Intro
Use a repeatable GSC workflow to surface missing content angles by grouping question-led and educational modifiers, then auditing which topics or pages are absent.
Use this regex to pull a broad educational query set in GSC, then inspect which topics, landing pages, or query groups lack a strong content match.
The Regex
How This Regex Works (Explained Simply)
()
Parentheses group terms together so GSC treats them as one unit. That is what lets one regex cover several query variants in a single filter.
|
The pipe means OR. GSC will match any term on either side of the pipe, which is useful for variants, modifiers, or alternative phrases.
?
The question mark usually makes the previous character or group optional. That is handy when a query modifier appears inconsistently.
\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 common question and educational modifiers.
- Creates a useful source set for content-gap analysis.
- Helps you spot topics where search demand exists but page coverage is weak.
What it does not match
- search console pricing - This is commercial, not educational.
- regex checklist for seo - Checklist only matches if you use the variation.
Edge Cases
- This workflow surfaces candidate gaps, but you still need landing-page and topic review to confirm a true content opportunity.
- Broad educational modifiers can overlap with existing strong pages, so do not treat every query as a net-new content idea.
Example Matches Table
| Query | Match | Why |
|---|---|---|
| how to improve crawl budget | Match | How to is part of the grouped educational set. |
| search console regex examples | Match | Examples is included in the grouped modifiers. |
| search console pricing | No | This is commercial, not educational. |
| regex checklist for seo | No | Checklist only matches if you use the variation. |
How to Use This in Google Search Console
- Open Performance and go to Search results.
- Add a Query filter with Custom (regex) and paste the regex.
- Export the filtered queries and group them by topic or landing page.
- Identify themes with impressions but weak coverage, poor CTR, or no dedicated page.
- Prioritise new pages or content refreshes based on the strongest repeated gaps.
When to Use This
- Find recurring educational demand without strong page coverage.
- Spot weak topic coverage in blog, help, or documentation sections.
- Prioritise new content based on real GSC query demand.
Pro Tips
- Regex gives you the source set; the gap analysis comes from grouping the exported queries by topic and landing page.
- Review impressions with no clear landing page ownership first, because those often reveal true content gaps.
- Compare this workflow across content sections to find where blog, docs, or help content is under-serving demand.
- Add checklist or template only if those content formats matter in your market.
Variations
Include checklist demand
Adds another educational content format to the gap-analysis source set.
Related Regex Recipes
Regex for Question Keywords
Use this regex to isolate question keywords in GSC and see how well your content captures query-led informational demand.
Regex for Educational Queries
Use this regex to capture a wider educational query set in GSC when you want a practical top-of-funnel segment that includes multiple informational modifiers.
CTA
Regex is only the first step. The real bottleneck is turning manual filters into a repeatable workflow your team actually uses. Spicy Metrics helps you move from ad hoc filtering to operational SEO workflows.
Move beyond manual regex work