Intro
Track price-sensitive demand in GSC so you can see when users explicitly search for lower-cost options.
Use this regex to isolate cheap-modified searches in GSC when users prioritise price sensitivity over brand or premium attributes.
The Regex
How This Regex Works (Explained Simply)
\b
Backslash-b marks a word boundary. It helps stop short terms from matching inside longer words in GSC queries.
GSC regex is case-insensitive by default, so capital letters do not need separate variants. GSC also uses partial matching by default, so the regex can match part of a longer query unless you anchor it with ^ or $.
What This Regex Does
- Matches the standalone word cheap.
- Creates a clear price-sensitive segment for ecommerce analysis.
- Helps you compare low-price demand against deal and best-price intent.
What it does not match
- affordable office chair - Affordable only matches in the broader variation.
- best office chair deals - No cheap modifier appears.
Edge Cases
- This pattern is intentionally narrow, so lower-cost synonyms are excluded unless added.
- Cheap can overlap with quality concerns, so review query clusters before broadening.
Example Matches Table
| Query | Match | Why |
|---|---|---|
| cheap running shoes | Match | Contains cheap as a standalone modifier. |
| cheap office chair online | Match | Cheap appears directly in the query. |
| affordable office chair | No | Affordable only matches in the broader variation. |
| best office chair deals | No | No cheap modifier appears. |
How to Use This in Google Search Console
- Open Performance and go to Search results.
- Click Add filter and choose Query.
- Select Custom (regex).
- Paste the regex and click Apply.
When to Use This
- Measure explicit price-sensitive demand.
- Compare cheap queries with discounts, deals, and offers.
- Find landing pages that attract budget-focused traffic.
Pro Tips
- If cheap is not common language in your vertical, use affordable or budget as variations.
- Price-sensitive demand can convert differently, so compare CTR and landing pages separately.
- Use this with category pages to find where low-price demand concentrates.
- Review whether cheap demand overlaps with lower-margin products before acting on it.
Variations
Include broader budget language
Captures more price-sensitive wording without changing the underlying intent.
Related Regex Recipes
Regex for "Discount" Queries
Use this regex to isolate discount modifiers in GSC when searchers are looking for reduced pricing rather than generic deals language.
Regex for "Best Price" Queries
Use this regex to isolate best price queries in GSC when searchers want the strongest value signal rather than a general promotion term.
CTA
Building query segments manually in GSC works for one-off checks, but it breaks down across multiple sites and stakeholders. Spicy Metrics keeps those segments organised and easy to monitor.
Scale segmentation in Spicy Metrics