Our page targeting options allow you to activate specific Insightful features on specific pages of your site. To do this, you can use one of our 6 URL targeting options.
URL Targeting. Page targeting options can be found for Heatmaps by selecting either Visit a specific page or Visit one of multiple similar pages.
Only One Heatmap Can Be Created at a Time
When selecting Visit one of multiple similar pages, a single Heatmap will be created and contain data collected from all pages, overlaid upon a screenshot of one of the targeted pages. To better understand how URL targeting works, it is good to understand what components form a URL:
Each URL match you enter can be one of these five types:
Simple Match: This is the default match type of the app and is used to target a page on your site, ignoring any query strings and fragments as well as protocol, http vs https, and the presence of 'www' or not.
Exact Match: Targets a specific URL, including the protocol, which can include a query string and fragment.
Starts With: Target all pages that have a URL, including the protocol, which starts with the entered text.
Ends With: Target all pages that have a URL which ends in the entered text.
Contains: Target all pages which contain the entered text.
Regular Expression: A regular expression, regex or regexp for short, is a special text string for describing a search pattern.
Let's explore in more detail the different options and how they would work.
1. Simple Match:
This is the default match type and is intended to be used to target a page on your site. The match will be correct if the URL path your visitor is on, matches the URL path you specify.
Note: Query strings and fragments are ignored if entered in the field
Example:
Simple Match - http://www.x.com/pages/
Result | Example URL |
MATCH | |
NO MATCH | |
MATCH | |
MATCH | |
MATCH | |
MATCH | |
MATCH | |
MATCH | |
MATCH |
2. Exact Match:
The match will be correct if the URL path, query string and fragment of the URL visitors enter match EXACTLY the ones you specify.
Example:
Exact Match - http://www.x.com/pages/?x=1
Result | Example URL |
NO MATCH | |
NO MATCH | |
MATCH | |
NO MATCH | |
NO MATCH | |
NO MATCH |
3. Starts With:
The match will be correct if the URL your visitor enters starts exactly as you specify it, including the protocol.
Example:
Starts with - http://www.x.com/pages/
Result | Example URL |
MATCH | |
MATCH | |
MATCH | |
MATCH | |
MATCH | |
NO MATCH |
4. Ends With:
The match will be correct if the URL your visitor enters ends exactly as you specify it.
Example:
Ends with - pages/
Result | Example URL |
MATCH | |
NO MATCH | |
NO MATCH | |
NO MATCH | |
NO MATCH |
5. Contains:
The match will be correct if the URL your visitor enters contains the text you specified.
Example:
Contains - ?x=1
Result | Example URL |
NO MATCH | |
NO MATCH | |
MATCH | |
MATCH | |
MATCH |
6. Regular Expressions:
For a detailed explanation of Regular Expressions and usage examples, read our knowledge base article: Using Regular Expressions.