# Web Content Crawler — Generic Site Text Extractor (`agency-shift/web-content-crawler`) Actor

Generic web content crawler. Extract text content from any URL. Lightweight alternative for quick page scraping and data collection for AI training and research.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/agency-shift/web-content-crawler.md
- **Developed by:** [Valdeir Lima](https://apify.com/agency-shift) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools, AI
- **Stats:** 33 total users, 11 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$0.05 / actor start

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Website Content Crawler & Text Extractor

**Crawl any website and extract clean, structured content** — page title, meta description, main text, headings and links — at scale. A fast, no-nonsense **web scraper** built on Cheerio (no browser overhead) for SEO research, competitor analysis, content monitoring, and feeding **AI / RAG / LLM** pipelines.

### What this website scraper does

Give it one or more URLs and it returns clean data for every page:

- **Title** and **meta description** (great for SEO audits)
- First **H1** heading
- **Full visible text** (scripts, styles, nav and footer stripped out)
- All outbound **links** on the page
- Optional **same-domain crawling** to follow links automatically

No login, no API key. Optional Apify Proxy for sites that block datacenter IPs.

### Use cases

- **Competitor research** — scrape a competitor's site copy, landing pages and blog
- **SEO audits** — pull titles, meta descriptions and headings across many URLs
- **AI / RAG ingestion** — turn websites into clean text for embeddings and LLMs
- **Content monitoring** — detect copy or pricing changes over time
- **Lead research** — extract company descriptions and contact pages at scale

### Input

| Field | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| `startUrls` | array | — | List of URLs to crawl |
| `maxPages` | integer | `10` | Maximum pages to crawl in total |
| `followLinks` | boolean | `false` | Follow same-domain links up to `maxPages` |
| `maxTextLength` | integer | `20000` | Truncate page text to this many characters |
| `useProxy` | boolean | `false` | Route through Apify Proxy to avoid IP blocks |

#### Example input

```json
{
  "startUrls": ["https://example.com/"],
  "maxPages": 25,
  "followLinks": true
}
```

### Output

```json
{
  "url": "https://example.com/pricing",
  "title": "Pricing — Example",
  "description": "Simple, transparent pricing.",
  "h1": "Plans for every team",
  "textLength": 4213,
  "text": "Plans for every team ...",
  "linkCount": 38,
  "links": ["https://example.com/signup"],
  "crawledAt": "2026-06-05T10:00:00.000Z"
}
```

### FAQ

**Do I need an API key?** No. It works out of the box.

**Can it crawl JavaScript-heavy sites?** It extracts server-rendered HTML. For content that only appears after heavy client-side rendering, enable `useProxy` and target the API or rendered URLs.

**Will it get blocked?** Most sites are fine. For strict sites, enable `useProxy` to route through Apify Proxy.

**How do I crawl a whole site?** Set `followLinks: true` and raise `maxPages`.

# Actor input Schema

## `startUrls` (type: `array`):

Pages to crawl. Each item is a URL string.

## `maxPages` (type: `integer`):

Maximum pages to crawl in total.

## `followLinks` (type: `boolean`):

If on, enqueue links on the same domain up to maxPages.

## `maxTextLength` (type: `integer`):

Truncate extracted page text to this many characters.

## `useProxy` (type: `boolean`):

Route requests through Apify Proxy (datacenter). Uses credit. Helps with IP blocks.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://news.ycombinator.com/"
  ],
  "maxPages": 10,
  "followLinks": false,
  "maxTextLength": 20000,
  "useProxy": false
}
```

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "startUrls": [
        "https://news.ycombinator.com/"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("agency-shift/web-content-crawler").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "startUrls": ["https://news.ycombinator.com/"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("agency-shift/web-content-crawler").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://news.ycombinator.com/"
  ]
}' |
apify call agency-shift/web-content-crawler --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,agency-shift/web-content-crawler"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/GnWFKuCBdSfxRhWlu/builds/zIde7iOSg7wHorhIy/openapi.json