Learn how to interpret three different types of generic paths to quickly identify how your users navigate your site using Journey analysis:
- The Abandon journey - Do users abandon after only viewing a few pages on the site?
- The Engagement path - Do users view one or more pages on the site?
- The Frustration path - Do users feel frustrated on one or more pages on the site?
The Abandon journey
The highlighted journeys show users who abandoned their navigation very quickly. The paths on your site are made up of landing pages (the first circle), followed mainly by bounces (the black fractions of the second-step circle).
How to interpret it? The abandoned path means users do not engage with your site, which might be caused by unattractive content and/or UX friction e.g. unintuitive navigation elements or slow loading times
Why is this problematic? In the short/medium term, your conversion rate and the ROI on your acquisition costs will both be very low. In the long term, it's unlikely that users will return to browse your site if they couldn't achieve their goal(s) on their first visit or an earlier visit.
Questions to ask |
How to answer |
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Understand which pages are causing abandonment and in which segments: Which are the most critical pages? Do some users abandon navigation more than others? |
Compare the behavior of your users in different segments and periods, to shed light on the source of this anomaly. | |
Understand which elements on the page are showstoppers: Is that content, on these pages that trigger exit, attractive? Does the content meet users' expectations? Is the loading time of the pages too long? Are the navigation tools well understood? |
You can then study the pages that cause users to abandon their navigation in the identified segments using the Page comparator and Zoning analysis features. |
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The Engagement path
The highlighted journey indicates that you have engaged users. The paths on your site are made up of multiple deep journeys (the first circle, the landing pages, is followed by numerous sequences of concentric circles).
How to interpret it? The engagement path shows you that users view numerous pages while browsing, which might be explained by attractive content and/or intuitive UX/UI.
Why is this ideal? In the short/medium term and in the vast majority of cases, the more your users navigate on the site and view pages, the more likely it is they will convert. In the long term, if the user experience is good, users will also be more inclined to return to your site and complete conversion paths.
Questions to ask |
How to answer |
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Find the paths that lead the most users to convert: In which path are users most likely to convert? Are conversion paths optimal for all segments? |
Segmenting this path by users who abandoned navigation and/or by users who completed a conversion will enable you to identify the best-performing engagement paths. This will enable you to understand which drivers get your users to navigate and convert on your site. You can then optimize your paths and increase your conversion rates. | |
Detect key pages in paths: Which types of pages are the most viewed? Which is the pivotal page that gets users to enter the purchase tunnel (check out)? |
An analysis using Page comparator will show you the best-performing pages, while further analysis using Journey analysis will help you find the pivotal page. |
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Temper the conclusions you draw about this type of path when it's observed for the same page type, such as list pages (a change of filter triggers a page reload and therefore a new circle in the visualization) – see the following scenario
The Frustration path
The highlighted journey shows that you have frustrated users. The paths on your site are made up of landing pages (the first circle) followed by bounces and peaking journeys (sequences that trigger lots of exits: a black fraction at each step).
How to interpret it? The frustration path shows that even if they don't bounce, users try but fail to consume content. This gradual exiting of the site, at different steps in the path, might happen because users struggle to find information and/or the products they are looking for.
Why is this problematic?
In the short/medium term, if your users fail to achieve their goals, despite their navigation efforts, their perception of your site will suffer. In the long term, the frustration this causes will make it much less likely that they will return to your site.
Questions to ask |
How to answer |
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Understand why some pages encourage users to continue navigating but ultimately exit without achieving their goal: (Ex. goal: reach the product page after viewing the list page). Do users achieve their goals? What is the buyer path? Do users access the same pages as buyers during their navigation |
Compare the behavior of users who achieved their goal with that of users who did not achieve their goal in order to detect path differences. |
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Detect pages and zones that provoke frustration: Which types of pages produce the highest exit rates? Do users interact with elements before exiting the page? Do users achieve their goals? |
A more in-depth analysis using Zoning Analysis will enable you to identify which navigation elements cause users to exit or generate frustration by comparing their attractiveness, performance and use data. |