Tagging is a central part of Pendo Engage (Insights and Guidance). You must tag Pages and Features to get analytics and to build guides. This article provides an overview of tagging Pages and Features with the Visual Design Studio. For instructions on how to style Guides with the Visual Design Studio, see Creating a Guide.
Pages and Features are tagged in the Product page of the Pendo UI, which you can access from the left-side navigation. For specific instructions on Pages and Features, see Tagging and viewing Pages and Tagging and viewing Features, respectively.
What "tagging" means
"Tagging" means to create a Page or Feature tag in Pendo, which can then be used for Pendo Analytics and Guides. "Tagging Pages" is shorthand for defining the URLs that Pendo identifies as Pages in its analytics. “Tagging Features” is shorthand for selecting the UI elements in your application that Pendo identifies as Features in its analytics.
Tags are created based on rules. Page rules match the structure and content of the Website URL you want to track as Pages in Pendo. Feature rules are derived from the HTML behind the UI elements in your application, such as buttons or text fields.
You can think of tags as queries or criteria for searching all events sent to Pendo and returning only the events that are relevant to your Pages and Features. An event is a user interaction with your application.
The data for your Page or Feature includes only the events that fit its tagging rules. When you segment or filter based on Pages and Features that you created in Pendo, you’re searching every unidentified user interaction (event), and pulling in the information that you’ve defined as useful, grouped into Pages and Features in Pendo.
Visual Design Studio
Note: This article refers to the Visual Design Studio launched February 18th, 2019. If you became a customer before this date and would like to use the Classic Designer, see Tagging Features Overview (Classic).
The Visual Design Studio, also referred to as the designer, is the interface that overlays your application to help you style and position Guides, and tag Pages and Features.
For Pages and Features, the Visual Design Studio loads over the application so that you can navigate to the relevant parts of your application for tagging. While in the Visual Design Studio, you can switch between Page tagging and Feature tagging using the tabs at the top of the designer.
Best practices
Before you start tagging, you should:
- Create Product Areas (formerly called Groups). Only Admins can create Product Areas but anyone can use them once they’re created. Avoid adding Product Areas after Pages and Features have been tagged. For more information, see the Product Areas Overview.
- Create a Page and Feature naming convention, for example, App-Page-Location-Button. Use descriptive names that would allow someone who didn’t tag the Page or Feature to know what it is. For more information, see Naming Best Practices.
- While not necessary, we recommend tagging Pages before tagging Features, especially if Features exist in particular Pages.
- Plan for how granular you want your tags to be before creating them. For example, do you want to know every time someone uses any filter, or do you want to know the exact filters that were used?
- Prioritize which Pages and Features to tag first based on your guide targeting and usage analytics goals so that you can get started as soon as possible. Since Pendo has retroactive analytics, it’s not necessary to tag every Page and Feature immediately.
Deciding what to tag
- Tag the Pages and Features that you're most interested in seeing the usage and visits for. If seeing the number of clicks for a button isn't useful, then you don't need to tag it.
- Tag Pages and Features that you're interested in seeing the workflow of. For example, tag the buttons that can show you how many people start ("Create X") versus complete ("Save X") an activity in your application.
- Tag Pages and Features that help you answer specific questions, such as "Is this feature being used?"
- Tag Pages and Features that are relevant to your key personas.
Auditing your Pages and Features
- Add a Rules column in your Pages and Feature lists.
- Check your Page rules before your Feature rules, since Features can be Page-specific.
- Look for duplicates.
- Look for outliers. Sort your list by number of clicks or views and review items with very low or very high numbers.
- Assess Guide Alerts for missing or mismatched Pages and Features.
- Focus on parts of your application that are most important or that have recently gone through development changes. View Features by Product Area to help you.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does it matter if a Page or Feature is tagged first?
If your Feature lives on a particular Page, you should tag the Page first. If you are tagging a Page, you also have the option to tag the Feature. You can switch between tagging either option in the Visual Design Studio.
Do I need to tag a Feature to use it with a Guide?
No. When you build a Guide in the Visual Design Studio, you must select the Feature that you want to target each step of a Guide to. This feels similar to the Feature tagging experience. However, tagged Features are only used for analytics, and can’t be selected when building Guides.