Snaphot Website Content Daily
Capture a daily snapshot of a website and store it in Google Drive.
Last updated
October 1, 2025
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Key Takeaways
- Daily website archiving - captures and stores snapshots of target pages every day
- Comprehensive content extraction - saves full HTML, visible text, structured data, meta tags, and page titles
- Change detection via hashing - compares content hashes to quickly flag when a page has changed
- Structured storage - organizes snapshots by date with consistent file naming
- Historical record - builds a chronological archive for trend analysis over time
What This Workflow Does
This Needle workflow automatically captures and archives website snapshots every day, building a historical record of page content over time. It stores full page data and flags days when changes occurred.
Use cases:
- Tracking pricing evolution over time
- Monitoring competitor feature launches
- Analyzing messaging changes on key pages
- Documenting market trends with actual page data
- Supporting competitive positioning decisions with historical evidence
How It Works
| Step | What Happens |
|---|---|
| 1. Scheduled trigger | Runs every day at a set time (e.g., midnight) |
| 2. URL list retrieval | Loads the list of target URLs from Google Sheets or workflow config |
| 3. Page fetch | Fetches the complete page content for each URL |
| 4. Content extraction | Extracts full HTML, visible text, structured data (pricing tables, feature lists), meta tags, and page title |
| 5. Metadata tagging | Attaches URL, timestamp, and a content hash to the snapshot |
| 6. Change check | Compares the content hash to yesterday's snapshot to detect changes |
| 7. Storage | Saves the snapshot in a structured format organized by date |
What Gets Stored Per Snapshot
| Data Field | Description |
|---|---|
| URL | The page address that was captured |
| Timestamp | Date and time of the snapshot |
| Content hash | A hash of the page content for quick change detection |
| Full HTML | Complete HTML source of the page |
| Extracted text | Visible text content of the page |
| Structured data | Key data extracted as JSON (e.g., pricing tables, feature lists) |
| Meta tags | Page metadata including title |
| Screenshots | Optional page screenshots |
Storage Structure
Snapshots are organized by date:
competitor_snapshots/ 2025-10-01/ competitor-a-pricing.html competitor-a-pricing.json competitor-b-features.html competitor-b-features.json
Setup Instructions
- Prepare a list of target URLs to archive (e.g., pricing pages, feature pages, about pages)
- Choose a storage backend (database, Google Sheets, or cloud storage such as S3 or Google Drive)
- Import the workflow template in Needle
- Configure the target URL list in the workflow (via Google Sheets or workflow config)
- Set a retention policy for how long snapshots are kept (e.g., 1 year)
- Set the schedule in the trigger node (default: daily)
Customization
| What You Can Change | How |
|---|---|
| Monitored URLs | Add or remove URLs from the target list in Google Sheets or workflow config |
| Capture frequency | Edit the cron expression in the trigger node |
| Storage backend | Switch between database, Google Sheets, or cloud storage (S3, Google Drive) |
| Retention policy | Configure how long snapshots are kept before cleanup |
| Extracted data | Modify extraction settings to capture additional structured data fields |
| Screenshots | Enable or disable optional page screenshots |
| Change flagging | Adjust what triggers a "Change Detected" flag |
FAQ
Q: What pages should I archive? A: Pricing pages, feature pages, about pages, and job posting pages are common choices. You can also archive your own site for historical reference.
Q: How does change detection work? A: Each snapshot includes a content hash. The workflow compares today's hash to yesterday's hash. If they differ, the snapshot is flagged as "Change Detected."
Q: Can I generate reports from the archive? A: Yes. The stored data supports weekly or monthly reports showing a timeline of changes across monitored pages.
Q: How much storage do snapshots require? A: Storage depends on the number of URLs monitored and the size of each page. Setting a retention policy (e.g., 1 year) helps manage storage over time.
Q: Can I store snapshots in multiple locations? A: The workflow supports database, Google Sheets, and cloud storage (S3, Google Drive) as storage backends.
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