When you are setting up you visitor targeting within Usabilla you'll notice that there are 2 options for setting up the targeting for visitors on a certain page. The first drop-down will show you that you can either do targeting for pages based on the path or the full URL. It's important to note that there is a big difference between these two options. This articles will briefly go over the differences and how you can best set up the targeting for your campaigns.
URL structure
An URL is made up out of multiple parts, with each part having its own purpose. For understanding how targeting works in Usabilla it's important to know which parts are used for targeting. The image below contains annotations with the parts being differentiated by color.
Setting the targeting
When setting the targeting in Usabilla you're able to set the targeting based on the path or the full URL. Any targeting that you set based on the path will only trigger based on path string, which are the characters that are located just after the TLD. The protocol, subdomain, domain, and TLD will therefore not be taken into account when the targeting is set to "path".
If we, for example, set the targeting based on the path containing "Usabilla" while using the URL above the campaign will not trigger. This is because the string "Usabilla" is not part of the path but the domain. Changing the targeting to targeting on the full URL will trigger the campaign.
When you want to be sure it's best to set the targeting based on specific pages on the "Full URL" option with a contain.
Include query part in URL (everything after the ‘?’ or ‘#’)
When you access a web page you'll often see that the URL contains a query. A query can be used to further specify the request that you're making towards the web server. For example, the URL below with query tells the web server that we want to access the "https://support.usabilla.com/hc/en-us/search" page with a query:
https://support.usabilla.com/hc/en-us/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&query=testIn this example the query is "?utf8=%E2%9C%93&query=test" which specifies that we're searching for the keyword "test".
A query in most cases will exist out of two parts: the query string and the fragment identifier. Both are recognized by two specific characters being an ‘?’ for the query string and the ‘#’ for the fragment.
- The Query String, is the part of the URL that's passed to the server-side program normally after a "?" and up to but excluding the # if any.
- The Fragment is the part of the URL that is used as an identifier. The interpretation is up to the user agent, though it's common practice that it's the anchor of an <a> tag to which the browser is asked to position itself.
If you tick the "Include query part in URL" you will include the whole the query string and fragment for targeting a campaign.
Invert (exclude pages that match)
If you want your Campaign to show up on all pages except for some you can use the Invert setting. The Invert option allows you to specify the targeting based on URL or Path where the Campaign should not be shown. This can be very helpful for example in website wide NPS campaigns that you want to exclude from login pages or checkout flows.
If your survey should show up on all pages but one. You can choose the Invert option. When checked on the survey will not show up on the page you specify in the field above.