diff --git a/src/data.js b/src/data.js
index 2c1d4b6..55db05a 100644
--- a/src/data.js
+++ b/src/data.js
@@ -5,20 +5,15 @@ class Data {
 	#expression;
 
 	constructor(obj, expression) {
+		// xml2js returns leaf nodes as strings, turn those into consistent objects
+		// I found this to be safer and more efficient than using the explicitCharkey option
 		this.#obj = typeof obj === 'string' ? { _: obj } : obj;
+
+		// this identifies how the object was referenced, helps a ton with debugging
 		this.#expression = expression;
 	}
 
-	get value() {
-		const value = this.#obj._;
-		if (value === undefined) {
-			throw new Error(`Could not get value from ${this.#expression}.`);
-		}
-
-		return value;
-	}
-
-	#buildExpression(propName, index) {
+	#buildExpression(propName, index = undefined) {
 		let expression = `${this.#expression}.${propName}`;
 		if (index !== undefined) {
 			expression += `[${index}]`;
@@ -27,11 +22,22 @@ class Data {
 		return expression;
 	}
 
+	// used by "optional" functions to return undefined instead of throwing an error
+	#optional(func) {
+		try {
+			return func();
+		} catch (ex) {
+			return undefined;
+		}
+	}
+
+	// will not throw an error if property doesn't exist, defaults to empty array
 	children(propName) {
 		const nodes = this.#obj[propName] ?? [];
 		return nodes.map((value, index) => new Data(value, this.#buildExpression(propName, index)));
 	}
 
+	// throws an error if property (or index on property) doesn't exist
 	child(propName, index = 0) {
 		const nodes = this.#obj[propName];
 		if (nodes === undefined) {
@@ -46,10 +52,22 @@ class Data {
 		return new Data(node, this.#buildExpression(propName, index));
 	}
 
+	// convenience function, since it's very common to want the value of a child
 	childValue(propName, index = 0) {
-		return this.child(propName, index).value;
+		return this.child(propName, index).value();
+	}
+	
+	// throws an error if this object doesn't have a value string
+	value() {
+		const value = this.#obj._;
+		if (value === undefined) {
+			throw new Error(`Could not get value from ${this.#expression}.`);
+		}
+
+		return value;
 	}
 
+	// throws an error if attribute does not exist
 	attribute(attrName) {
 		const attribute = this.#obj.$?.[attrName];
 		if (attribute === undefined) {
@@ -58,6 +76,18 @@ class Data {
 
 		return attribute;
 	}
+
+	optionalChild(propName, index = 0) {
+		return this.#optional(() => this.child(propName, index));
+	}
+
+	optionalChildValue(propName, index = 0) {
+		return this.#optional(() => this.childValue(propName, index));
+	}
+
+	optionalValue() {
+		return this.#optional(() => this.value());
+	}
 }
 
 export async function load(content) {
diff --git a/src/frontmatter.js b/src/frontmatter.js
index 74aede8..22f37c9 100644
--- a/src/frontmatter.js
+++ b/src/frontmatter.js
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 export function author(post) {
-	// not decoded, WordPress doesn't allow funky characters in usernames anyway
-	return post.data.childValue('creator');
+	// not decoded (WordPress doesn't allow funky characters in usernames anyway)
+	// surprisingly, does not always exist (squarespace exports, for example)
+	return post.data.optionalChildValue('creator');
 }
 
 export function categories(post) {
@@ -28,7 +29,9 @@ export function draft(post) {
 
 export function excerpt(post) {
 	// not decoded, newlines collapsed
-	return post.data.childValue('encoded', 1).replace(/[\r\n]+/gm, ' ');
+	// does not always exist (squarespace exports, for example)
+	const encoded = post.data.optionalChildValue('encoded', 1);
+	return encoded ? encoded.replace(/[\r\n]+/gm, ' ') : undefined;
 }
 
 export function id(post) {
diff --git a/src/parser.js b/src/parser.js
index 023b4da..915c97b 100644
--- a/src/parser.js
+++ b/src/parser.js
@@ -115,7 +115,7 @@ function collectAttachedImages(allPostData) {
 		})
 		.map(attachment => ({
 			id: attachment.childValue('post_id'),
-			postId: attachment.childValue('post_parent'),
+			postId: attachment.optionalChildValue('post_parent') ?? 'nope', // may not exist (cover image in a squarespace export, for example)
 			url: attachment.childValue('attachment_url')
 		}));
 
@@ -128,16 +128,25 @@ function collectScrapedImages(allPostData, postTypes) {
 	postTypes.forEach(postType => {
 		getItemsOfType(allPostData, postType).forEach(postData => {
 			const postId = postData.childValue('post_id');
+			
 			const postContent = postData.childValue('encoded');
-			const postLink = postData.childValue('link');
+			const scrapedUrls = [...postContent.matchAll(/<img\s[^>]*?src="(.+?\.(?:gif|jpe?g|png|webp))"[^>]*>/gi)].map((match) => match[1]);
+			scrapedUrls.forEach((scrapedUrl) => {
+				let url;
+				if (isAbsoluteUrl(scrapedUrl)) {
+					url = scrapedUrl;
+				} else {
+					const postLink = postData.childValue('link');
+					if (isAbsoluteUrl(postLink)) {
+						url = new URL(scrapedUrl, postLink).href;
+					} else {
+						throw new Error(`Unable to determine absolute URL from scraped image URL '${scrapedUrl}' and post link URL '${postLink}'.`);
+					}
+				}
 
-			const matches = [...postContent.matchAll(/<img[^>]*src="(.+?\.(?:gif|jpe?g|png|webp))"[^>]*>/gi)];
-			matches.forEach(match => {
-				// base the matched image URL relative to the post URL
-				const url = new URL(match[1], postLink).href;
 				images.push({
-					id: -1,
-					postId: postId,
+					id: 'nope', // scraped images don't have an id
+					postId,
 					url
 				});
 			});
@@ -187,3 +196,7 @@ function populateFrontmatter(posts) {
 	});
 }
 
+function isAbsoluteUrl(url) {
+	return (/^https?:\/\//i).test(url);
+}
+
diff --git a/src/translator.js b/src/translator.js
index a4f3bb1..a317f4b 100644
--- a/src/translator.js
+++ b/src/translator.js
@@ -107,7 +107,7 @@ export function getPostContent(content) {
 	if (shared.config.saveImages === 'scraped' || shared.config.saveImages === 'all') {
 		// writeImageFile() will save all content images to a relative /images
 		// folder so update references in post content to match
-		content = content.replace(/(<img[^>]*src=").*?([^/"]+\.(?:gif|jpe?g|png|webp))("[^>]*>)/gi, '$1images/$2$3');
+		content = content.replace(/(<img\s[^>]*?src=").*?([^/"]+\.(?:gif|jpe?g|png|webp))("[^>]*>)/gi, '$1images/$2$3');
 	}
 
 	// preserve "more" separator, max one per post, optionally with custom label