What is the rate limit for sending requests to Zoopla when scraping?

When scraping websites like Zoopla, it's important to understand that most websites, including property listing platforms, have terms of service that often prohibit scraping. As of my last update, Zoopla, like many other similar services, does not openly publish rate limits for sending requests for scraping purposes because scraping can be against their terms of service or acceptable use policy.

However, if you are accessing Zoopla data through an official API, the rate limits would be specified in the API documentation provided to you when you sign up for an API key. If Zoopla offers a public API, you should use that for accessing data in a way that complies with their rules, and rate limits will be clearly specified as part of the API usage guidelines.

If you're scraping without an official API, keep in mind that doing so is a gray area and can potentially lead to legal issues, IP bans, or other enforcement actions by the website owner. It's crucial to respect the website's rules and to consider the ethical implications of scraping.

If you still need to scrape the website for data and there's no API available, here are some general best practices to avoid overloading their servers, which may help in preventing your IP from being banned:

1. Respect robots.txt: This file located at the root of the website (e.g., https://www.zoopla.co.uk/robots.txt) specifies the parts of the site that the owner doesn't want bots to access. While this file is not legally binding, it's good practice to follow its directives.

2. Rate Limiting: As a general rule of thumb, you should limit your request rate to 1 request every 10 seconds or even slower. The slower your crawl rate, the less likely you are to trigger anti-scraping measures.

3. Use Headers: Include a User-Agent header that identifies your bot and provides a contact email in case the website administrators need to contact you.

4. Handle Errors Gracefully: If you receive a 4xx or 5xx HTTP error response, your script should stop or significantly slow down its requests, as this may indicate that the server is overwhelmed or that your scraping activity has been detected.

5. Caching: Cache pages when possible to avoid requesting the same information multiple times.

6. Randomize Request Intervals: Instead of sending requests at regular intervals, randomize the intervals to mimic human behavior more closely.

7. Session Management: Use sessions to maintain cookies or tokens as a regular browser would, which can sometimes help in being perceived as a legitimate user.

8. Legal Compliance: Always check the website's terms of service and privacy policy to ensure that you're in compliance with their guidelines.

Here's a simple code snippet in Python using requests that follows these best practices:

import requests
import time
import random

headers = {
    'User-Agent': 'MyBot/0.1 (mybot@example.com)'
}

url = 'https://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/1234567'

try:
    while True:
        response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)
        if response.status_code == 200:
            # Process the page
            pass
        else:
            # Handle errors or stop the scraper
            break

        # Random delay between 10 and 20 seconds
        time.sleep(10 + random.uniform(0, 10))

except Exception as e:
    print(f"An error occurred: {e}")

Remember that even with best practices in place, scraping can still violate the terms of service of a website, and you should proceed with caution. Always prioritize official APIs or data sources provided by the website owner when available.