Understand the User Journey report

Understand the User Journey report

The User Journey report displays visitor navigation as a flow diagram.
The report consists of:
  • Starting page
  • Step 1
  • Step 2
  • Step 3
  • Step 4
The flow between pages represents the number of sessions that followed that navigation path.

Starting page  

The Starting page is the page you select when creating the journey.
It appears as the first node in the report and acts as the baseline for the journey analysis.
The Starting page displays:
  • Page name or URL path
  • Number of recorded sessions
  • Percentage of sessions
The Starting page is always displayed as 100%, since it represents the complete focus population used for the journey.

Step 1  

Step 1 shows the pages visitors navigated to immediately after the Starting page.
For example: Starting page → Pricing or Starting page → Signup

Step 2  

Step 2 shows the next page visitors navigated to after Step 1.
For example: Starting page → Pricing → Signup

Step 3 and Step 4  

Steps 3 and 4 continue the same navigation sequence.
This allows you to understand how visitor behavior progresses across multiple pages.
Notes
Note: A page can appear at more than one step if visitors revisit that page during the same session.

Understand the flow between pages  

The lines connecting two pages represent the flow of sessions between them.
The width of each flow indicates the number of sessions that followed that particular path.
For example, if more visitors move from Product page → Pricing than Product page → Signup, the flow to Pricing will be wider.
Hover over a flow to view:
  • Recorded sessions — Number of sessions that followed the selected path.
  • Conversion rate — Percentage of Starting page sessions represented by that path.

Understand the metrics  

The metrics displayed in User Journey use different denominators depending on what is being measured.

Metric
Where it appears
Calculation
Node percentage
All nodes
Node sessions ÷ Starting page sessions × 100
Entries
Starting page tooltip
Entry sessions ÷ Starting page sessions × 100
Drop-offs
Starting page tooltip
Drop-off sessions ÷ Starting page sessions × 100
Conversion rate
Step 1–4 tooltip
Node sessions ÷ Starting page sessions × 100
Drop-off count
Step 1–4 tooltip
Number of sessions that ended at the node
Drop-off rate
Step 1–4 tooltip
Node drop-offs ÷ node recorded sessions × 100
Recorded sessions
Node/link tooltip
Absolute number of sessions
Link conversion rate
Flow tooltip
Link sessions ÷ Starting page sessions × 100

Entries  

Entries are the sessions in which the Starting page was the first page visited.
For example, if 14 sessions started directly on your Product page out of 2,500 focus sessions:
Entries = 14
Entry percentage = 14 ÷ 2,500 × 100 = 0.56%

Conversion rate  

For Step 1–4 nodes, the conversion rate represents the percentage of visitors who reached that node compared with the total sessions recorded for the Starting page.
Formula:
Node sessions ÷ Starting page sessions × 100

Drop-offs  

A drop-off occurs when a visitor's session ends on a particular page without another recorded page navigation.
For downstream nodes, PageSense displays:
  • Drop-off count
  • Drop-off rate

Drop-off rate  

The drop-off rate for a Step 1–4 node is calculated using the sessions recorded at that node.
Formula:
Node drop-offs ÷ Node recorded sessions × 100
For example, if 34 sessions ended at a page that recorded 2,400 sessions:
34 ÷ 2,400 × 100 = 1.4%

InfoImportant: Drop-off rate and conversion rate do not use the same denominator.

Understand "Other pages"  

The User Journey report displays the highest-volume destination pages according to the selected row limit.
Lower-volume pages are grouped under Other pages.
For example, if you choose to display the top five pages, PageSense may show:
  1. Pricing
  2. Signup
  3. Features
  4. Demo
  5. Contact
  6. Other pages
Other pages represents the remaining lower-volume destinations that are not displayed individually.
This keeps the journey visualization easy to read while still accounting for the remaining navigation traffic.

Analyze User Journey by audience  

You can apply an audience segment to analyze how a specific group of visitors navigates through your website.
For example, you can compare:
  • Paid visitors vs. organic visitors
  • Mobile visitors vs. desktop visitors
  • Visitors from different locations
  • New visitors vs. returning visitors
Select the required audience segment before analyzing the journey. PageSense applies the selected segment to the journey data.
Audience segmentation can help you identify whether different visitor groups follow different navigation paths. PageSense also supports segmentation in other Track reports for deeper behavioral analysis.

Analyze visitor journeys across domains  

If your website uses multiple domains, you can use Cross-Domain Tracking to maintain visitor activity across the configured domains.
For example: www.example.com/product → blog.example.com/article → checkout.example.com
With cross-domain tracking configured correctly, PageSense can maintain the visitor's activity across the related domains.

What happens when a visitor drops off?  

If a visitor does not navigate to another page and their session ends, PageSense records the session as a drop-off on the page where the session ended.
For example: Product → Pricing → Exit
In this case, the session is counted as a drop-off at the Pricing page.
A drop-off only indicates that the recorded session ended at that page. It does not necessarily mean that the visitor failed to complete your business goal.

Common use cases  

  1. Understand what visitors do after viewing a product page  
Select your Product page as the Starting page to understand whether visitors navigate to:
  • Pricing
  • Signup
  • Features
  • Demo
  • Other product pages
This helps you understand whether your product page is directing visitors toward the pages that matter to your business.
  1. Discover unexpected navigation paths  
You may find that visitors frequently navigate to a page that was not part of your planned journey.
For example:
Product → Features → Pricing
instead of:
Product → Pricing → Signup
Such patterns can help you identify opportunities to improve navigation or calls-to-action.

Analyze pricing-page behavior  

Select the Pricing page as the Starting page to understand whether visitors move to:
  • Monthly pricing
  • Annual pricing
  • Signup
  • Product pages
  • Other pages
You can then identify which paths are most common and where visitors leave.

Best practices  

  • Select pages that are important to your website journey, such as Product, Pricing, Landing, or Checkout pages.
  • Use User Journey when you want to discover visitor behavior.
  • Use Funnel Analysis when you already know the journey you want to measure.
  • Investigate unexpected high-volume paths before making UX changes.
  • Analyze pages with significant drop-offs using other PageSense behavioral reports.
  • Apply audience segments to understand differences between visitor groups.
  • Use the same date range when comparing journeys.
  • Do not assume that a drop-off automatically represents a failed conversion.



We’ve designed this documentation to guide you every step of the way. If you need further assistance or have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us at support@zohopagesense.com - we’re always here to help!