User Behavior

User behavior is how users interact with your website while visiting it. It helps you realize which pages they visit, how much time they spend on each one, the buttons they click through, the videos they watch, and places where they bounce. With this information, you can better understand the triggers which make users perform different actions. As a result, you'll be able to improve user experience on your website.

In this article, you'll learn why it's essential to analyze user behavior, uncover types of user behavior analytics, and learn how to analyze user behavior.

Why is it important to analyze user behavior?

It provides a clear picture of what's going on under the hood of your website.

Say, your landing page conversion rate is 40% lower than last month. Such a drastic conversion rate drop!

What would you do?

You can play a guessing name listing all the possible suggestions with your team. However, it's not a reliable method. Or, you can go into your website analytics to get some insights. There you will compare how user behavior changed during the last two months. You may find out an increasing bounce rate. To uncover the reasons, look through all the updates made during this period. You might have changed the CTA button's place, color, or text. Alternatively, the registration button doesn't work, or a live chat window doesn't open. Finally, your landing page may be poorly optimized, so it doesn't correspond to users' intent while searching for the answer in the search engine.

So, analyzing user behavior allows you to understand the triggers which make them visit your site, scroll down, click your CTA, or leave the website. With this actionable data, you can run experiments and A/B test different page design variants to determine which one performs better.

Let's take a closer look at the advantages of analyzing user behavior.

Benefits of Analyzing User Behavior

Monitoring your website users' behavior regularly will enable you to reap the following benefits:

• get accurate insights on how specific pages perform;
• understand which types and formats of content drive more conversions;
• realize what your potential clients are interested in and what is not that important for them;
• identify the places where leads get stuck and drop off;
• invest in effective strategies and tactics only;
• improve customer experience and satisfaction;
• boost conversions and revenue.

Now that you know why tracking user behavior is essential, read on to discover which type of analytics you should monitor.

Types of User Behavior Analytics

We'll shed light on four fundamental categories of user behavior analytics for you to know which data to consider.

1. User experience. It helps you determine whether users interact with your website pages the way you supposed them to when designing each page element. Use Google Analytics tools and Hotjar to analyze users' in-page clicks, navigation patterns, scroll depth, mouse movements, etc. With this data, you'll understand what prevents users from using your website as you planned. As a result, you can improve the navigation flow to retain more leads and convert them into clients.
2. Content performance. Content is the best way to maintain user engagement on your website. Different types of content and their formats help you reach other goals — attract new leads, boost engagement, get users' contacts, increase a conversion rate, etc. You can analyze the top-performing content pieces, the number of clicks and shares, and the bounce rate. All these metrics contribute to building a 360-degree view of your content performance.
3. Engagement. Many leads require some help and assistance before buying. They write emails and contact support teams via a live chat or chatbot. SendPulse allows you to create a chatbot or a live chat for your website for free without any coding skills. They may need you to dispel their doubts or provide more data about the product. Customer care departments can tell you about the typical difficulties of your leads that complicate their buyer journey.
4. Conversion rate. Conversion is the primary goal of each landing page, and only you decide what a conversion is for your business. It can be sharing an email address, app download, registration for an event, purchase, etc. Your task is to analyze user behavior to make this path less stressful for your client. For this purpose, you can monitor the changes impacted by specific variable testing or look at how users behave during the checkout process. With this data, you'll find out why leads are getting stuck and what helps them make a buying decision.

Now that you know which data to use, learn how to conduct the analysis.

How to analyze user behavior?

Follow the six steps below to analyze users' behavior effectively.

1. Set the goals. Remember that you should align your business goals with analytics goals. For example, your goal is to increase sales of a specific product. For this purpose, you should get insights into its landing page. You've updated its design, so check which version performed the best. Examine the scroll depth, content users interacted with most often, CTAs, and buttons clicked through. Also, consider where users had some troubles and left the website. So, these are the most important metrics for you to track. Ensure that you have this type of data; otherwise, you won't be able to reach the goals.
2. Set the event and categories of events to reach the goals. You need to develop an event taxonomy to understand your customer journey better. An event taxonomy is a path a user should follow to buy your product. It can include googling your brand, registering, checking the reviews, considering product features, and using a free trial and purchase. With this data, you'll uncover your users' issues when dealing with your product. Organize the events into categories to ensure quick access to the data.
3. Identify the users. To recreate a complete user journey, you need to divide them into cohorts based on their actions. So, assign specific cohorts to sessions to identify your users. You can integrate your analytics tool with a database or CRM for more accurate results and productivity.
4. Set the crucial metrics. To evaluate the success of your analysis, you need to select the metrics that align with your business and analytics goals. They may include the number of sign-ups, feature usage, sessions per user, stickiness ratio, drop in in-app sales, etc. Focus on the most critical metrics and sort out fewer informative ones to pursue your goal.
5. Make sure the events are tracked correctly. To prevent spending time in vain and wasting the budget, run a test session to check whether everything works perfectly.
6. Adjust your analysis. With time you can discover other vital issues that require your attention, so be ready to change your course. You may either find that this type of data is no longer valuable or need a higher level of data granularity.

Congrats, now you know the benefits of tracking user behavior and how to analyze it. Start step-by-step, and don't try to analyze deeply on your first try. Use your findings to develop a great product that your users will love!

Last Updated: 03.07.2023