How to Import Data into Excel from Web

Stop manually copying and pasting data from websites into your spreadsheets. Not only is it tedious, but it's a surefire way to introduce errors and work with outdated information. Excel has a powerful, built-in tool that lets you create a live, refreshable connection to web data. This article will show you exactly how to import data from a website, transform it into a clean format, and set it up to update automatically.

Why Bother Importing Data from the Web?

Before we get into the steps, it's worth understanding why this is a game-changer for anyone working with data. Manually copy-pasting is a process almost everyone knows, but it's deeply flawed.

• It Saves a Ton of Time: Culling data from web pages, especially large tables, is a mind-numbing task. Automating this process frees you up to spend time on analysis, not on data entry.
• It Eliminates Human Error: Every copy-paste action is an opportunity for error. You might miss a row, copy the wrong cells, or paste formatting incorrectly. A direct data connection removes that risk entirely.
• Your Data Stays Current: Is the data on the website updated daily or even hourly? With a web connection, you can refresh your spreadsheet with a single click or even set it to update automatically whenever you open the file. This is perfect for tracking things like stock prices, project statuses from a web-based tool, or live sports stats.
• Access to More Data: A wealth of public data lives in tables on websites like Wikipedia, government portals, and financial sites. This method unlocks all of that for easy analysis right within Excel.

How to Import Web Data with Power Query

The magic behind Excel's web import feature is an incredibly powerful tool called Power Query. You don't need to be an expert to use its basic functions. It works behind the scenes to fetch, clean, and load data into your workbook. Let's walk through an example using a common data source: a Wikipedia table.

For this tutorial, let's say we want to analyze the list of largest companies by revenue from Wikipedia. Here's the URL we will use: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_companies_by_revenue

Step 1: Go to the "Data" Tab

Everything starts in the Excel Ribbon. Open a blank Excel workbook and navigate to the Data tab. In the "Get & Transform Data" section, you'll find the primary options for importing data from various sources.

Step 2: Select "From Web"

Click on the From Web button. This will open a small dialog box asking for the URL of the webpage you want to pull data from. It's that simple.

Step 3: Paste Your URL

Copy the URL from the Wikipedia page and paste it into the "URL" field in the dialog box. For public websites like this, you can just use the "Basic" option. Click "OK."

Excel will now connect to the webpage and analyze its content to find any structured data tables.

Step 4: Use the "Navigator" to Select Your Data

After a few seconds, the Navigator window will appear. This is where Power Query shows you all the structured data elements it discovered on the page.

On the left-hand side, you'll see a list of items, often named "Table 0," "Table 1," a suggested table, and the full document name. When you click on one of the items, a preview of that table will appear on the right.

You can toggle between two views:

• Table View: This shows a clean preview of just the table data. This is usually what you want.
• Web View: This shows the full webpage, with the selected table highlighted. It's useful for confirming you have the right data if the table name isn't descriptive.

Click through the tables on the left until you find the one that contains the company data you want. Once you've found the right one, select it by ticking the checkbox next to its name.

Step 5: Load or Transform the Data

At the bottom of the Navigator window, you have two primary options: Load and Transform Data. This is an important choice.

• Load: This option will immediately load the data, as is, directly into a new worksheet in your Excel file. The data will appear in a formatted Excel Table. Use this option if the data preview looks perfect and needs no cleaning.
• Transform Data: This is the more powerful option. It opens the Power Query Editor, a dedicated interface that lets you clean and reshape the data before loading it into Excel. You should use this if you need to remove columns, filter rows, or change data types (e.g., turning text into numbers).

For our example, the data looks mostly clean, but there might be some columns we don't need or formatting issues. Let's click Transform Data to see what's possible.

A Quick Starter Guide to the Power Query Editor

The Power Query Editor can seem intimidating at first, but for basic web imports, you only need to know a few key functions.

Removing Unnecessary Columns

Often, web tables contain columns you don't need for your analysis. For instance, our example table might have reference columns. To remove one, simply right-click the column header and select Remove. You can also select multiple columns (by holding Ctrl or Shift) and then right-click to remove them all at once.

Changing Data Types

This is one of the most important cleaning steps. Sometimes, Power Query misinterprets numbers as text, especially if they contain symbols like dollar signs or commas. You can't perform calculations (like SUM or AVERAGE) on text.

To fix this, look for a symbol like "ABC" or "123" in the column header. Click it and select the correct data type, such as Whole Number, Decimal Number, or Currency. Power Query will convert the entire column.

Filtering Rows

Just like in Excel, you can filter your data. Click the dropdown arrow on any column header to see a list of values. You can uncheck items you don't want to include or use the advanced filtering options (e.g., "Number Filters" → "Greater Than..."). This is great for an analysis where you only want to focus on companies with revenue above a certain threshold.

Close & Load Your Clean Data

Once you're happy with how the data looks in Power Query, click the Close & Load button in the top-left corner. This will close the editor and load your now-clean data into a new sheet in your workbook.

Keep Your Data Live: Setting Up Automatic Refresh

You've successfully imported the data, but the real benefit is keeping it up to date. You don't have to repeat the entire process to get the latest version.

Manual Refresh

For a quick, on-demand update, you can simply go to the Data tab and click the Refresh All button. Excel will revisit the source URL, re-apply all your cleaning steps in Power Query automatically, and update the table in your worksheet with the new data.

Automatic Refresh

If you want the data to update on a schedule or every time you open the file, you can configure the connection properties.

1. Click anywhere inside your data table.
2. Go to the Data tab.
3. Click the small arrow on the Refresh All button and choose Connection Properties....
4. In the dialog box that appears, look for the "Refresh control" section. Here you can check boxes to:

Click OK. Now your data connection is fully automated.

Quick Tips for Common Issues

Importing from the web isn't always perfect, as websites are built in vastly different ways. Here are a few common scenarios and what to do.

• Help! Power Query can't find my table. This usually happens with modern, dynamic websites built with JavaScript. Power Query is best at reading simple, static HTML tables. If your data isn't being detected, there may not be a simple way to connect to it.
• The data is spread across multiple pages. This is called pagination, and it's a common challenge. Handling this requires more advanced Power Query techniques involving functions and parameters, which is a great next step once you've mastered the basics.
• The website requires a login. Excel's "From Web" connector does have authentication options for simple login types. When it prompts you for credentials, you can choose "Basic" and enter a username and password. However, this won't work for sites that use more complex login systems like OAuth (e.g., logging in with your Google account).

Final Thoughts

Learning to pull data directly from the web into Excel is a massive step up from manual methods. It automates your reporting, ensures your numbers are always current, and opens the door to analyzing information you previously couldn't easily access. By mastering the From Web feature and the basics of the Power Query Editor, you can save hours of work and build truly dynamic reports.

While pulling data from a single website into Excel is powerful, the real reporting work these days often involves combining data from many different places at once - Shopify, Salesforce, Google Analytics, and your advertising platforms. Instead of setting up dozens of individual connections and trying to stitch them together, we built an easier way. With Graphed, you simply connect all of your business platforms in seconds, then describe the dashboard you need in plain English. We turn your request into a live, real-time dashboard instantly, helping you go from scattered data to clear insights without the spreadsheet hassle.