Extracting Specific Information from ANY Website in Google Sheets with SheetXAI

Overview

This guide demonstrates how to extract specific data elements from websites directly into Google Sheets using SheetXAI and Google's IMPORTXML function. This technique is perfect for competitor research, price monitoring, product analysis, and more.

Disclaimer: Some websites will require more back-and-forth with SheetXAI to get the right formula, some won't. This is because many websites are anti-scraping so they make the process a bit harder. That said, 90% of the websites you will want to scrape are scrapable, so give it a shot and reach out to david@sheetxai.com if you try everything and it doesn't work. 

Tools You'll Need

• SelectorGadget (Chrome extension for easy CSS selection)
• XPath Tester (Chrome extension for testing XPath queries)
• Web browser with developer tools (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, etc.)
• Access to the website you want to extract data from (NO WEBSITES THAT REQUIRE LOGIN)
• Google Sheets with SheetXAI installed

Step-by-Step Process

Step 1: Decide Your Extraction Approach

Determine which extraction type you need:

• Single item from multiple pages: Extract the same element from different URLs (e.g price from product page)
• Multiple items from one page: Extract a list of similar elements from a single URL (e.g product links from a page showing multiple products)

Step 2: Identify Your Target Elements

For single item extraction:

• Find and inspect just one instance of your target element

For list extraction:

• Identify at least 3 similar items in the list
• Inspect each to find their selectors
• Look for patterns in how they're structured

Step 3: Get the Element Identifiers

Try these methods in the following order:

1. CSS Selectors (Start here - often most reliable)

   • Right-click the element → Inspect
   • Right-click on the highlighted HTML → Copy → Copy selector

2. XPath (If CSS selector doesn't work)

   • Right-click on the element in inspector → Copy → Copy full XPath

3. Outer HTML (For complex structures)

   • Find the parent container (DIV above your element)
   • Right-click → Copy → Copy outer HTML

Step 4: Ask SheetXAI to Create the Formula

For a single item:

"Hey, I want to extract [specific data] from this website [URL]. 
Here is the CSS selector:
[paste your selector]"

For a list of items:

"Hey, I want to extract all [specific data] from this website [URL].
Here are 3 selectors from the list:
1. [paste first selector]

2. [paste second selector]

3. [paste third selector]"

Step 5: Test and Refine

1. Copy the formula provided by SheetXAI
2. Paste it into your Google Sheet
3. If it works, ask SheetXAI to insert it and put a header, or leave as is if you are satisfied
4. If you see errors like #REF! or N/A "Content is empty":
   • Share the error message with SheetXAI
   • Try the next identifier method (from CSS → XPath → Outer HTML)
   • Ask: "The formula returned an error [error details]. Can you help with a different approach using [next method]?

Here is the selector(s)

[Selector]"

Pro Tips

• Convert formula results to static values when needed
• For websites with complex structures, the Outer HTML method often works better
• Avoid scraping content from sites that require login
• Use a browser extension like "XPath Tester" or "SelectorGadget" for more precise element selection
• Skip sponsored content as it often has different HTML structure

Troubleshooting

If you encounter issues:

• Try targeting parent containers instead of specific elements
• Test different identification methods (XPath, Outer HTML, CSS Selectors)
• Check if the website allows scraping (some sites implement protections)
• Reach out to our support team for assistance with particularly challenging websites

This approach works for extracting prices, product names, images, descriptions, and many other data points from most public websites.