David Selden-Treiman is Director of Operations and a project manager at Potent Pages. He specializes in custom web crawler development, website optimization, server management, web application development, and custom programming. Working at Potent Pages since 2012 and programming since 2003, David has extensive expertise solving problems using programming for dozens of clients. He also has extensive experience managing and optimizing servers, managing dozens of servers for both Potent Pages and other clients.
Browse articles by subject or search the archive. Recent material is featured first, with the rest of the author archive pulled directly from WordPress.
Learn when crawlers need IP rotation, when stable IPs are better, and why smart crawling depends on rate limits, sessions, geography, monitoring, and data quality.
Read article →Web data changes quietly, sites redesign, parsers improve, and definitions drift. If you can’t reproduce past results, backtests shift and signals decay. Learn how…
Duplicate web data quietly inflates signals and corrupts backtests. Learn how deduplication and canonicalization collapse repeats, preserve provenance, and deliver clean, investable time-series alternative…
Web data changes quietly, layouts shift, meanings drift, access tightens. Learn how hedge funds keep alternative data feeds stable with drift detection, schema versioning,…
Web data rarely fails loudly. This article shows the validation checks that catch silent failures, schema drift, coverage erosion, and subtle data corruption, so…
Alternative data only creates edge if it arrives on time, complete, and consistent. Learn how monitoring, alerting, and meaningful SLAs prevent silent pipeline failures…
Turn web-based signal ideas into durable, production-grade data feeds. Learn the hedge fund pipeline from hypothesis to monitored crawlers, normalized time-series datasets, and reliable…
Supply chains leave investable clues on the public web, vendor lead times, shipping disruptions, and distributor stock moves. Potent Pages builds durable crawlers that…
Track competitive moves before they hit earnings. Potent Pages builds bespoke crawlers that monitor feature launches, pricing shifts, and positioning changes, turning web activity…
Job postings are high-frequency signals of corporate intent. Track posting volume, hiring velocity, and role mix to spot growth, freezes, and strategic shifts early,…
Inventory moves faster than earnings. Track SKU-level stock-outs, ship-time drift, and backorders across retailers and regions to detect demand/supply inflections early, then turn it…
Pricing and promotions move faster than earnings. Learn how hedge funds track SKU-level prices, discount depth, and assortment changes using custom web data to…
Real-time demand shows up on the web before it hits earnings. Track search, inventory, delivery shifts, pricing, marketplace ranks, and reviews to spot inflections…
Turn the public web into an early-warning catalyst system. Potent Pages builds bespoke web crawlers that detect market-moving events early, structure signals for backtests,…
Macro signals don’t have to wait for lagged releases. Learn how web-scraped data, prices, inventory, hiring, delivery times, and corporate updates, can be engineered…
Not all web data is predictive alpha. Some signals are directional, useful for context, confirmation, and risk overlays. Others can be engineered into stable,…
Custom web crawlers give long/short equity funds earlier signals from the public web, pricing, inventory, sentiment, hiring, and competitor moves, delivered as clean, backtest-ready…
Turn web-scale crawling into investable alternative data. Learn how hedge funds separate signal from noise using bespoke pipelines: deduping, change detection, normalization, and monitoring…
Turn messy web data into investable signals. Learn how hedge funds use feature engineering to normalize pricing, inventory, hiring, and narrative data into point-in-time,…
Scraping is easy. Making web data investable is the hard part. Learn how cleaning, normalization, and structuring turn noisy pages into stable, backtest-ready time…
Turn messy public web activity into reliable, backtest-ready signals. This guide walks hedge funds through acquisition, normalization, feature engineering, validation, and monitored live delivery…
Turn investment theses into measurable signals. Potent Pages builds custom web crawlers that capture pricing, inventory, hiring, and sentiment changes over time, delivering backtest-ready…
Hedge fund alpha increasingly comes from how data is collected, not how much. This article explains how hypothesis-driven web crawlers turn public-web signals, pricing,…
Hedge funds gain edge by spotting KPI inflections early. Learn how custom web crawlers capture pricing, inventory, hiring, sentiment, and competitor signals—then turn them…
Bigger datasets are easy to buy—and easy for competitors to match. This article explains why hedge funds win with unique, proprietary data, and how…
Many crawl failures are network failures. Learn how hosting web crawlers on host-specific IP addresses improves stability, reputation control, rate limiting, and debugging—then scale…
Time-to-signal is the real edge. Potent Pages builds custom web crawlers that reduce data latency and turn web events into clean, backtest-ready alternative data.…
Hedge fund web crawling turns public web activity into proprietary alternative data. Learn how web scraping for hedge funds captures pricing, inventory, hiring, disclosures,…
Introduction Cloudflare Workers are often used by website owners and developers to add serverless functionality, route traffic, and perform on-the-fly transformations. They're typically created…
Discover the perfect theme to showcase your shoe store's collection with these 9 free WordPress themes, designed to help you build a website that…
Discover 15 free WordPress themes specifically designed for art gallery websites, perfect for artists and creatives looking to showcase their work online. These versatile…
Perk up your website with these 15 free WordPress themes designed specifically for coffee shops! Each theme is carefully crafted to showcase your brand's…
Learn how to create a professional online presence for your veterinary clinic with these 10 free WordPress themes. From modern and sleek to playful…
Discover 15 stunning and versatile free WordPress themes perfect for graphic designers looking to create a professional online presence. Elevate your website with these…
This article highlights 15 free WordPress themes suitable for marketing agencies, providing options for creating effective and visually appealing websites. Each theme is carefully…
This article highlights 15 free WordPress themes suitable for consulting firm websites, offering a range of modern and professional designs to help professionals establish…
A comprehensive guide to 15 free WordPress themes suitable for law firm websites, providing options for those looking to establish a professional online presence.…
This article provides a list of 15 free WordPress themes suitable for insurance agency websites, helping individuals build a professional online presence without breaking…
This article highlights 15 free WordPress themes that are perfect for travel agencies, providing a stylish and functional foundation for their online presence. With…
Discover 15 Free WordPress Themes for Real Estate Agency Websites. Elevate your online presence with these versatile and modern designs, perfect for showcasing properties…
Get your car repair business online with these 15 free WordPress themes, specifically designed to help you establish a strong online presence and attract…
This article highlights 4 free WordPress themes that are perfect for HVAC technicians looking to build a professional website. These themes offer a range…
Discover the top 10 free WordPress themes specifically designed for electricians to create a professional online presence and showcase their services and portfolio. Learn…
Discover 15 free WordPress themes perfect for gardening services websites, designed to help you build a website that showcases your green thumb skills. From…
Discover the best 15 free WordPress themes for plumber's websites, perfect for creating a professional online presence that showcases your services and expertise. From…
Discover 15 stunning free WordPress themes designed specifically for photography studio websites, perfect for showcasing your portfolio and attracting new clients. Elevate your online…
Discover 10 free WordPress themes that can help you create a serene and inviting website for your yoga studio. From minimalist to vibrant, these…
Get started with a professionally-designed website for your fitness training business using these 15 free WordPress themes. Elevate your online presence and attract more…
This article provides 10 free WordPress themes that are great for massage therapists looking to establish an online presence and attract clients. These versatile…
Get started with a professional website for your nail salon using one of these 10 free WordPress themes, each designed to showcase your services…
Barber shops can now create a professional online presence with these 10 free WordPress themes, designed specifically for barbershop websites. Each theme offers a…
This article provides a list of 12 free WordPress themes that are perfect for building a website for your hair salon. These themes can…
Discover the best free WordPress themes for beauty salon websites, perfect for those looking to build a stunning online presence without breaking the bank.…
Discover the top 10 free WordPress themes suitable for jewelry store websites, perfect for entrepreneurs looking to build an online presence without breaking the…
10 stunning free WordPress themes that are perfect for creating a beautiful website for your floristry business. From elegant and modern to playful and…
These 10 free WordPress themes are specifically designed for bookstore websites, perfect for book lovers and entrepreneurs looking to create an online presence without…
Discover 10 free WordPress themes that are perfect for bakery websites, featuring designs that highlight your sweet treats and make it easy to showcase…
Discover 15 free WordPress themes perfect for building a website for your restaurant, from modern and sleek to vintage and rustic. Elevate your online…
Discover 15 free WordPress themes perfect for building a website for your furniture store, complete with sleek designs and customizable options to showcase your…
This article guides hedge fund analysts on using custom data to identify leading indicators for equities, discussing data collection, indicator development, and integration into…
This article discusses how hedge funds, focusing on fundamental analysis, utilize custom data obtained through web crawlers and data scraping to test and refine…
Exploring the art of hypothesis development, this article reveals how hedge funds leverage custom data, using web crawlers and data scraping, to predict market…
This article guides hedge funds through the data acquisition process, emphasizing the importance of custom data and leading indicators. Learn how to identify, collect,…
Exploring the world of custom data, this article unveils how hedge funds use web scraping and detailed analysis to gain insights into market trends,…
This guide unveils how hedge funds leverage custom data, obtained through web crawlers and data scraping, to form and verify trading hypotheses. It covers…
Venture Capital · Alternative Data · Web Crawlers WEB CRAWLERS Built for Venture Capital Deal Flow and Diligence Potent Pages designs and operates custom…
Macro Hedge Funds · Alternative Data · Web Crawlers CUSTOM ALTERNATIVE DATA For Macro Hedge Funds and Global Macro Research Potent Pages builds custom…
Discover the top uses for custom web crawlers by industry. Learn how businesses turn prices, inventory, hiring, reviews, and policy changes into reliable, time-series…
Learn the development stages of a web crawler, from defining scope to ensuring scalability. Perfect for those aiming to grasp the essentials of creating…
Uncover the transformative role of custom web crawlers across various sectors: they're reshaping e-commerce, fine-tuning advertising, revolutionizing finance, modernizing real estate, enhancing travel experiences,…
Explore the world of web crawler developers: from entry-level experts charging $20-40/hr, mid-level pros at $60-85/hr, to top-tier experts commanding $100-200+/hr. Navigate your project's…
Discover the comprehensive guide to hiring web crawler developers, ensuring your team's success from the start. Learn to identify your project's needs, evaluate technical…
Dive into the benefits of outsourcing versus building an in-house web crawler team. From cost efficiency and expertise to scalability and vision alignment, this…
Unravel the dynamic partnership between web crawling and GPT in content analysis. From harnessing deep contextual insights to overcoming data challenges, this article guides…
Navigating the intricate web of large-scale crawling becomes a smooth journey with GPT, a guide ensuring your data extraction is not only robust and…
Embark on a journey through the intricate digital landscapes with GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 in web crawling development. From conceptual understanding to practical implementation and…
Examine the transformative world of GPT-4 powered web crawlers. Discover their profound impact across domains from e-commerce to academic research. This guide unveils how…
Embark on a journey through the digital world, debunking common misconceptions about web crawler pricing, customization, scalability, and more. Discover how, with informed and…
Dive into the comprehensive guide on web crawling investments, exploring facets from crafting effective strategies and ensuring ethical data practices, to optimizing data extraction…
Embark on a journey through the hidden costs and challenges of web crawling, steering through CAPTCHAs, IP bans, data storage, and more. With a…
Dive into the fascinating journey of web crawler pricing evolution. From the rudimentary custom tools of the internet's early days to today's sophisticated SaaS…
Dive deep into the world of web crawler pricing! This guide illuminates the nuances between custom-built and premade solutions, the balance of speed and…
Dive into the world of web crawler pricing models! From the unlimited access of subscription-based plans to the flexibility of pay-per-crawl, and the teaser-like…
Discover the hidden economics behind web crawling, from foundational infrastructure costs to the value of skilled labor. Navigate unforeseen challenges while weighing potential returns,…
Wondering how to control Chrome using PHP? Want to extract all of the visible text from a webpage? In this tutorial, we use Selenium…
If you’re looking to install Docker & Selenium to run either a web crawler or set up a testing environment, this guide’s for you.
SEO · Crawl Logs · Google User Agents HOW MANY GOOGLEBOT Crawlers Are There? (2026 Update) The “number of Googlebot crawlers” depends on what…
IndexedDB is a powerful, client-side storage API designed for modern web applications. It offers a way to store significant amounts of structured data, including…
The Web Storage API provides a way for web applications to store data in a user's browser. It helps create a more personalized, seamless…
The Shadow DOM is a powerful web standard that allows developers to encapsulate HTML, CSS, and JavaScript within custom web components. It offers style…
Learn to supercharge your WordPress website with the JavaScript Worklets API. Discover how offloading tasks from the main thread can enhance animations, speed up…
In this comprehensive guide, we explore how to optimize the performance of web workers. From understanding their fundamentals to integrating them with modern JavaScript…
Discover how to boost your WordPress site's performance by minimizing main thread work. Our guide walks you through understanding main thread tasks, identifying issues,…
Learn how DNS prefetching improves WordPress site load times by pre-resolving domain names, leading to faster resource loading and a better user experience.
Discover the power of WordPress transients! Learn how to use, optimize, and manage transients to improve website performance and enhance user experience.
Discover the differences between async & defer in JavaScript. Learn how to optimize script loading for a faster website & improved user experience.
Explore the benefits of service workers for WordPress performance, covering fundamentals, use cases, best practices, and challenges to optimize your site.
Discover how to leverage Web Workers for enhanced WordPress performance, boost site speed, and create a seamless user experience with our comprehensive guide.
The TL-DR First Input Delay (FID) is a user experience metric that measures the time it takes for a website to respond to a…
Learn how to improve your WordPress site's Time to Interactive (TTI) with optimization techniques for themes, caching, media files, and hosting providers.
Learn how to improve your WordPress site's Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) with expert tips on responsive design, optimization techniques, and server performance.
Discover how to improve your WordPress site's Total Blocking Time (TBT) with expert tips on server optimization, caching, plugin management, and more.
Discover how to improve your Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) on WordPress with image, code, webfont, and server optimization techniques for a faster site.
Explore Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs): learn how they work, their benefits, challenges, and future trends to create an inclusive internet.
Learn to use nslookup to test & troubleshoot DNS configurations. Master installation, basic & advanced usage, and common DNS issues with our guide.
Master the dig utility to test and troubleshoot DNS records across Linux, Windows & MacOS. Learn installation, commands, and common issue resolution.
The TL-DR A DNS wildcard record is a special DNS entry that acts as a catch-all for requests to non-existent subdomains, simplifying domain management…
Explore DNS Over HTTPS (DoH), its benefits, drawbacks, and alternatives for securing DNS traffic, and learn how to set up an Nginx-based DoH gateway.
Boost your website's security with DNSSEC! Learn what DNSSEC is, how to set it up with BIND, maintain it, and protect against DNS attacks.
Discover EDNS0, the game-changing DNS extension that boosts query efficiency, enhances security with DNSSEC, and unlocks advanced DNS features.
Discover how GeoDNS boosts user experience & optimizes infrastructure by routing users based on location. Enhance performance for global audiences!
Discover Split-Horizon DNS: Boost security & optimize performance! Learn its advantages, use cases, setup, best practices, limitations & alternatives.
Discover WebP's advantages for WordPress web developers, including superior compression, faster load times, and advanced features.
Boost your website's performance & user experience! Discover proven techniques to optimize First Contentful Paint (FCP) and leave users impressed.
Discover DNS over QUIC, a revolutionary protocol enhancing internet security and performance, offering encrypted, faster, and resilient domain name resolution.
Discover Anycast DNS: a powerful, reliable solution for DNS traffic management, offering enhanced performance, security, and scalability for your network.
The SOA DNS record specifies default authority information for your domain's DNS zone. Learn what the parts are and what you should set the…
Discover the importance of PTR records in email authentication & network diagnostics. Your questions about reverse DNS records answered.
Learn how to correctly configure the essential DNS records for your email server: MX, SPF, DKIM, DMARC, and PTR. Ensure reliable email delivery now!
Ensure your WordPress website is accessible and functional with the right DNS records. Learn about A, CNAME, MX, TXT, NS, and SOA records in…
Discover all of the types of DNS records you'll need to know - from the basic types like A and TXT records, to advanced…
Is DNS propagation slowing you down? Learn how to manage it effectively with these best practices. Minimize website downtime and maximize performance today!
Discover the true cost of a web crawler for your business needs. From open-source to commercial solutions, find the best fit and ROI for…
Is your website slow to load? Learn how to improve your TTFB (Time To First Byte) and boost page speed, user experience, and SEO…
Discover the power of XPaths for web crawling and data extraction in this expert guide. Learn how to write effective XPaths with real-world examples.
Web Crawlers · Data Extraction · Change Monitoring WHAT CAN I COLLECT With a Web Crawler? A web crawler can collect far more than…
Website builders like Squarespace, Wix, and Shopify may seem like a convenient and cost-effective option for building a website, but they can become a…
Boost your website's performance and speed with our comprehensive guide on website caching. Learn about browser, server, and CDN caching, and how to implement…
Discover the benefits of website monitoring and stay ahead of website performance issues. Learn about different types of monitoring tools, how to choose the…
Discover the causes and solutions for Cloudflare 503 errors, which can negatively impact your website's accessibility and functionality. Our expert guide covers everything from…
Ensure your website can handle high traffic levels with ease by implementing website load balancing. Our comprehensive guide covers the benefits, methods and steps…
Unlock the full potential of your web applications with the latest advancements in HTTP protocols. Learn the key differences between HTTP2 and HTTP3, and…
Learn how to keep your website online and accessible with our guide to high availability clusters. Discover the different types, set-up process, real-world examples…
Protect your WordPress site with the best backup options. Learn about the best ways to ensure the safety of your website's data.
Discover why DNS propagation takes a while and how to speed it up. Learn about the factors that affect DNS propagation, how to monitor…
Switching to a new WordPress host can bring many benefits including improved performance and speed, increased security, better customer support and more features. This…
Are you tired of slow loading times and poor performance on your WordPress website? Look no further! Our expert guide provides a step-by-step approach…
Microservices architecture is a way of building and deploying large and complex applications by breaking them down into smaller, independent services. This allows for…
Learn about crypto mining malware, how it infects websites, and the negative effects it can have on website hosting. Discover ways to prevent and…
This article delves into the different types of security threats that can affect WordPress websites, including malware, brute-force password attacks, SQL injection, cross-site scripting…
The TL-DR Galera is a distributed MySQL database system that provides high availability, high performance, and data consistency using a cluster architecture and synchronous…
The TL-DR This article provides an overview of best practices for optimizing MySQL databases for high-performance hosting, including optimizing configuration files, database structure, partitioning,…
Web Crawling · JavaScript Rendering · AJAX Extraction EXTRACT DATA FROM AJAX PAGES The Practical Methods That Work on JavaScript-Heavy Sites If your scraper…
The TL-DR If you're running into issues with your hosting, including configuration problems, performance issues, or security concerns, it may be time to get…
The TL-DR Serverless computing is a hosting model where your hosting provider automatically handles configuration and scaling of your application. You only pay as…
The TL-DR Shared hosting can very be limiting. You can improve your site’s performance though by optimizing your site’s code, using caching, and optimizing…
TLDR When looking for environmentally friendly hosting (aka green hosting), the fastest way to find verified companies is to go to The Green Web…
TLDR A Content Delivery Network (CDN) is a system of distributed servers that are located in various geographical locations. The main purpose of a…
TLDR VPS hosting is a powerful and flexible hosting option that offers many advantages over shared hosting, it's a great choice for businesses and…
TLDR You can get a free SSL certificate from a few sources. If you’re using Cloudflare, you can easily get a free certificate by…
TLDR Caching plugins store frequently accessed data in a temporary storage area to reduce load time, optimization plugins reduce the size of files and…
TLDR There are a number of factors to consider. You need to consider your own budget, how long you plan on hosting your website,…
TLDR It depends on traffic and complexity. If your site is receiving a lot of traffic, or you need a complex setup for a…
The TLDR Should you use cPanel? It really depends. If you have a lower-traffic site (under ~2k visitors per day or so), cPanel can…
While web crawlers can be useful and even necessary in some cases, using them can also raise significant legal concerns.
Wondering why your WooCommerce site is loading so slowly? We go over some of the reasons why and some ways to speed up your…
If you're wondering why your site works great when you design it, but it times out when you run traffic, this is why.
Tired of your web crawlers getting blocked? Try using a free proxy. In this article we explain what proxies are, how to use them,…
Looking for some quick code to build your web crawler in PHP? Here's some code we use a lot here at Potent Pages to…
In this tutorial, we create a PHP website spider that uses the robots.txt file to know which pages we're allowed to download. We continue…
Looking to download a site or multiple webpages? Interested in examining all of the titles and descriptions for a site? We created a quick…
Looking to automatically download webpages? Here's how to download a page using PHP and cURL.
How I lowered my website load times below 2 seconds... a step-by-step tutorial including WordPress, Nginx, Apache, Redis, MySQL, PHP7
With our current setup, you should be able to add as many sites as you want to hosted on your server. Here’s how to…
This is part 8 of a 10 part tutorial on setting up and configuring Nginx as a reverse proxy with an Apache backend. To…
Next up we need to compile and install nginx. We can't simply run the yum command because we're going to need to add some…
Installing an FTP server Next we're going to want to install an FTP server so you can upload files. To do this will be…
Creating a Self-Signed SSL Certificate Next we need to create a self-signed SSL certificate. This is very useful for testing purposes but should not…
Installing PHPMyAdmin Next, we need to install phpmyadmin. The easiest way I have found to do this is to simply clone the phpmyadmin git…
Installing MySQL Next we need to install MySQL. This will be our database of choice however you can easily use any database that you're…
How I lowered my website load times below 2 seconds... a step-by-step tutorial including WordPress, Nginx, Apache, Redis, MySQL, PHP7
*Your speed times will probably vary, depending on your location, internet connection speed, etc. My Results I started out with the goal of getting…
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Potent Pages develops custom crawlers, data acquisition systems, automation, and software for teams that need dependable results.