Clickstream report use cases

Use case 1: Identifying problems with a checkout process

You can use a Clickstream report together with a TruePath 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 TruePath 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.

Use case 2: Identifying ways to improve onsite search performance

You are responsible for improving onsite search 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 callouts 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 callouts and search functionality are clearly visible throughout the website.

Disproportionate number of searches from a category

Compare search traffic breakdown by category to overall breakdown of website traffic by category; identify 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 depart. 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

This result indicates that visitors did not find the information they were seeking using onsite search and departed the website to search for it on other websites or by using search engines (such as Google). Analyze results relevance to understand and improve onsite search engine effectiveness.