Analyze visitor segments by using Segment Compare reports

You can use segment compare reports to analyze visitor segments against your key performance indicators.

Segment compare reports are ideal for fast behavioral segment comparisons between user segments or defined personas. You are limited to 10 segments per report.

When creating a report, you can select the report type from the top drop-down in the configuration panel: Flat list, Hierarchy, Custom group, Segment compare, True path, and Clickstream.

Analyze visitor behavior along defined paths by using True Path reports

True path funnels show visitor behavior along defined paths on your website.

True path funnels measure the effectiveness of your online processes such as checkout, registration, applications, and calls-to-action on marketing landing pages. They can also examine the throughput and completion rate of defined process steps. With this information, you can pinpoint pages where visitors abandon the path. Then you can target these pages for improvement.

True path reporting uses same-session logic. It doesn't track site processes for visitors who save their progress and return in a later session to complete the path. Visitor sessions during the tracking time either complete the path, abandon the path at a particular step, or never enter the path. The output results show the number of sessions that continue to the next step, the percentage of sessions that abandon the path, and the percentage of sessions that continue to the next step. You can compare the funnels for different time periods to see whether changes made to your website led to improvements in path results.

You can also apply a persistent report segment to a true path funnel to analyze the behavior of specific visitor segments. Compare the segment behavior to the visitor traffic for the path.

When creating a report, you can select the report type from the top drop-down in the configuration panel: Flat list, Hierarchy, Custom group, Segment compare, True path, and Clickstream.

A true path funnel use case

Assume that you are responsible for driving more email sign-ups on your website. You build a true path funnel for the email sign-up process to analyze visitor behavior across this path.

The true path funnel provides the following results:

Steps	Sessions in this step	Sessions continuing	Sessions departing the path	Sessions departing the site	Sessions completed TruePath
Home page	29,479	33.73%	66.27%	12.22%	2.06%
Email Sign-Up page	9,944	54.02%	45.98%	9.23%	6.10%
Email Sign-Up Form page	5,372	11.30%	84.98%	17.55%	11.30%
Email Sign-Up Completion page	607	-	-	-	100.00%

Based on these results, consider the following next steps:

• Only 2.06% of sessions from the home page complete the email sign-up process. Because completion from the home page is low, consider making the Email Sign-Up link that is featured on the home page more prominent.
• The Email Sign-Up Form page has a high number of sessions that depart the path (84.98%). Check to make sure that the instructions for email sign-up are clear, and that there are not too many form fields that require data entry. Consider adding error messaging to this page to provide clear instructions about how to complete the form. Create a forward-looking Clickstream report from the Email Sign-Up Form page to identify where visitors are navigating to after they leave this page. With this information, you can consider limiting access to these areas or implementing a process to lead visitors back to the Email Sign-Up path.

Analyze visitor paths with Clickstream reports

Clickstream reports analyze paths that visitors take through your website before or after they visit a page. They reveal trends in visitor behavior.

This helps you choose paths that are most successful in leading to conversions. You can compare up to three paths and view the top five paths. You can also limit the results to visitors who belong to a selected profile segment, or purchased a selected product.

Digital Analytics uses a full data set to generate Clickstream reports.

Note: In legacy Digital Analytics, sampling was used to generate Clickstream reports for web pages that had page views for more than 20,000 sessions. Reports run against a full data set are more accurate than those that use sampling data but can take more time.

When creating a report, you can select the report type from the top drop-down in the configuration panel: Flat list, Hierarchy, Custom group, Segment compare, True path, and Clickstream.

Identify problems with a checkout process

You can use a Clickstream report together with a True path funnel to identify problems with a navigation path on your website.

Assume that you are responsible for evaluating abandonment causes for steps in your checkout process. A True path funnel reveals that many sessions depart the path after the billing page, but do not abandon the site. You want to determine the path of these sessions.

You create a forward-looking Clickstream report that uses the billing page as the starting point. The Clickstream report shows that visitors to the billing page are directed to the privacy page to ensure a secure transaction. With this information, you change the privacy page to a pop-up window from the billing page instead of a new page. This change decreases the chance for sessions to navigate away from the billing page and increases the number of sessions that continue directly to the confirmation page.

Identify ways to improve on-site search performance

You are responsible for improving on-site searches on your company's website. You create Clickstream reports to and from the search results page.

The following examples show actions that you can take based on the results for paths to a search results page:

Low rates of search from home page

Ensure that call-outs and search functionality are clearly visible for visitors on the home page and key landing pages.

Low rates of search from Category and Product pages

Ensure that call-outs and search functionality are visible throughout the website.

A disproportionate number of searches from a category

Compare search traffic breakdown by category to the overall breakdown of website traffic by category. Identify the categories in which customers have difficulty finding the product. Investigate category pages and merchandising choices to determine the root cause.

The following examples show actions that you can take based on the results for paths from a search results page:

High rates of second searches

Consider adding filtering/query refinement technology to your site to allow visitors to refine their searches without the need to enter a new query.

High rates of site departure

This result indicates that unsuccessful search results were confusing, causing visitors to leave. Investigate the search results page design. Ensure that the page provides clear instructions for refining queries in the case that a visitor did not receive results. Consider analyzing and improving results relevance to reduce departure.

High rates of abandonment to the home page

When visitors didn't find the information they were seeking using on-site search and left the website to search for it on other websites or by using search engines. Analyze results to understand and improve on-site search engine effectiveness.