Forming URLs

Learn how to build URLs for Web Scraper API targets like Baidu, Yandex, and Wayfair. Master URL encoding, pagination, and more.

By following these guidelines, you can build URLs for Baidu, Yandex, or Wayfair for your web scraping tasks.

Baidu

Job parameter assignment to URL:

https://<subdomain>.baidu.<domain>/s?ie=utf-8&wd=<query>&rn=<limit>&pn=<calculated_start_page>

When forming URLs, please follow these instructions:

1. Encoding search terms: Search terms must be URL-encoded. For instance, spaces should be replaced with %20, which represents a space character in a URL.

2. Calculating start page: The start_page parameter now corresponds to the number of search results to skip. Use the equation limit*start_page-limit to calculate the value.

3. Subdomain assignment: The subdomain value depends on the user agent type provided in the job. If the user agent type contains mobile, the subdomain value should be m. Otherwise, it should be www.

4. Query parameter: Depending on the subdomain value (m or www), the query parameter for the query term should be adjusted accordingly (word for m and wd for www).

Sample Built URLs

For mobile:

https://m.baidu.com/s?ie=utf-8&word=test&rn=10&pn=20

For desktop:

https://www.baidu.cn/s?ie=utf-8&wd=test%20query&rn=13

Equivalent Job Examples

Decommissioned baidu_search source:

{
    "source": "baidu_search",
    "query": "test",
    "domain": "com",
    "limit": 5,
    "start_page": 3,
    "user_agent_type": "desktop"
}

Updated universal source:

{
    "source": "universal",
    "url": "https://www.baidu.com/s?ie=utf-8&wd=test&rn=5&pn=10",
    "user_agent_type": "desktop"
}

Yandex

Job parameter assignment to URL:

https://yandex.<domain>/search/?text=<query>&numdoc=<limit>&p=<start_page>&lr=<geo_location>

When forming URLs, please follow these instructions:

1. Encoding search terms: Search terms must be URL encoded. For instance, spaces should be replaced with %20, which represents a space character in a URL.

2. Start page adjustment: The value of the start_page has to be reduced by 1. For example, if the desired starting page is 3, then the value in the URL, which represents the page number, has to be 2.

3. Localization: If the domain is either ru or tr, an additional query parameter lr is added with the geo_location value. For other domains, the geo_location value is under the query parameter rstr, where a - symbol is added before the value.

4. Unsupported: pages parameter is no longer supported. Jobs have to be submitted separately by changing the current page value in the URL.

Built URL examples

https://yandex.ru/search/?text=test&numdoc=5&p=0&lr=100

https://yandex.com/search/?text=test%201&numdoc=10&p=2&rstr=-100

Equivalent job example

Decommissioned yandex_search source:

{
    "source": "yandex_search",
    "query": "test",
    "domain": "com",
    "limit": 5,
    "start_page": 3,
    "geo_location": 100,
    "results_language": "en"
}

Updated universal source:

{
    "source": "universal",
    "url": "https://yandex.ru/search?text=adidas&numdoc=5&p=2&lr=100&lang=en"
}

Wayfair

Job parameter assignment to URL:

https://www.wayfair.<domain>/keyword.php?keyword=<query>&itemsperpage=<limit>&curpage=<start_page>

When forming URLs, please follow these instructions:

1. Encoding search terms: search terms must be URL encoded. For instance, spaces should be replaced with %20, which represents a space character in a URL.

2. Parameters: If limit is equal to 48 and start_page is equal to 1, then following additional parameters have to be appended to URL:

   1. command=dosearch

   2. new_keyword_search=true

Built URL examples

https://www.wayfair.com/keyword.php?keyword=test&itemsperpage=24&curpage=1

https://www.wayfair.fr/keyword.php?keyword=t%202&itemsperpage=48&curpage=1&command=dosearch&new_keyword_search=true

Equivalent job example

Decommissioned wayfair_search source:

{
   "source": "wayfair_search",
   "query": "test",
   "domain": "com",
   "limit": 5,
   "start_page": 3
}

Updated universal source:

{
   "source": "universal",
   "url": "https://www.wayfair.com/keyword.php?keyword=room&itemsperpage=5&curpage=10"
}