How rules work
What a GeoEngage rule is made of, when rules run, which one wins when several match, and how to test and publish one.
A rule says who should see something different, and what. Everything a visitor sees change on your site comes from a rule.
What a rule is made of
Open Rules → Add New Rule. The editor has the same four parts for every rule:
| Part | In the editor | What it decides |
|---|
| Name and switch | Basic Information | What the rule is called in reports, and whether it's on. |
| Conditions | When visitor matches | Who the rule is for. See Conditions. |
| Action | Then perform this action | What those visitors see. One action per rule. See Actions. |
| Advanced settings | Schedule, A/B Testing, Widget Enhancements, Notes | When it runs, how it's measured, how it appears. See Timing and frequency and A/B tests. |
A rule with no conditions matches every visitor.
When rules run
The widget checks every rule on each page view, and again on each route change in a single-page app. For each rule whose conditions match, it runs the action — straight away, or when the rule's trigger, such as exit intent or scrolling, happens.
A rule whose action already showed can be held back by its display frequency, for example Once Per Session.
When several rules match
All of them run, in priority order. Priority is the rule's position in the Rules list: drag rules to reorder them, with a single site selected. The rule at the top, #1, goes first.
Order matters when two rules change the same element. The higher-priority rule claims it and the other rule's action is skipped for that element, so a visitor never sees two rules fight over one headline.
Publishing
Saving a rule keeps a draft. Your site is only ever sent published rules, so nothing changes for visitors until you choose Save & Publish.
The editor tells you where a rule stands: if it says visitors still see an earlier version, the rule has changes that aren't live yet. Switching a rule off in the Rules list takes it off your site.
Before you publish
- The preview next to the action settings shows what the action looks like as you edit it.
- Pick an element on your site (next to any selector field) lets you click the element a rule should change on your live site, instead of writing a CSS selector. It uses a bookmark you add once.
- Test Sandbox in the dashboard loads the widget with your site's key, so you can watch rules run without touching your live site.
data-debug="true" on the tag logs every rule check to the browser console. See Debugging.