GSC Regex Generator

Build regular expressions for Google Search Console filters without learning regex. Pick what you want to find, adjust the words, test it on your own queries, then paste the pattern into Search Console.

What do you want to find?

Queries phrased as questions. Good for FAQ and content ideas.

Separate with commas. Add words in other languages if you need them.

regex

^(who|what|when|where|why|how|which|can|does|do|is|are|should|will)\b

In Search Console: Performance › + Add filter › Query › Custom (regex) › Matches regex

Paste a few queries from Search Console, one per line.

How to use the GSC regex generator

1. Pick what you want to find

Choose a filter type: question queries, brand terms, long-tail queries, commercial keywords, queries containing specific words, or pages in certain folders.

2. Adjust the words

Each filter starts with sensible defaults. Add your own words, brand names or folders, separated by commas. Special characters are escaped for you.

3. Test it on real data

Export a few queries or URLs from Search Console and paste them into the tester. You’ll see which ones the filter keeps before you use it.

4. Paste it into Search Console

In the Performance report, click + Add filter, choose Query or Page, switch the dropdown to Custom (regex), pick “Matches regex” or “Doesn’t match regex” as the tool tells you, and paste the pattern.

Useful Search Console regex filters

Question queries

Queries that start with who, what, how and similar words show exactly what people want to know. They’re a quick source of FAQ entries, subheadings and new article ideas.

Branded vs non-branded queries

Brand searches grow with marketing and word of mouth, not SEO. Filtering them out with “Doesn’t match regex” shows whether your organic reach is really growing. Include misspellings and your domain name to catch everything.

Long-tail queries

Queries with five or more words are usually more specific, and often conversational, the way people phrase questions to AI assistants. They tend to have lower volume but clearer intent.

Commercial queries

Words like best, vs, alternative and pricing come from people comparing options. Those queries are often worth more than their volume suggests.

Page folders

Use a Page filter to see how one section of the site performs, like the blog or docs, or to exclude a section from the totals.

How regex works in Search Console

Search Console uses Google’s RE2 syntax. A pattern matches if it appears anywhere in the query or URL, unless you anchor it with ^ or $. Matching ignores case unless the pattern starts with (?-i).

Regex symbols you’ll use most

SymbolMeaningExample
|Orseo|sem
^Starts with^how
$Ends withtool$
.*Anything, any lengthbest.*crm
\bWord boundary\bvs\b
( )Group(free|cheap) crm
?Previous character is optionalreviews?
{4,}Four or more times(\S+\s+){4,}

What RE2 doesn’t support

RE2 has no lookaheads, lookbehinds or backreferences, so patterns copied from other tools sometimes fail. If Search Console rejects a pattern, check for (?=, (?! or \1.

Frequently asked questions

Is Search Console regex case-sensitive?

No. By default, Search Console ignores case, so seo also matches SEO. Start the pattern with (?-i) if you need case-sensitive matching, which is mostly useful for page URLs.

Why does my regex filter show less data than expected?

Search Console hides queries that are too rare to share without risking someone's privacy. Those anonymized queries never appear in query filters, so filtered totals are always lower than the unfiltered report.

Can I filter pages with regex too?

Yes. Choose Page instead of Query when adding the filter. The Page folders option in this tool builds patterns like /(blog|guides)/ for exactly that.

Does Search Console support lookaheads?

No. Search Console uses Google's RE2 engine, which doesn't support lookaheads, lookbehinds or backreferences. That's why you can't write "contains word A and word B" as a single pattern. Use two separate filters instead, one on queries and one on pages, or filter in a spreadsheet.

Is anything I enter sent to a server?

No. The generator and the tester run entirely in your browser. Your queries never leave your device.

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