Web Scraping Guide

A guide to effectively using IMPORTXML, IMPORTHTML, and other import functions to pull web data into Google Sheets.

General Strategy

Web scraping in Sheets is susceptible to page structure changes and loading timeouts. Use these strategies to improve reliability.

Use Mobile Sites

Mobile versions of websites (e.g., m.wikipedia.org instead of en.wikipedia.org) often have significantly simpler HTML structures. They contain fewer nested divs and scripts, making them faster to load and easier to target with XPath.

Target Specific Elements

Avoid broad XPath queries like //div. Be as specific as possible to minimize the data Sheets has to process.

Finding XPaths with DevTools

You don’t need to guess the structure of a page. Use the Browser Developer Tools (usually F12 or Ctrl+Shift+I).

1. Inspect: Right-click the element you want to scrape and select “Inspect”.
2. Identify: Look for unique id or class attributes.
3. Copy XPath: Many browsers allow you to right-click an element in the inspector and select “Copy” → “Copy XPath”. Note that generated XPaths are often brittle; it’s better to write a logical one (e.g., //h1[@id='title']).

Common Troubleshooting

Issue	Potential Cause	Solution
#N/A	Element not found	Verify XPath; check if content is loaded via JavaScript.
#ERROR!	URL or XPath syntax	Ensure URL includes https:// and XPath is quoted.
Empty Result	Data is behind a login	Google Sheets cannot scrape authenticated pages.
”Resource not found”	Bot blocking	Some sites block Google’s user agent. Try using a mobile URL.

Handling Namespaces in XML

If an XML feed uses namespaces (e.g., <media:content>), standard XPath may fail. Use the local-name() function:

=IMPORTXML(url, "//*[local-name()='content']")

Performance

Limit the number of import functions in a single sheet. Google Sheets imposes limits on how many external requests can be active simultaneously. If you have hundreds of imports, they will likely return “Loading…” indefinitely.