Overview
Manually monitoring website page updates is tedious and error-prone. This automation fetches your sitemap XML, extracts all updated page URLs with their last modified timestamps, compares them against your Google Sheets records, and writes only the changed pages back to the sheet—eliminating manual cross-checks and ensuring your data stays current.
The Impact
- Stop manual URL checks. Automatically detect and record page updates without human intervention.
- Kill redundant data entry. Only new or changed pages get logged, keeping your sheet clean.
- Flag outdated records. Sorted timestamps let you immediately identify the freshest content.
- Skip complex scripting. Prebuilt nodes handle XML parsing, comparison, and sheet updates seamlessly.
Who This Is For
- Website Admins who need automated logs of page changes for maintenance and audits.
- SEO and Content Teams preparing fresh URLs for indexing or crawling pipelines.
- Publishers & Engineers triggering sync or deployment workflows based on page updates.
- Data Analysts requiring up-to-date sitemap data without manual extraction or scripting.
How It Works
- Fetch Main Sitemap
- Download the main sitemap XML to extract all sub-sitemap URLs.
- Parse Sub Sitemaps
- Sequentially fetch each sub-sitemap, extracting page URLs and last modified dates, then sort pages by update time descending.
- Retrieve Existing Sheet Data
- Pull current rows from the designated Google Sheet for comparison.
- Compare and Identify Updates
- Use a built-in agent to detect new or changed pages by comparing sitemap data with sheet records.
- Write Updates to Google Sheets
- Append new rows or update existing ones in the Google Sheet, then output processing results.
What You'll Need
Before using this template, make sure you have:
- A Google Sheets spreadsheet with a sheet tab prepared to record updates, headers set as: Page URL, Last Modified Time, Page Info (JSON), Notes.Google Sheets OAuth2 credentials configured for API access to read and write sheet data.Optionally, Google Service Account credentials as an alternative authentication method.The full URL of the website's main sitemap XML (default example: https://wordpress.org/sitemap.xml).The Spreadsheet ID from your Google Sheet URL and the exact sheet/tab name for data operations.
How to Use
- Step 1. Prepare Google Sheet
- Step 2. Configure Credentials
- Step 3. Set Parameters
- Step 4. Run the Workflow
- Step 5. Verify Results
Create a sheet with columns for URL, last modified date, JSON info, and notes.
Set up Google Sheets OAuth2 or Service Account credentials for API access.
Enter SitemapUrl, SpreadsheetId, and SheetName in the workflow inputs.
Execute to fetch, parse, compare, and update your Google Sheet with changed pages.
Check your Google Sheet to confirm updated pages have been correctly recorded.
