CSS Selector

What are CSS Selectors?

CSS Selectors are patterns used to select HTML elements based on their id, class, attributes, and other properties. They’re the bread and butter of frontend developers — and web scrapers alike. If you’ve ever written CSS, you already know half of what you need for web scraping.

CSS selectors are the clean, elegant way to target HTML elements. Simple, readable, and perfect for 90% of scraping tasks. When you need precision without the verbosity of XPath, CSS is your go-to.

Master the Basics

The most common selectors every scraper should know:

/* Target product titles in cards */
.product-card .title

/* Grab all buttons with specific class */
.btn-primary.buy-now

/* Select links in footer only */
footer a[href^="/products/"]

When to use CSS vs XPath: CSS is faster to write and easier to read. Use it for simple, stable selectors. Reach for XPath when you need text-based selection, parent traversal, or complex filtering logic.