How do I filter my search terms and pages by a pattern?

A pattern shows only the search terms or pages that match it, the way Custom (regex) works in Search Console's Performance report. It works on the Pages and Search terms tables of Analyse → Visitors → Google data (the Overview's pages, the Search section and Pages & terms).

Add a pattern, step by step

Press Pattern on either table. On a phone it opens from the bottom of the screen, with Apply at the foot.

1. Start from a ready-made pattern, or write your own. Each ready-made pattern says what you'll learn. Your saved patterns, and the ones your team shared, are listed under it.
2. Check the pattern. Choose Search term or Page, then Matches or Doesn't match. Turn on Ignore case to match capitals and small letters alike (it adds (?i) at the start, as Search Console does). The box says at once whether Search Console would accept the pattern, and what to change if not. A ready-made pattern also says what to do next.
3. Apply it, or Save this pattern with a name for later.

The pattern shows as a chip above the tables: click it to change it, or × to remove it. There can be one pattern on the search term and one on the page; a row must match both.

How a pattern is read

Patterns follow Search Console's rules (the RE2 syntax):

• A part of the text is enough: tap matches "fix a dripping tap". Use ^ for the start and $ for the end.
• Patterns are case-sensitive unless they start with (?i).
• At most 4,096 characters, as in Search Console (your administrators may set fewer), and at most 100 groups in brackets (groups written (?:…) do not count).
• Controls such as (*SKIP) are not part of Search Console's rules either.
• Search Console does not support look-aheads and look-behinds such as (?= or (?!, backreferences such as \1, atomic groups, possessive repeats such as a++, or a part repeated more than 1,000 times. Use Doesn't match where you would write "not". A named group is written (?P<name>…).
• A page pattern is checked against the page's full address as Google reports it, for example https://www.example.ie/blog/how-to-paint.

Examples

• (?i)^(how|what|why)\b on the search term: questions starting with how, what or why.
• (?i)\b(price|cost|quote)\b on the search term: searches about prices.
• ^(\S+\s+){4}\S+ on the search term: searches of five words or more.
• /blog/ on the page: pages inside the blog folder.
• \? on the page: addresses with a ? (filters, tracking).
• (?i)yourbrand on the search term with Doesn't match: everything except searches for your name.

A pattern on the other field

A search term pattern on the Pages table shows the pages Google showed for matching searches, with the clicks and impressions of those searches only, as Search Console counts them. A page pattern on the Search terms table shows the searches of the matching pages. These use the figures of searches and pages together, so they cannot be combined with a page or search term filter at the top; the table says so.

Ready-made patterns

They are filled in for your project, and you can change them before you apply them:

• Questions: searches that start with a question word (who, what, how…).
• Brand only and Without your brand: built from the brand terms under Analyse → Backlinks → Profile, or else your project's name and your domain.
• Long searches: five words or more.
• Buying intent: buy, price, cost, quote, hire, book and similar words.
• Local searches: "near me", "nearby" and the towns your project serves (from the project's set-up).
• One folder: the folder of your site with the most pages in Google in the last 28 days; change it to any folder.
• Blog posts: pages inside blog, news, articles, posts, insights or guides.
• Pages with a ?: addresses with filters or tracking in them.

Save and share

• Everyone who can see the project can save their own patterns (up to 50 a project, unless your administrators set another number).
• People who manage the project (owners, admins and SEO managers) can share a pattern with the workspace; it then shows for everyone on that project. Only they, or the person who saved it, can change or delete a shared pattern.
• The pattern is part of the page's address, so a bookmark or a link you send opens the same view. Export CSV exports exactly the rows the pattern keeps.

Limits

The pattern runs on the Search Console figures imported every day. It is checked against the search terms or pages with the most clicks in the period (20,000 by default); the table says when the list was cut. A pattern that would take too long on one row stops with a message asking for a simpler one (for example without a repeat inside a repeat, such as (a+)+).

Every platform

Patterns read Google's own figures, so they work for every website: WordPress, Laravel, a site with the universal connector, or one managed by hand.

Staff choose which ready-made patterns are offered and their words (question words, buying words, local words, blog folders, how many towns, how many words make a long search), the longest pattern, the time and step limits and how many patterns a person may save, under Settings → Policies → Growth data.