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The Path Visualization: A Step-by-Step Look at the User Journey

The “User Flows” page (also known as User Journeys or path analysis) visualizes the most common paths visitors take on your website. The visualization is a Sankey diagram that shows the sequence of pages visited from left to right. The diagram is divided into columns, each representing an interaction step:
  • Column 1: Shows the visitors’ entry pages. These are the first pages viewed in a session.
  • Column 2, 3, etc.: Each subsequent column represents the user’s next click. The lines between the columns visualize the flow of visitors from one page to the next.
What the numbers mean:
  • Numbers in the boxes: The number in each box (e.g., 174 on /blog-posts/dfb-pokal-ter...) indicates how many visitors reached this specific page at this step.
  • Header of each column: Above each column, you’ll find the total number of visitors who reached that step (e.g., 174 visitors in step 1), as well as the percentage change from the previous step. A negative value (e.g., -74%) represents the drop-off rate between steps—the percentage of visitors who ended their session after the previous step.

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Interactive Analysis of User Paths

The graph is designed to be interactive, allowing for in-depth analysis. Highlighting and Focusing on Paths: Click on any page box in a column to isolate the path to and from that page. The diagram will then focus on the specific journeys that pass through your selection. This is especially useful for understanding:
  • Where do visitors who land on your /tickets page come from?
  • Where do visitors go after reading a specific blog post?
  • Which paths most often lead to a goal in the /shop?
For example, in the screenshot above, you could click on / in the first column to see only the paths that start on the homepage.

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Key Use Cases

Analyzing user flows helps you answer important questions about user behavior:
  • Identify drop-off points: A large percentage drop between two steps shows where users are leaving the site. Is the transition unclear? Is a call-to-action missing?
  • Optimize conversion paths: Track the user’s path to important goal pages (e.g., /tickets or /contact). Are there unexpected detours or drop-offs you can fix?
  • Validate your content strategy: See which content (e.g., blog posts) encourages visitors to browse further on your site and which ones tend to lead to an exit.

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FAQ

Why are some paths not displayed? To maintain the clarity of the graph, only the most common paths are shown. Infrequent navigation paths are often grouped into an “(other)” category or hidden by default for performance reasons. Can I change the starting point of the analysis? Yes. By default, the report shows paths starting from any page. However, you can use the filters at the top of the page to limit the analysis to sessions that started on a specific page (e.g., a campaign landing page).
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