User Journey
Analytics
Visualize how visitors navigate your site with interactive Sankey flow diagrams. Discover top paths, analyze entry/exit pages, group URLs by pattern, and create funnels from discovered navigation flows.
Understand How Users Navigate Your Site
Stop guessing which paths users take. See actual navigation flows visualized as interactive D3.js Sankey diagrams, discover top paths ranked by session frequency, analyze entry/exit behavior with bounce rates, and slice every view across 7 audience dimensions simultaneously — all stored on your own server, zero data sharing.
Sankey Flow Diagrams
Powered by D3.js + d3-sankey, interactive flow diagrams render every page-to-page transition as proportional links. Configure 3–7 steps per view, collapse low-traffic nodes into “Other” with a 1–10% threshold slider, or use Show All mode with paginated 50-nodes-per-step batches. Start and end page filters narrow the diagram to specific entry or goal pages. Drop-off nodes appear at each step in grey so abandonment patterns are immediately visible. Color-coded page groups turn long URLs into readable labels across the entire diagram.
Top Paths Discovery
Session paths are aggregated and ranked by frequency. Use min/max length filters (2–10 pages) to focus on short bounce paths or long deep-dive sessions. Results are paginated at 25 paths per page with a “Load More” button for large datasets. Each path row shows session count + percentage of total sessions and a visual arrow sequence of page names. A Convert to Funnel button on every row creates a tracked conversion funnel from the discovered path with one click.
Entry & Exit Page Analysis
Two-column layout shows your top 20 entry pages (where sessions begin) and top 20 exit pages (where sessions end). Each entry row displays bounce rate and the most common next page, plus average pages-per-session from that entry point. Each exit row shows exit rate and the most common previous page. Pages with an exit rate more than 2× the site average are automatically flagged as unexpected — immediately surfacing your highest-priority optimization targets.
Page Groups & URL Patterns
Group similar URLs into a single labelled node to reduce Sankey noise. Create groups manually or let Auto-Detect scan your tracked URLs and suggest patterns automatically. Each group supports 5 match types — Contains, Starts With, Ends With, Exact, or Regex — plus a custom color that propagates through the entire diagram. A priority number (0–100) resolves conflicts when a URL matches multiple groups (lowest number wins). Groups are saved via AJAX and apply immediately without a page reload.
Insights Dashboard
Four Chart.js-powered analytics panels in a dedicated tab: a Session Depth Distribution bar chart (1, 2, 3… pages per session), a Session Duration chart bucketed into 0–30s, 30–60s, 1–3 min, 3–10 min, and 10 min+, a Device Comparison chart showing average pages/session for Desktop vs Mobile vs Tablet, and a Most Visited Pages top-10 table. All four panels respond to the same date range and visitor-attribute filters as the rest of the page, giving a holistic view of engagement patterns across your entire site.
7-Dimension Filtering
Every journey view supports simultaneous filtering across 7 dimensions: Date range (today, yesterday, 7 days, 30 days, this month, or fully custom), Device type (multi-select: Desktop, Mobile, Tablet), Browser (multi-select: Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge…), OS (multi-select: Windows, macOS, Android, iOS…), Country (multi-select with search), Visitor type (New / Returning), and Referrer source (Direct or specific domain). All filters apply across the Sankey diagram, Top Paths, Entry/Exit, and Insights tabs simultaneously — no separate filter sets per tab.
How It Works
Enable Journey Tracking
Activate user journey tracking in Opti-Behavior Pro settings. The lightweight tracking script automatically captures page-to-page navigation sequences for every visitor session, storing each page visit in the optibehavior_session_pages table with page_order, URL, timestamp, and device metadata — zero external API calls, zero third-party data sharing.
Data Aggregates via SQL + Caching
As visitors browse, their full navigation paths are recorded. The analytics engine runs SQL aggregation queries on up to 10,000 sessions per request, building Sankey nodes and transition links entirely server-side. Results are stored in WordPress transients (60-second TTL) so the diagram and all tabs load near-instantly even on busy sites with thousands of daily sessions.
Explore Journey Flow & Insights
Open the User Journeys page to see the D3.js Sankey diagram render page transitions as proportional flows. Switch tabs to explore Top Paths ranked by session frequency, Entry & Exit analysis with bounce rates, and the Insights dashboard with Chart.js depth, duration, and device charts — all powered by the same 7-dimension filter row.
Convert Paths into Funnels
Found a high-traffic path? Click Convert to Funnel on any Top Path row. Optionally enable history backfill to retroactively migrate existing matching sessions into the new funnel for instant historical data. Then head to the Funnels page for visual step-by-step dropout analysis and ongoing conversion tracking.
Who Uses Journey Analytics?
Information Architecture
See how users actually navigate your site versus how you designed it. Discover if your menu structure and page hierarchy match real user behavior.
Revenue Optimization
Identify the most common paths to purchase. Understand which content pages lead to conversions and optimize internal linking to guide more users to revenue pages.
Content Strategy
Discover which blog posts lead to product pages, which landing pages drive the most engagement, and which content dead-ends cause visitors to leave.
Journey Analytics Comparison
| Feature | Opti-Behavior | Hotjar | MS Clarity | Matomo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sankey Flow Diagrams | ✓ Pro | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ Paid |
| Top Paths Discovery | ✓ Pro | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Entry/Exit Analysis | ✓ Pro | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| URL Grouping | ✓ Pro | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| One-Click Funnel Creation | ✓ Pro | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Focus Mode (Step-by-Step Exploration) | ✓ Pro | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Insights / Depth & Duration Charts | ✓ Pro | ✗ | ✗ | Paid |
| Advanced 7-Dimension Filtering | ✓ Pro | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| History Backfill on Funnel Creation | ✓ Pro | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Self-Hosted Data | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Price | $69/yr | N/A | N/A | €26+/mo |
User Journeys FAQ
What is a Sankey flow diagram?
How many steps can a journey path have?
What are Page Groups and how do they help?
Can I create a funnel from a discovered journey path?
Can I filter journeys by device, browser, or country?
What is Focus Mode and how does it work?
What does the Insights dashboard show?
Which filter dimensions are available for journey analysis?
What is history backfill when converting a path to a funnel?
Map Your Users’ Journey Today
Get Opti-Behavior Pro and see exactly how visitors navigate your site. Interactive Sankey diagrams, top paths discovery, and one-click funnel creation — all self-hosted.