Page Targeting for Recordings

Our page targeting options allow you to activate specific Hotjar features on specific pages of your site.

URL targeting

To better understand how URL targeting works, it is good to also understand what components form a URL:

 Components of a URL

Each URL match you enter can be one of five types:

• Simple match: This is the default match type 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 or not of 'www'.
• 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. This rule is case sensitive;
• Regular Expression: A regular expression, regex or regexp for short, is a unique text string for describing a search pattern.
• JavaScript: Available on our Plus and Business plan, this method targets actions taken by a visitor to trigger a Heatmap screenshot.

For information on how to set up page targeting for Recordings, head to How to Start and Stop Recordings.

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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.

Query strings and fragments are ignored if entered in the field.

Example:
Simple Match - http://www.x.com/pages/

Result	Example URL	Why?
MATCH	http://www.x.com/pages/	The domain (x.com) and page path (/pages) is a match
NO MATCH	http://www.x.com/pages/subpage	/subpage is not part of the page path criteria
MATCH	http://www.x.com/pages/?x=1	The query string (?x=1) is ignored
MATCH	http://www.x.com/pages/?x=1&y=1	The query string (?x=1&y=1) is ignored
MATCH	http://www.x.com/PAGES	The Simple Match method is NOT case sensitive
MATCH	https://www.x.com/pages/	The HTTPS protocol is ignored
MATCH	http://x.com/pages	The www. prefix to the domain is ignored
MATCH	https://x.com/pages/	The HTTPS and www. prefix to the domain are ignored

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Exact match

The match will be correct if the URL path, query-string and fragment your visitor is on match EXACTLY the ones you specify.

Example:
Exact match - http://www.x.com/pages/?x=1

Result	Example URL	Why?
NO MATCH	http://www.x.com/pages/	The required query string (?x=1) is missing
NO MATCH	http://www.x.com/pages/subpage	The required query string (?x=1) is missing and the page path should not include /subpage
MATCH	http://www.x.com/pages/?x=1	All URL components are an exact match
NO MATCH	http://www.x.com/pages/?x=1&y=1	The URL has a non-matching query string (&y=1) at the end of it
NO MATCH	http://www.x.com/pages/?x=1#2	The URL has a non-matching URL fragment (#2) at the end of it
NO MATCH	https://www.x.com/pages/?x=1	The URL protocol (HTTPS) needs to be changed to HTTP to become an exact match.

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Starts with

The match will be correct if the URL your visitor is on, starts exactly as you specify it, including the protocol.

Example:
Starts with - http://www.x.com/pages/

Result	Example URL
MATCH	http://www.x.com/pages/
MATCH	http://www.x.com/pages/subpage
MATCH	http://www.x.com/pages/?x=1
MATCH	http://www.x.com/pages/?x=1&y=1
MATCH	http://www.x.com/pages/?x=1#2
NO MATCH	https://www.x.com/pages/

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Ends with

The match will be correct if the URL your visitor is on, ends exactly as you specify it.

Example:
Ends with - pages/

Result	Example URL
MATCH	http://www.x.com/pages/
NO MATCH	http://www.x.com/pages/subpage
NO MATCH	http://www.x.com/pages/?x=1
NO MATCH	http://www.x.com/pages/?x=1&y=1
NO MATCH	http://www.x.com/pages/?x=1#2

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Contains

The match will be correct if the URL your visitor is on, contains the text you specified.

Example:
Contains - ?x=1

Result	Example URL
NO MATCH	http://www.x.com/pages/
NO MATCH	http://www.x.com/pages/subpage
MATCH	http://www.x.com/pages/?x=1
MATCH	http://www.x.com/pages/?x=1&y=1
MATCH	http://www.x.com/pages/?x=1#2

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Regular Expressions (REGEX)

The match will be correct if the REGEX you create includes the URL your user visits. More about REGEX can be found How to Use Regular Expressions for Page Targeting.

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