Path views Analysis

[MichelaTa]

Hi all, does the path analysis only consider sessions where the user has made at least one further interaction concerning the entry page? So if a user leaves the site from the first page viewed, there is no "path" to track because no further pages are visited. Is this the reason why the views from the first page of the path, in general, are lower?

[MandyGeorge · Accepted solution]

The flow visualization shows you the paths that customers take before/after certain touchpoints, including entries and exits. It's a bit different though depending on if you start with a "middle" touchpoint or a "start"/"end" touchpoint. 

If you start with a touchpoint in the middle, it will show you all of the instances, depending on the settings you have selected, including the entries and exit. For that middle column, there will be a piece on the left showing the entries and a piece on the right showing the exits. So if someone comes in, sees only that page, and then leaves, it will still count them in the middle column, they will also be a part of the number of entries and exits.

One of the things to keep in mind are the different settings. You can set your path to be at a visit or visitor level, and you can choose to include or exclude repeat instances (such as page reloads). This can change the numbers that you see in the visualization. If you don't have repeat instances turned on, it will likely show a number lower than a freeform table.

If you're using the "start with" option, it's a bit different. I did some testing with one of the pages on my site, and it looks like from that first column there is no "exits" that show up. There was another question about that recently too, it looks like it's a feature not a bug. I looked at the numbers and it appears that because there are no exits, anything that is a single page visit will not be counted in that first column, because it only shows stuff that moves onto another page.

I did a test using a segment to exclude single page visits, and it does appear that the flow visualization, when using "starts with" doesn't include single page visits. So yes, that is why the number is lower than what you're seeing in a table. 

I'm not sure why Adobe chose to do it this way, including them and having the "exits" for that first column would make it more consistent with the rest of the visualization, but it is what it is. 

[MichelaTa]

I need it to understand where users went from the main page, so I wanted to know if the number of views I get corresponds only to users who entered and interacted with other pages. So, in general, he path analysis only consider sessions where the user has made at least one further interaction concerning the entry page?

[MichelaTa]

So, is it fair to say that only the number of views on the first page (I used "start with") had further interactions with other pages?

[MandyGeorge]

Yes, it appears that when you use the "starts with" option, the number returned is only those that had a subsequent hit and were not bounces/single page visits. 

In your other comment, you mention there is a discrepancy between the number of entries minus bounces and the number in the visualization. Did you take into account repeat instances? By default, a freeform table will include repeat instances, such as refreshing the page, but the flow visualization has that as an option that you need to select to enable. See if that accounts for your difference.

[MichelaTa]

To see where and how many visitors leave the main page and go to other pages, do you need to set the flow visualization to "start with" or "contains"?

[MandyGeorge]

It depends on if you want to limit the main page visits to the first page or not. If you want people that started their visit on that page, and then moved on, you would want the "starts with". The number it returns is going to be people that saw another page after that first one, it will exclude bounces.

If you use "contains", it will show you all people that saw that page, whether it was the first, last, or only page. It will show you the entries and exits for that page, as well as where people were before or after.

If you're trying to understand how many people saw that page and then another, regardless of where it was in the visit, then the "contains" visualization is going to be more descriptive for you. 

[MichelaTa]

In the flow, there are 4,327 views that started from the specific page and then continued to other pages. I did a test with the freeform table to calculate how many visits started from the specific page and continued to other pages (Entries: 130,918 and Bounce Rate: 88.92%). The result is 14,500 visits that started from the specific page and continued to other pages of the site. Why this discrepancy?

[Damonwhall]

Hello @MichelaTa, 

When looking at a freeform table you need to consider what dimension and metrics you are using to compare to flow charts.  For you URL, if you drop entries AND in another column visits, notice that the number will be the same.

I would make sure to use the entry URL or entry page dimension to see that number.  

Also, in your flow charts I would check to make sure to check the settings (visits vs visitors and repeat instances vs not) as well.