Runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you paste is sent to DanialTV.
How to use a regex in Search Console
- Open Performance → Search results for your property.
- Click + Add filter and choose Query (for keywords) or Page (for URLs). Regex only works on these two.
- Change the dropdown from “Queries containing” to Custom (regex).
- Pick Matches regex or Doesn’t match regex, paste the pattern from the builder, and click Apply.
Search Console uses Google’s RE2 regex engine. The filter matches anywhere in the text unless you anchor it with ^ (start) or $ (end). An invalid pattern just returns no rows, with no error message, which is why the builder checks the pattern before you copy it.
What RE2 can’t do (and what to use instead)
| You might try | In Search Console | Use instead |
|---|---|---|
Negative lookahead (?!brand) | Not supported | “Doesn’t match regex” with brand |
| “Contains A and B” with lookaheads | Not supported | List both orders: (a.*b|b.*a). The builder does this for up to 4 words. |
Backreferences \1 | Not supported | Write the repeated part out |
| Very long lists of keywords | Limit of about 4,096 characters | Split into two filters |
12 copy-paste patterns
All of these are RE2-compatible and you can paste any of them into the builder’s regex box to test it on your own list first. Replace the example words with yours.
| Goal | Filter | Pattern |
|---|---|---|
| Question queries | Query, matches | (?i)^(who|what|when|where|why|how|which|can|does|do|is|are|should|will)\b |
| Non-brand traffic | Query, doesn’t match | (?i)(danialtv|danial\s+tv|taherifar) |
| Queries of 5+ words | Query, matches | ^(\S+\s+){4,}\S+$ |
| Short head terms (1–2 words) | Query, matches | ^\S+(\s+\S+)?$ |
| Commercial intent | Query, matches | (?i)\b(best|top|review|vs|versus|alternative|price|cost|cheap)\b |
| Comparisons only | Query, matches | (?i)\b(vs|versus|compared|comparison)\b |
| Queries with a year | Query, matches | \b20[0-9]{2}\b |
| Error and fix queries | Query, matches | (?i)\b(error|fix|not working|failed|broken|issue)\b |
| Pages in /tools/ or /blog/ | Page, matches | ^https?://[^/]+/(tools|blog)/ |
| Homepage only | Page, matches | ^https?://[^/]+/?$ |
| URLs with parameters | Page, matches | \? |
| Non-www vs www duplicates | Page, matches | ^https?://www\. |
Three reports worth saving
- Content gaps: question queries with impressions but position 8–20. Sort by impressions. These are FAQ sections or new posts waiting to be written.
- Non-brand growth: exclude your brand names and compare the last 3 months with the previous period. This is the number that shows whether SEO, not word of mouth, is working.
- Stale content: queries with a year in them. If people search “… 2026” and land on a post that still says 2024, update it first.
FAQ
Is Search Console regex case-sensitive?
Sources disagree, and Google’s behaviour has changed over time. Query data is stored in lowercase anyway, so the builder adds (?i) to the start of text patterns. That makes them case-insensitive in every case and costs nothing.
Why does my regex return no data?
Usually one of three things: the pattern uses a feature RE2 doesn’t support (like a lookahead), it has capital letters without (?i), or it is anchored with ^ on a Page filter without the https:// part. Paste it into the builder: it flags all three.
Can I use regex in the Pages or Countries filter too?
Only in Page and Query. Country, Device and Search appearance filters don’t accept regex.
Sources: Search Engine Land on RE2 regex filters, SEOcrawl’s Search Console regex guide.