Who can use this feature?
- Available with Enterprise, Advanced, Business, and Free plans; and Mobile add-on.
- Available for admins, architects, and standard users.
Contents
Introduction to Page Flow
The Page Flow Dashboards card allows you to analyze micro user journeys. Specifically, the previous and next Pages viewed from a given Page. In addition, you can see the percentage of page views that were “Entry” or “Exit” Pages, meaning the user started or ended their session on that Page. In order to accurately represent next page flows and site exits, data from live sessions is excluded from Page Flow cards.
Like all quantitative data you see in Fullstory, you can watch sessions that correlate with any Page Flow path. This can help you understand how users got from one Page to another and the context of what they were doing at that time.
How Pages are Defined in Fullstory
Pages are either single URLs or groups of URLs that you would commonly consider as the same page or page type. By default, Fullstory uses machine learning to identify general URL patterns across similar page structures and group them into Pages. If you see brackets [ ] or asterisks * in your Pages, that means that multiple URLs are grouped together into a single Page.
You also have the option to name Pages, modify the URL rules for any Page, or define your own Pages. Learn more about Pages in Fullstory and managing pages in Settings.
FAQs
What does Not Defined mean?
A Not Defined node on a Page Flow is a grouping of page views for URLs that are not already defined as a Page. By default, Fullstory will create Pages for URLs that have had significant traffic. So if a URL is brand new or doesn't get many viewers, it may fall into Not Defined.
You can add more Pages to capture that additional traffic in Settings > Data Management > Pages by clicking on “Create Page.”
If you want to know which URLs are included in Not Defined, follow these steps:
- Create a new Dimensionality card
- Define your metric as "Visited Page is Not Defined"
- Group by URL
The page I want to see is grouped with other pages. Can I ungroup them?
Yes! By default, the Pages shown are based on Fullstory’s Learned Pages algorithm. However, if you’d like to modify them or create new Pages to override them, you can do so in Settings > Data Management > Pages.
Keep in mind that Page rule changes do not apply retroactively, so you will need to wait for more sessions to see data for new Pages.
Can I see other types of events in addition to page views, or more steps in the journey?
Currently the Page Flow card only shows one Page viewed in either direction from the specified Page. If you are interested in seeing other types of events or additional steps, please reach out to our support team to let us know more about your use case.
Why is my selected Page also listed as a previous or next Page?
Sometimes users will trigger a new page view of the page they are already on, so this will show up as a previous and next Page. This can happen if the user refreshes the page, or if something causes the page to automatically refresh. This will also happen if a user navigates between different URLs that are defined as the same Page. For example, between blog posts that are both categorized as a single “Blog Article” Page.
Example Use Cases
“Where is the most common place users come from before viewing this page?”
Steps:
- Create a Page Flow card centered on the Page in question, in this case the PLP Page
- Look for the first/highest volume previous Page
The Homepage is the most common Page users see before viewing the PLP Page.
“Did my A/B test change where users navigate next from this page?”
Steps:
- Create a Page Flow card centered on the Page in question
- Drill down to a Segment for the control variant of the A/B test
- Duplicate the card
- Change the Segment on the second card to the test variant
- Compare the “Next Page” data across the two cards
The test variant increased the “Exit” percentage (or bounce rate) from 1.1% to 17.4%, so the control is doing a better job of keeping users on the website.
“For users that dropped out of my funnel at this page, where did they go instead?”
Steps:
- Start with a funnel, and determine which Page you’re interested in learning more about. In this case, you want to know where users went after the /market Page if they didn’t go into the /cart Page.
- Create a Page Flow card centered on the /market Page.
- Look at common next Pages aside from the /cart Page.
For users who didn’t go from the Market Page to the Cart Page, the most common alternative was to leave the website. For users who remained on the site, most went to the Homepage or Login/Signup Pages instead.
“I want to see more. What other tools does Fullstory have to help visualize user navigation?”
Check out Journeys! Journeys help you visualize how users explore your site or mobile application, showing you step-by-step page navigation and other key interactions along the way. Unlike Page Flow Cards which focus on micro journeys, Journeys lets you see the most common paths users take from any given starting point or toward any given end point. Learn more here.