How to Scrape Website Data Recursively with n8n

Collecting structured web content across multiple linked pages is a common challenge for researchers, content aggregators, and data teams. Manual scraping is time-consuming, error-prone, and rarely scalable—especially as websites grow in complexity, use dynamic links, or require deeper navigation beyond the landing page. Traditional scrapers often fail due to login requirements or anti-bot protections, and extracting data across multiple levels or domains can quickly become unmanageable without the right tools.

Airtop’s Scrape Website Data automation, designed for n8n, solves these pain points by leveraging authenticated, real-browser sessions to navigate sites like a human would. This automation starts from a specified seed URL, recursively follows relevant links, scrapes page content, and aggregates the results—perfect for aggregating articles, research, or lead data. Integration with Google Sheets and Docs allows seamless storage and management of discovered content and links. Robust support for authentication, captchas, and session handling ensures reliable access to even complex or protected sites. By orchestrating the workflow in n8n, professionals gain repeatable, easily-integrated web content aggregation without the need for custom coding or brittle one-off scripts.

Who is this Automation for?

• Market researchers aggregating news, articles, or publications across multi-page sites

• Growth and lead generation teams compiling company or contact information from target domains

• Product managers and analysts tracking product details or changes across nested category pages

• Academic researchers collecting literature, citations, or online resources for systematic reviews

Key Benefits

• Real browser sessions with login and advanced anti-bot support (OAuth, 2FA, Captcha)

• Recursive scraping with customizable depth and domain filtering

• Automated integration with Google Sheets and Google Docs for content storage

• No-code setup via n8n—easily scale, schedule, and manage recurring scrapes

Use Cases

• Content aggregation for daily news tracking across linked articles

• Lead list building by crawling company directories for emails and phone numbers

• Academic citation gathering for systematic literature reviews

• Competitor monitoring by scraping product listings and linked pages

• Knowledge base creation from documentation and FAQs across multi-level sites

• Event data extraction by navigating and aggregating conference agendas or participant lists

Getting Started with the Scrape Website Data Automation

Follow these steps to enable reliable, recursive website scraping—integration and configuration require only standard tools and accounts.

How the Scrape Website Data Automation Works

This automation begins by reading seed URLs from a Google Sheet. Airtop uses a real browser session—authenticated if needed—to open each page, scrape its content, and save it to a linked Google Doc. The automation then scans for new links that match your filter (such as containing your domain), appends them to the same sheet, and repeats the process for the desired number of depth levels. All while handling authentication, session state, and anti-bot measures for robust, human-like scraping. The workflow is managed entirely via n8n, enabling batch or scheduled execution without writing code.

What You’ll Need

• Free Airtop account and Airtop API Key

• Authenticated Airtop Profile for the target website (create here)

• n8n account

• Google Sheets and Google Docs credentials

Setting Up the Automation

1. Click on Try Automation for Scrape Website Data in the Airtop Automations Library.

2. Select "Use for free" and complete the guided setup in n8n.

3. Input your seed URL, link filter, and scraping depth as prompted.

4. Connect your Airtop, Google Sheets, and Google Docs accounts using the provided credentials.

5. Run the automation, or schedule it for batch or periodic execution as desired.

Customize the Automation

Airtop with n8n offers plenty of ways to adapt this automation to your exact needs:

• Adjust link filtering logic to constrain crawl scope by domain, folder, or keyword

• Change content output destination (e.g., export to database or CSV for post-processing)

• Combine with other n8n automations—trigger notifications or enrichment on new discovered pages

• Fine-tune scraping behavior per site, such as login flows or handling dynamic page navigation

Automation Best Practices

• Set appropriate filtering criteria to avoid unwanted or irrelevant pages in the crawl

• Test authentication/session profiles for target sites before running full-depth scrapes

• Schedule recurring runs during off-peak hours for efficiency and lower detection risk

• Regularly review extracted content to refine or expand link filters and crawl depth

Try this Automation

Effortlessly collect, organize, and scale your web content aggregation with the Scrape Website Data (n8n) automation. Perfect for robust, recurring web scraping across linked pages and multiple depth levels.

Need help customizing this automation? Book a Demo today!