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Visitor Path Analysis

The Path Analysis report is a powerful tool in understanding visitor behavior on the site. Quite often a site designer has no way of knowing whether the navigational structure is working or not. With path analysis you can see right away what click paths visitors are most frequently taking on the site.

The Path Analysis report differs from the Inbound/Outbound Analysis report, in that an iAPPS user inputs both a starting and end point to generate the Path Analysis report. Most often a site’s home page is selected as the starting point and a specific target end page is selected. When the report is run it will display a list of the most common paths between the two pages that website users took. These reports help you see if users are navigating as expected.

• For example, if a page had a higher-than-expected exit rate you might want to know what previous pages users visited prior to that page. Running the report might reveal an unexpected navigation pattern that might have confused the user and caused them to exit.
• Conversely, take the example of that newly discovered external referral blog link. Where did the visitors go once they came to the site?  What were the next pages they saw?

Quite often you might have a defined set of pages that need to be viewed in order before the last and final page is visited. This might be an event registration or perhaps a checkout process. Since these steps are designed to be taken sequentially, the report is one way of validating the design. If, for example, a path analysis of an event registration sequence shows that visitors are moving in and out of the sequence (even if they are completing it) then work needs to be done to be sure that visitors have enough information to proceed with the next step in logical and preferred order.

Visitor Path Analysis

To create a Visitor Path scenario:

1. Select Site Analytics > Navigation Analysis > Visitor Path from the toolbar:
2. This opens the Visitor Paths screen.
3. Choose a Start Point
   • Pageview
   • Product (only for users with iAPPS Commerce)
   • Watch
   • Maximum Number of Clicks

4. Choose a End Point
   • Pageview
   • Product (only for users with iAPPS Commerce)
   • Watch
   • Maximum Number of Clicks
   • Left Site
5. Choose any options
   • Number of Paths (5, 10 or 15)
   • Any applicable Audience Segments
6. Click Run.
7. The Results appear on the right half of the screen. They show
   • The number of times the Path was followed
   • the number of clicks in-between
   • The paths followed
   • Average Path Time
   • Average time on each page of the path
8. If you want to limit the results to a certain time period, change the reporting period before running the scenario.
9. You can choose to export the report using email, Excel or a PDF.