could be blocked. Using proxies and rotating user agents can sometimes help avoid detection, but these techniques should be used judiciously and ethically.

Lastly, it is worth mentioning that Indeed offers an API that allows for job searches, which might be a better and more legitimate way to access the data you need without scraping their website. Always prefer using an API when one is available, as it's usually provided to be a more efficient and legal way to access the data.