How to Scrape Website Data to Excel: One Record per Row

To scrape website data to Excel, collect the fields you need, export a table with one record per row, and import the CSV into Excel. The part worth checking is the table itself: a successful download can still put every result inside one cell. This guide uses a small, tested BrowserAct Bot to show what a usable export looks like.

Choose a method that fits the page

A few visible values may be quicker to copy manually. A simple HTML table may work with an Excel web import supported by your version. A repeated collection task needs a reusable scraper with explicit fields and stopping conditions.

This article follows the third route. It uses Books to Scrape, a public scraping sandbox, rather than a live shop or an account requiring credentials. The site states that its prices and ratings are fictional. They are useful for learning and checking the output, not for market research.

The example reads one listing page only. It does not collect all books across the website. That small scope makes it easier to verify titles, prices, record counts, and file structure before extending a workflow.

Define the table before collecting data

For this example, one row represents one book card from the supplied listing page. The fields are complete title, absolute product URL, displayed price, displayed availability, rating, numerical price amount, currency, and trimmed availability.

Keeping the original price alongside its numerical amount makes the conversion checkable. For example, the source's £51.77 remains in raw_price, while price_amount contains 51.77 and currency contains GBP. The numerical amount is derived from the displayed value, not a second price fetched elsewhere.

Use the product URL as the duplicate key. Titles are readable labels, but two different products can share a title. The source link also gives you a route back to the evidence.

If your own page contains products with multiple variants or reviews, decide whether those deserve separate tables. The CSV vs JSON guide explains why exporting a whole response object can leave a nested array in one cell.

Build and run the BrowserAct workflow

Use the following prompt as a starting specification for a custom Bot. The example has been tested on the named sandbox; changing the website requires checking its layout, access conditions, and fields again.

1. Open BrowserAct Dashboard

Click the left-side + button to create a Bot, choose Quick Start, and enter the website URL. Paste the requirements into the data input. The current workspace also offers a Custom Bot entry for a fuller request.

The actual BrowserAct Quick Start workspace used to create this example.

2. Copy the complete prompt

Start with five records. Keep the fields and row definition explicit, and change the URL or limit only when you are ready to verify a different input.

Build a reusable, read-only Bot for https://books.toscrape.com/.
Inputs: start_url, default https://books.toscrape.com/; max_results, default 5, integer 1-20.
Read only the supplied listing page in source order; do not follow Next or crawl the whole site.
One record must represent one book. Extract the complete card title (use the link tooltip), absolute product_url, raw_price including the pound symbol, raw_availability as rendered, and rating as an integer 1-5.
Keep raw fields. Derive price_amount by parsing this site's GBP price, currency as GBP, and availability by trimming surrounding whitespace only. No currency conversion, inferred values, or sentiment labels.
Deduplicate by absolute product_url before applying max_results. Preserve first occurrence order. Use null for missing or unparseable fields.
Return one books collection of flat records, with no extra metadata or serialized nested results cell. The native CSV download must contain one book per row with these eight columns.
Do not click Add to basket, submit forms, purchase, log in automatically, or change accounts. If login, CAPTCHA, 2FA, or restricted access appears, stop with a clear message for manual help.
Test five homepage books and allow independent runs with a changed limit and listing URL. Verify the actual CSV and JSON downloads.

3. Handle access requirements if they appear

This public sandbox needed no login during our tests. If a different authorized website requires login, CAPTCHA, 2FA, or account confirmation, complete that requirement manually when the product requests it. A Bot may stop with an access message and require a rerun; do not assume every access gate supports an interactive resume.

4. Review the rows and download CSV

After building, run the published Bot with the desired listing URL and limit. Review its result table, check product URLs for duplicates, and compare a few values with the page. Open Download result file and choose CSV. Keep this original download before making changes in a spreadsheet.

Selected columns from the actual three-book Travel-category run. The original downloaded CSV contains eight fields and three records; this screenshot is a crop of the real BrowserAct result view.

What we verified in the native files

On October 21, 2026, the Bot's build test returned five homepage books. We then ran its published version independently with two different requests and downloaded the results directly from BrowserAct.

These checks establish the behavior of this Bot on these inputs. They do not establish that another template, another website, or every possible result limit will behave identically.

Import the CSV into Excel

Open the CSV in Excel, or use the text/CSV import option when you need control over encoding, delimiters, and column types. In supported versions, look under Data → Get Data → From Text/CSV; menu names vary by platform and version. Microsoft's import guide covers the available routes.

In the preview, confirm that the header names occupy separate columns and that each book occupies one row. Choose the comma delimiter for this file. If the pound symbol or other characters appear incorrectly, check the encoding; Microsoft's UTF-8 CSV guidance explains the import alternatives.

Keep URLs and identifiers as text. Treat price_amount as a numerical column and retain currency beside it. If you need workbook formatting, multiple sheets, or formulas, save the imported data as an Excel workbook (.xlsx). Renaming a CSV extension does not create that workbook format.

The BrowserAct output was verified as native CSV and JSON. The Excel import instructions above follow Microsoft's documentation; this article does not claim that BrowserAct generated a native XLSX file.

Check the file before scaling the task

Count data records rather than physical text lines, because quoted fields may contain line breaks. Confirm unique source URLs and compare the returned count with the limit. Check that titles are complete and that a blank field remains distinguishable from zero.

If Excel shows one row containing a long data or results value, inspect the record structure before trying to split the cell. Fix the output collection or Bot specification, then download again. Splitting on commas can corrupt legitimate comments, titles, and nested values.

For recurring collection, keep the original file and record when it was collected. Changes in row counts or field meanings need investigation. Our data cleaning explanation covers the next stage: making values consistent without inventing missing information.