Using URL Patterns in VWO

To track goal conversions for your test, specify the URLs of the pages where you want to record the conversion. For example, if the goal of your test is to check how many users access a particular page of your website, define the goal type as track page visits on. Next, enter the URL of the page that the users need to visit, to record the conversion.

You can enter specific URLs, page patterns, or regular expressions (regex) of the pages where you want to record goal conversion. Select the URL type from the following option:

URL matches

Select the URL match type to enter the exact URL of the webpage where you want to record goal conversions. Use this option to set up a test on a single URL and it searches for a character-to-character match of the URL you enter.

For example, consider that you want to record a goal conversion on the URL http://www.example-site.com/checkout.html. The goal will trigger only if user lands on this specific page. However, if the user had entered the goal URL as http://www.example-site.com/checkout.html/checkout.html?id=1234, then also the goal will be triggered as query parameters are matched by default.

URL matches pattern

Select the URL match type to record goal conversion on more than one page of your website. For this URL type, define a URL pattern by substituting variable parts of the URL with the wildcard * (an asterisk).

For example, you can use the pattern http://www.example.com/products* to record goal conversion on all product pages of the website. You can use the pattern http://www.example.com* to track conversions on the entire website.

For dynamic URLs, there can be instances when the URL of a page differ from user to user. For example, let us say the ‘thank you’ page on your website has URL like, www.example.com/thankyou/1123/summary or www.example.com/thankyou/4567/summary. For dynamic URLs, the numeric part in the URL can differ from user to user. In such cases, you can use the asterisk value www.example.com/thankyou/*/summary to track conversions on all the URLs that match the pattern.

URL contains

This URL type looks for any string or substring match in the goal page URL. If you select URL contains as the URL type, the test page must contain the string of the substring you type.

For example, if you specify the URL contains type and type the URL string as http://www.example.com/blog, VWO will track conversions for the URLs http://www.example.com/blog/January, http://www.example.com/blog/February, and so on.

URL starts with

Select the URL match type to enter strings that match the beginning of your goal page URL. The string you type here must match the characters at the beginning of your goal page URL.

For example, let us say you want to record goal conversion on the URL http://www.example.com/checkout.cgi?page=1&id=1234567. In this case, the id varies for every other user. You can match this page by using http://www.example.com/checkout.cgi?page=1 as the goal URL and then selecting URL Starts with as the URL type. In this example, VWO will track conversion on all pages starting with http://www.example.com/checkout.cgi?page=1, regardless of the user ID at the end of the URL.

URL ends with

Select this URL type to enter the string that matches the end of your goal page URL. The string you enter here must match the characters at the end of your test page URL.

For example, you want to record goal conversion on the checkout page of your shopping cart that ends with /checkout.html. Your visitors may be landing on the checkout page from various sources. In such a scenario, you can specify the URL as /checkout.html and then select URL Ends with as the URL type. In this example, VWO records conversion on all pages that end with /checkout.html.

URL matches regex

Select the URL match type to use wildcards and special characters to match the structure of your website. Using Regular Expressions (Regex), you can specify a set of pages on which the test should run.

Consider that you want to run the test on the checkout page checkout.cgi\?page=1. The checkout page will match http://shoes.example.com/checkout.cgi?page=1&id=002 as well as http://trousers.example.com/checkout.cgi?page=1&language=fr&id=119. In such a case, you can select the URL matches RegExp type to define the constant element of the URL.