Workflow Automation

Web Monitoring

Learn how to build a Lindy that monitors websites for changes and sends you alerts with the updated website content.

Let's face it – manually checking websites for updates can be time-consuming and tedious. But Lindy is here to help! You can think of the Lindy we'll set up in this guide as your personal web monitor, allowing you to stay up-to-date with changes on event pages, job boards, Twitter feeds, Craigslist search results, and more.

We'll start with this Web Monitoring Lindy.

Here's what it does:

Monitors a website on a recurring schedule
Compares current website content with previous versions
Identifies new, removed, or updated content
Sends alerts via Slack or other channels about website content changes
Saves you hours of manual research time

And the best part? This will take less than 10 minutes to set up.

Let's get started!

Add The Lindy To Your Account

Start with this Web Monitor template. Once you have added the Lindy to your account, open the Flow Editor to see how it works.

Customize The Triggers

This Lindy is configured with two triggers, giving you flexibility in how you initiate the web monitoring process:

1. On Recurring Schedule
2. Chat Message Received

With these two triggers, you can have Lindy monitor websites on a regular schedule or run checks whenever you want by sending a chat message in the Lindy app.

Let’s configure these two triggers.

1. On Recurring Schedule

Click the "On Recurring Schedule" trigger and set the frequency and time for when Lindy should perform the web search.

In this example, we'll schedule Lindy to run the workflow every day at 8:00 AM.

2. Chat Message Received

This trigger allows you to initiate the web monitoring process on-demand through the Lindy task view. No additional configuration is needed for this trigger.

Configure the Web Browsing Step

Next, we’ll set up the web browsing step. Click the Extract Webpage Text action. Set the URL field to "Set Manually".

Paste the website URL you want Lindy to monitor.

Create A Website Text Reference Document

Now we are going to create a document with the current webpage text, so Lindy has something to compare to when checking for webpage updates.

Create a new Google Document.

Go to the website page you want Lindy to monitor (this should be the same URL that you added to the Extract Webpage Text action). Copy the entire page content (Ctrl/Cmd + A, then Copy).

Paste the content into your new Google Document.

Now copy the Document URL of the Google Document you just created.

Go back to your Lindy’s Flow Editor, and after Extract Webpage Text, select the Google Docs Get Document action. Paste the URL of the Google Document in the “ID, Doc Name, or Link” field. Make sure this field is on “Set Manually” mode to ensure it uses the exact link every time.

Configure the Conditions

With the reference document created, we can now configure the Condition. The default Condition instructs Lindy to only proceed if the most recent browsing step found discrepancies in the live website compared to the reference document.

The Condition default prompt:

you found new, changed or removed content from the webpage search compared to the content on the Google Document. If there is a discrepancy, continue. If there have been no changes, do not continue.

Configure the Update Document Action

Now, we need to update the Google Document with the live website content.

To do this, click the Google Docs Update Document action.

Paste the Google Doc URL that contains the webpage content in the “Id, Doc Name, or Link” field. This should be the same URL from the previous Google Document step. Again, keep this field on “Set Manually” mode so it uses the exact value.

In the Content field, there is a prompt that instructs Lindy to update the Document:

using the content found on the webpage, update this Google Doc with the most recent webpage content

You do not need to update this prompt unless you notice Lindy is not following or adhering to prompt instructions based on the type of webpage being updated.

Keep the “Mode” on "Replace" to ensure Lindy replaces the entire document with the most recent webpage content.

Customize the Alert

In the last step of the flow, we need to customize how Lindy should alert us of website changes.

Click the Send Channel Message action. Specify what channel you want Lindy to send the alert to in the Channel field. Add a prompt to the Message field to customize the alert.

Example prompt:

Slack message should include:

New Events:
[List new events not in previous version]

Removed Events:
[List events from previous version no longer present]

Changes:
[Briefly note any significant content changes]

Doc URL: [Include doc URL]
Webpage URL: [Include monitored webpage URL]

Use concise language. Omit greetings or closings.

Test Your Lindy

Now that your Lindy is set up, it's time to test it out!

Go to the Lindy’s Task View and send Lindy a message to trigger the workflow.

Lindy will begin the search and alert you via Slack if the page has any updates.

For testing purposes: Try removing a section of the content from the Google Doc. Send a message in the chat (e.g., "Go!") to trigger the workflow. Then, check your configured Slack alert channel for the update message.

You can also wait for the scheduled time to see Lindy perform the check automatically.You did it! Now your Web Monitoring Lindy is set up to keep you informed about changes on your chosen websites, both on a schedule and on-demand. This flexibility ensures you never miss important updates and saves you valuable time in manual monitoring.

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