How to Use Conditions in URL Filtering

When selecting a URL filter, you can determine how the filter will refine your data by applying a condition such as whether the URL contains, starts with, ends with, etc. This article covers the available condition options when filtering by URL and how they work.

The available URL filtering conditions are:

• Contains / Does not contain
• Starts with / Does not start with
• Ends with / Does not end with
• Is / Is not
• Is exactly
• Matches regex

When reading through this article, it can help to keep the different components of a URL in mind:

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Contains / Does not contain

The match will be correct if the URL that users land on includes the text you specified.

Examples

You apply either the Contains or the Does not contain filter condition, entering ?x=1 in the filter condition field. Here's what will or will not be captured by this filter condition.

URL	Matches filter condition?	Reason
https://www.x.com/pages/?x=1#2	✅	The URL contains the specified text (?x=1).
https://www.x.com/pages/?x=1&y=1	✅	The URL contains the specified text (?x=1).
https://www.x.com/pages/subpage	❌	The URL does not contain the specified text (?x=1).
https://www.x.com/pages/	❌	The URL does not contain the specified text (?x=1).

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Starts with / Does not start with

The match will be correct if the URL that users land on starts exactly as you specify it, including the protocol.

Examples

You apply either the Starts with or the Does not start with filter condition, entering https://www.x.com/pages/ in the filter condition field. Here's what will or will not be captured by this filter condition.

URL	Matches filter condition?	Reason
https://www.x.com/pages/	✅	The start of the URL is a match (https://www.x.com/pages/).
https://www.x.com/pages/subpage	✅	The start of the URL is a match (https://www.x.com/pages/).
https://www.x.com/pages/?x=1#2	✅	The start of the URL is a match (https://www.x.com/pages/).
www.x.com/pages/	❌	The URL does not include the protocol (https://).

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Ends with / Does not end with

The match will be correct if the URL that users land on ends exactly as you specify it.

Examples

You apply either the Ends with or the Does not end with filter condition, entering pages in the filter condition field. Here's what will or will not be captured by this filter condition.

URL	Matches filter condition?	Reason
https://www.x.com/pages	✅	The end of the URL is a match (pages).
https://www.x.com/pages/subpage	❌	The end of the URL does not match the specified filter condition (pages).
https://www.x.com/pages/?x=1#2	❌	The end of the URL does not match the specified filter condition (pages).
www.x.com/pages	✅	The end of the URL is a match (pages).

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Is / Is not

The match will be correct if the URL path that users land on matches the URL path you specify. Query strings, fragments, and the presence or not of 'www' will be ignored.

Examples

You apply either the Is or the Is not filter condition, entering https://www.x.com/pages as the URL in the filter condition field. Here's what will or will not be captured by this filter condition.

URL	Matches filter condition?	Reason
https://www.x.com/pages/	✅	The domain (x.com) and URL path (/pages) are a match.
https://www.x.com/pages/subpage	❌	/subpage has not been included in the URL path filtering condition applied here, so this will not match the applied filter.
https://www.x.com/pages/?x=1	✅	The query string (?x=1) is ignored by this filter condition.
https://www.x.com/PAGES	✅	The URL is not case sensitive.
https://x.com/pages	✅	The 'www' is ignored.
https://www2.x.com/pages	❌	Only 'www' is ignored, any other form of prefix or subdomain must be included in the filter condition.

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Is exactly

The match will be correct if the URL path, query string, and fragment that users land on match exactly the ones you specify.

Examples

You apply the Is exactly filter condition, entering https://www.x.com/pages/?x=1 as the URL in the filter condition field. Here's what will or will not be captured by this filter condition.

URL	Matches filter condition?	Reason
https://www.x.com/pages/?x=1	✅	All URL components are an exact match.
https://www.x.com/pages/subpage	❌	The required query string (?x=1) is missing and the URL path should not include /subpage.
https://www.x.com/pages/	❌	The required query string (?x=1) is missing.
https://www.x.com/pages/?x=1&y=1	❌	The URL has a non-matching query string (&y=1) at the end of it.
https://www.x.com/pages/?x=1#2	❌	The URL has a non-matching URL fragment (#2) at the end of it.

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Matches regex

The match will be correct if the URL matches the pattern specified. This query uses the RE2 flavor of regex.

Examples

In the below examples, the asterisks * indicates a variable part of the URL.

Target	Example REGEX
www.example.com/pages/*/	www\.example\.com\/pages\/(.+)
www.example.com/pages/*/article	www\.example\.com\/pages\/(.+)\/article
example.com/products/*, but not example.com/products/*/page or example.com/products/*/otherpage	\/products\/(.+)\/$

 

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