Scraping knowledge from webpages is a comparatively superior activity that, till not too long ago, required a level of technical talent. The thought of diving into code or scripts for knowledge extraction appeared overwhelming for a lot of, myself included.
Knowledge scraping can energy many search engine optimization duties, resembling auditing, competitor evaluation, and analyzing website and knowledge construction.
Google sheets provides easy options to assist.
A type of options is the IMPORTXML perform that permits customers to scrape webpage knowledge utilizing only a few parameters. It makes knowledge extraction accessible to a wider viewers, particularly to those that weren’t well-versed in programming languages.
Whereas this perform is spectacular, the actual breakthrough got here with the adoption and integration of generative AI into the combo.
On this information, we’ll present you methods to use Google Sheets and AI, significantly ChatGPT, for net scraping while not having superior coding abilities.
The Instruments: AI And Chatbots
We at the moment are all aware of AI, ChatGPT, and comparable chatbots.
In reality, many people use options like ChatGPT to put in writing our personal code, scripts, and packages with or without very restricted programming information.
It is so simple as offering detailed directions within the type of prompts and dealing with the chatbot to construct instruments that solely till not too long ago we believed had been means above us.
However most significantly, these are instruments which can be deeply altering the best way we strategy our day-to-day work.
For instance, if we ask ChatGPT the next query, “What’s the IMPORTXML perform and the way can I exploit it in Google Sheets to scrape the title of an HTML webpage? Present the mandatory code to do this in Google Sheets,” the response is extraordinarily correct. In a matter of seconds, we’ve our system prepared to make use of in Google Sheets.
However to be trustworthy, that was a really primary and easy activity that we may have simply accomplished with out ChatGPT.
The Process
So, how does this work if we need to extract knowledge that may be a bit much less commonplace in comparison with a web page title or description?
For instance, how does this work if we need to extract the next knowledge from the PPC entrance web page of Search Engine Journal?
Listing all featured articles, their authors, the hyperlink URLs, and the article description for the columns listed on https://www.searchenginejournal.com/class/paid-media/pay-per-click/.
Can we try this instantly with ChatGPT?
Executing With ChatGPT
When creating prompts, it took a couple of makes an attempt to supply directions that had been detailed sufficient for the chatbot to completely perceive the target of the duty and return good outcomes.
In lots of instances, it felt just like the AI was below strain to return fast outcomes regardless of their accuracy.
However let me clarify.
The duty was to research the web page and listing all featured articles, their authors, the hyperlink URLs, and the outline for every of the 30 articles listed on the web page. Then compile the info right into a desk and at last export it right into a CSV file.
Simple proper?
At first, ChatGPT returned only a pattern of seven articles and solely their titles and URLs; after a reworked immediate, it managed to listing and export all 30 articles and their hyperlinks.
Now, that was good. So, to finish the duty, we simply wanted so as to add the authors and the article descriptions.
However right here is the place the bot stumbled and was not capable of present an correct description of every article regardless of us offering examples of the web page factor it wanted to seek out and replica.
ChatGPT stored ignoring the directions and offering its personal article descriptions time and time once more.
ChatGPT even failed after we tried with a unique strategy and downloaded and uploaded a duplicate of the web page HTML.
Screenshot from ChatGPT, February 2024
This time, it was capable of present correct knowledge for seven articles however couldn’t go previous that. The problem reported:
“…the construction and content material of the web page current vital challenges for complete knowledge extraction in a single session.
The web page is sort of intensive and sophisticated, and it’s not possible to extract all 30 articles within the present format of interplay.”
Screenshot from ChatGPT, February 2024
ChatGPT + Google Sheets
So, going again to IMPORTXML and Google Sheets.
This time, getting ChatGPT to supply the formulation for every area was like a breeze.
Screenshot from ChatGPT, February 2024
Listed below are a few of the formulation, as prompt by the chatbot, that you could simply strive your self in Google Sheets to extract:
Title
=IMPORTXML(“https://www.searchenginejournal.com/class/paid-media/pay-per-click/”, “//*[@id=’archives-wrapper’]/article/div/div[2]/h2/a”)
Creator Identify
=IMPORTXML(“https://www.searchenginejournal.com/class/paid-media/pay-per-click/”, “//*[@id=’archives-wrapper’]/article/div/div[2]/p[1]/a”)
URL Hyperlink
=IMPORTXML(“https://www.searchenginejournal.com/class/paid-media/pay-per-click/”, “//*[@id=’archives-wrapper’]/article/div/div[2]/h2/a/@href”)
Description
=IMPORTXML(“https://www.searchenginejournal.com/class/paid-media/pay-per-click/”, “//*[@id=’archives-wrapper’]/article/div/div[2]/p[2]”)
In no time, we had been capable of extract the info into the spreadsheet.
Screenshot from Google Sheets, February 2024
Moreover, through the use of merely constructed nested formulation, we are able to shortly pull the info from a number of pages on the similar time.
Within the instance beneath, I used to be capable of extract the identical knowledge associated to every article (title, writer, URL hyperlink, and outline) for the primary 10 pages of the PPC part.
The result’s a complete of 300 articles scraped in lower than a minute!
Screenshot from Google Sheets, February 2024
Evaluating The Two
So, how do ChatGPT vs. ChatGPT + Google Sheets IMPORTXML examine?
In my expertise, I couldn’t discover a straightforward and fast means to make use of ChatGPT to scrape the info I used to be in search of – thoughts you, that doesn’t imply that this isn’t doable, and there is perhaps a number of methods to do that, however I didn’t discover any.
What labored for me was a mixture of the totally different instruments, and that served me rather well for my meant goal.
ChatGPT was extraordinarily helpful for writing the IMPORTXML formulation I wanted to make use of in Google Sheets, and people formulation did the remainder.
A further bonus of the ChatGPT + Google Sheets possibility is that you could simply use the free 3.5 model of ChatGPT and get the device to construct your IMPORTXML formulation, as a substitute of getting model 4 to scan the web page and extract the info.
Key Takeaway
This highlights a crucial facet of how AI has reworked how we predict and work.
The very best device for the job isn’t merely utilizing AI, Google Sheets, or any particular software program alone however fairly a mixture of instruments and abilities.
It’s on this built-in strategy that we develop workflows which can be environment friendly and efficient, thus enhancing our general productiveness.
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