Knowledge base

How to analyze user journeys

One of the strengths of combining the Extellio products is that you are able to not only analyze parts of a user journey, but the full user journey. By using surveys, you can learn who the visitors are, what they want to do on the website, and how they experiences your website. From analytics, you can learn how your visitors found your website, which pages they entered on, where they exited, how they navigated, and if they converted on goals such as downloading a file or placing an order. By adding heatmaps and session recordings, you can get an even better understanding of how the visitors navigate the website, and which parts of a page are getting viewed and engage the visitors.

Mapping out the user journey

The user journey itself is fairly simple. It starts with the visitor wanting or needing something, then finding your website, then navigating through it, and lastly leaving the website. When tracking the user journey, there are more metrics you can add to get a more complete picture. Did they convert? Where they satisfied?

At Extellio, we have identified 10 steps in analyzing the user journey. Let's go through what each of them are and what data you need to collect.

1) The intent. Why are the visitors on your website? The visitors want or need something that you may be offering. Perhaps you have an article on a subject they are interested in, or you have a product they want to buy. The best way to identify the intent is to use a web survey. Ask what the visitors are looking for or what they want to do on your website. This can be just a general question, but you can also ask more specific follow-up questions about what kind of information or what type of product they want.

2) The source. How did the visitors found you? Some visitors will be familiar with your website beforehand, some may make a general search for whatever they are looking for in a search engine, and some may see an ad that catches their attention. Use the channels in your analytics to see how the visitors found your website. Ideally, you should also track search words used in search engines.

3) The first impression. Which is the first page the visitors see? For new visitors, and even some returning visitors, the entry page is the first impression of your website and potentially even your company. This is your elevator pitch. This is where you need to convince them to stay. You can find the entry pages in your analytics.

4) The behavioral patterns. What are the visitors doing on your website? Unless the visitors bounce on the entry page, they are going to interact with the website by clicking on links, moving on to other pages, downloading documents, using the search function, sending in forms, making purchases, and more. The analytics data includes user flows, downloads, and internal search, but you can also set up goals and events to track specific interactions. You can also use heatmaps to more deeply analyze individual pages, or use session recordings to more deeply analyze individual visits. 

5) The visitors' success. Did the visitors manage to do or find what they wanted? Without knowing if the visitors were successful or not, you can end up drawing the wrong conclusions about their behavior on the website. If a visitor was successful, viewing many pages can be a sign of curiosity and engaging with the website. If a visitor was unsuccessful, viewing many pages can be a sign of frustration and failed attempts to find the right page. Use surveys to evaluate the visitors' success, and ask if they could find what they were looking for.

6) The visitors' satisfaction. Are the visitors satisfied with their experience on your website? Not being successful doesn't necessary mean being unsatisfied. A visitor can be mistaken about what information or products are available on your website, which will result in low success but potentially high satisfaction with what you do have to offer. Likewise, a visitor can be able to do what they intended, but still have a low satisfaction. To measure satisfaction, add rating questions to your survey. They can be general or specific, depending on your needs.

7) The company's success. Are the visitors converting? What the visitors want to do on your website may not be the same as what you want them to do. You may want them to buy a product, sign up for a newsletter, apply for a job, and more. To track conversion, you can set up goals in your analytics.

8) The pain points. What is preventing success? No website is perfect, and in order to increase the success rate, both for the company and the visitors, you need to identify the pain points on the website. This can be illogical structure, confusing headings, hidden or missing links, lacking information, lacking nudging, cumbersome flows, and more. To identify the pain points, you can use the survey to ask the visitors what they were struggling to do and why. You can also use heatmaps on the pages where you have pain points to see if the behavior gives any clues, such as not scrolling down far enough, or session recordings to analyze specific visits where the visitors failed to do what they wanted to.

9) The last impression. Where do the visitors leave? Depending on the website, there may be pages where you consider the visitors done with their visit (for example an order confirmation page) and pages where the visitors are supposed to be encourage to stay on the website. You can find the exit pages in your analytics. 

10) The improvement needs. What changes would you visitors like to see? Besides fixing pain points, there are other changes you can make and that your visitors may like to see. For example, low contrast between text and background may not make it difficult for the visitors to do what they want, but it may still be something they would like you to change. A lot of scrolling is also not necessarily a pain point, but it may still be something the visitors would like you to improve, and that can increase the general satisfaction. To identify improvement needs, add a question to your survey asking the visitors how you can make the website better for them.