Does the sheet update by itself?

The sheet reads the address again on its own, and each read builds the table from the site's newest crawl, so a new crawl needs no change to the sheet. How often Google reads the address is Google's choice: its help page lists one hour for IMPORTDATA. A link answers 12 reads an hour.

How many rows can a live link hold?

Up to 50,000 rows and 2,000,000 cells. PerfBee refuses a bigger table instead of cutting it. For a larger Site Pages list, narrow it with filters, or read every page with the REST API and an Apps Script.

The link is a secret address. Anyone who has it can read the data without signing in, so anyone who can open your sheet can see it. PerfBee shows it once and keeps only a keyed hash. If it leaks, replace or revoke it in Settings, under Live links.

Can I use a live link on the Free plan?

No. Live links are on Starter and up and use no credits. On the Free plan you can still fill a sheet through the REST API with an Apps Script. It needs an API key with the read scope, and reading costs no credits.

Why does a date show as a number?

Google Sheets shows a date or a time in the imported data as a number. Select the column and choose Format, then Number, then Date time.

Update Google Sheets with Crawl Data Automatically

In short

Make a live link in PerfBee and paste the =IMPORTDATA formula it shows into cell A1 of a Google Sheet. Each read builds the table from the site's newest crawl, and Google decides how often the sheet reads the address.

Plans: Starter and up.
Credits: None.
On the Free plan: Use the REST API recipe.

A live link returns your newest crawl

A live link is a web address that returns one table as CSV. A Google Sheet reads it with =IMPORTDATA. PerfBee builds the table again on every read, from the newest finished crawl of the site. You choose one of five tables:

Crawl history: one row per finished crawl, newest first, the last 365 crawls.
Broken links: the broken links of the newest crawl.
All URLs: every URL the newest crawl checked.
SEO data: one row per page of the newest Detailed crawl.
Site Pages: the Site Pages list, with the view, filters and sort you chose when you made the link.

A Site Pages link cannot take a segment, and no link holds numbers that come from Google.

Making a link takes one dialog and one formula

In a scan report's tables or in Site Pages, open the Export menu and choose Live link for Google Sheets. Or open Settings, then Live links, and choose New live link. The crawl history table is only in Settings.
Copy the formula PerfBee shows. The link is shown once, as a ready formula and as a plain address. PerfBee keeps only a keyed hash of it, so it cannot show it again.
Paste the formula into cell A1 of an empty sheet. The sheet fills with the table.

Google Sheets · cell A1 · example address

=IMPORTDATA("https://dashboard.perfbee.com/feeds/pbf_xxxxxxxx_xxxxxxxx....csv")

The site must be in My Sites. Google Sheets shows a date or a time in the data as a number: select that column and choose Format, then Number, then Date time.

How often a sheet reads the address is Google's choice. Google's help page on calculation settings lists one hour for IMPORTDATA. Because each read builds the table from the newest crawl, the sheet needs no change after a new crawl.

Two sheets worth building

These are ideas. PerfBee does not provide a sheet template.

A crawl history tab. Make a Crawl history link and chart the Broken Links column against Scanned At (UTC). Every crawl adds a row at the top, so the chart follows your site over time.
A fix list. In Site Pages, set the status filter to Broken, then make a Site Pages link from that view. The sheet lists the broken pages Site Pages shows, and your team can work down it.

Every link has limits

A link holds up to 50,000 rows and 2,000,000 cells. A bigger table is refused, never cut: narrow the filters or download the file.
A workspace can have 20 active links.
A link can be read 12 times an hour, and all the links of a workspace together 240 times an hour. A read past that is refused until the next hour.
A link stops working after 365 days. Replacing it starts a new 365 days.
A link also stops when the site leaves My Sites, when staging access is set up for the site, and while the plan has no exports.

Anyone who has the address can read the data

The address ends in a secret of 43 random characters. Anyone who has it can read the data without signing in. The formula holds the address, so anyone who can open your sheet can read the data.

If a link leaks, open Settings, then Live links. Replace gives the link a new address, and the old one stops working at once, so update the sheets that use it. Revoke stops the link at once, and sheets that read it stop updating.

Owners and admins of a workspace see every link in it, with who made it and when it was last read. Members see the links they made. Viewers cannot make links.

A formula is not enough for a very large site

A live link holds one table of up to 50,000 rows. To read every page of a larger site into one tab, use the REST API. The Google Sheets recipe is a short Apps Script that does it. It needs only an API key with the read scope. Reading costs no credits, and it works on every plan.

More ways to take crawl data out are on the Site Crawler page.

Live links are on Starter and up and use no credits

Live links and file downloads need a plan with exports: Starter and up. Neither uses credits. The Free plan has no live links, but the Apps Script route works with an API key on every plan.

The help article covers live links and large exports.

Update a Google Sheet with crawl data, without downloading a CSV