Octoparse allows users to interact with webpages and select elements using simple point-and-click. Whenever we click on a page element, a Tips panel will pop up with pre-populated action suggestions. However, many users have come across an issue where there is no option to scrape the URL when they intend to select a link.

Imagine a task where we want to scrape noise-cancelling headphones from Amazon. After opening the website in Octoparse, we click on the title of a certain product but have no success in finding an option to scrape the linked URL of that item.

This is because hyperlinks are usually defined with the A tag. However, in this case, instead of the A tag, Octoparse detects the span tag of that element, which only contains the text.

Note: The A tag defines a hyperlink, which is used to link from one page to another. The most important attribute of the A element is the href attribute, which indicates the link's destination.

The solution is not rocket science. Check the HTML tag path at the bottom of the Tips panel and click on A tag to change the element we select.

Note that the Tips panel will then contain an option to extract the URL of the selected link after we click on A tag.

Problem solved! Now you can continue with your task building.