Personalization & Targeting

Show different content to different visitors: by location, device, referrer or behaviour, or by switchable segments like season or audience type. Targeting is built into the platform, runs on your own server, and never hands visitor data to a third party.

Why it's different

Personalisation without handing visitor data to anyone else

Two ways to personalise

Rule-based target groups for automatic targeting, plus switchable content segments for editorial scenarios like season or region, both managed by content teams with no developer involvement required for day-to-day use.

Personalise pages, snippets and media

Swap whole pages, individual blocks or filtered assets per audience, granular rather than all-or-nothing.

Privacy-first by design

Server-side, EU/GDPR-friendly, no third-party tracking script required.

Platform Capabilities

Scalable targeting without slowing down your website

Rule-based target groups

Automatic audience targeting, managed in the admin by content teams. Combine built-in rules (referrer, browser, country, visited pages and more) to define target groups. Editors assign pages, snippets and media to groups directly in the admin, no code required for rule management.

Built-in rules: referrer, browser type, country, pages visited
Multiple rules combined with AND/OR logic
Pages, snippets and media assets assignable per target group
Managed entirely in the Sulu admin by editors

Custom rules

Need a signal Sulu doesn't ship? Add your own. The rule extension point is built in. Implement a custom PHP rule: CRM segment, logged-in user role, subscription status. It integrates into the same targeting interface as built-in rules.

Extension point for any custom signal or data source
Custom rules appear alongside built-in rules in the admin
CRM segments, user roles, or any server-side data usable as a rule
No patch or fork required

Content segments

Editorial content variants — switchable like a language, manageable by editors. Define switchable segments per webspace (e.g. Winter / Summer, Consumer / Professional). Visitors switch like they switch language; the choice is stored in a cookie. Pages assigned to another segment are hidden from navigation and Smart Content automatically.

Segments defined per webspace in configuration
Visitor preference stored in a cookie, server-side
Navigation and Smart Content adapt automatically per segment
Editorial scenarios: seasonal, regional, audience type

Smart Content targeting

Surface the right content automatically, per target group or segment. Use Smart Content to filter and display assets and content blocks according to the active target group or segment. No manual curation needed for targeted overviews or feeds.

Smart Content filters apply per target group and segment
Teasers, news feeds and asset lists adapt automatically
Works across pages, snippets and block-level content

Cache-friendly

Personalisation without sacrificing performance. HTTP caching still applies with targeting and segments active. Sulu uses user-context caching so personalised responses are efficient, with no need to choose between personalisation and a fast site.

User-context caching compatible with Varnish and similar reverse proxies
Personalised responses served without disabling HTTP cache entirely
Segments cached per cookie value, not per session

For Developers

Targeting that respects your stack

Rules are plain PHP, server-side and cache-aware. Segments are configured in the webspace XML. Extend both with your own logic without third-party scripts, without data leaving your server, and without a client-side tracking payload. Compatible with standard Symfony caching strategies.