Target domains, paths, and stable page elements
You'll see how domain rules, page paths, CSS selectors, and Smart Match decide where your personalization appears and which elements change.
Use page and element targeting to change the right part of the right page. Page rules decide where a change can apply, element targeting decides what changes, and audience rules decide who can receive it.
For an agency headline on WorkForge (opens in a new tab), all three need to agree. The visitor must match the agency audience, the page must match the page rules, and RightMessage must find the headline.
Domain and path entries
Each change has one or more domain and path entries in the visual editor's Pages tab. You'll see this tab in CSS Selector mode.
| Setting | What it matches |
|---|---|
| Domain | The website host, such as workforge.rightmessage.com. A bare host and its www. version count as the same site. Other subdomains stay separate. |
| All Domains | * as the whole domain value. It doesn't install the snippet on another site. Partial patterns such as *.example.com aren't supported by these page rules. |
| Path | The part after the host, such as /pricing.html. Matching ignores case and leading or trailing slashes. An empty homepage path means the root. Query strings and fragments aren't part of the path. |
| Wildcard path | * for all paths, or a single wildcard such as /solutions/* for a variable part. A broad path can match many URLs beyond the page open in the editor. |
| Additional entries | Any matching entry can make the change eligible on that page. |
A broad target can make sense for a shared navigation link. Keep a pricing-page headline's path narrow. If its selector also appears on your blog and the page rules include the blog, that element can change too.
Put query parameters such as UTM values in audience conditions, not in the CSS selector. The page path and the visitor's campaign context are separate.
CSS Selector mode
A CSS selector identifies an element in your page's markup. A stable ID such as #hero-title works well for one headline. A class can match several elements. A selector based on an element's position can break when the layout changes.
RightMessage uses your valid saved selector as written. If the full selector matches nothing, it doesn't broaden the search to a parent container.
Smart Match mode
Smart Match needs a stored element fingerprint. Exact match compares the full recorded text. Contains text looks for text that includes it. Starts with looks for text that begins with it. Matching ignores case and normalizes whitespace.
If the same text appears more than once, the saved selector wins when it identifies exactly one matching candidate. Otherwise, Smart Match chooses the highest-scoring text match based on the recorded appearance and structure.
If the recorded text is gone, Smart Match tries the saved selectors. If those find nothing, nothing changes.
A fingerprint without recorded text, such as an image or container, uses the highest-scoring element without requiring a text match. Check the highlight to see which element it selected.
You still need to check Smart Match after a redesign. Its confidence display describes the element match, not conversion lift or whether your audience rules are correct.
Check the page you want to change
Experiences counts configured page rules and changes. A wildcard rule doesn't list every URL it could match. New URL opens another page for editing. That page has no saved change until you edit an element.
The on-site picker lets you inspect the actual element. After a forced preview, also check whether a visitor matches your audience without an override.
See stable element selection and redesign retesting for maintenance procedures.