Interactive path analysis of web site traffic

ABSTRACT

The goal of Path Analysis is to understand visitors' navigation of a Web site. The fundamental analysis component is a path. A path is a finite sequence of elements, typically representing URLs or groups of URLs. A full path is an abstraction of a visit or a session, which can contain attributes described below. Subpaths represent interesting subsequences of the full paths.Path Analysis provides user-configurable extraction, filtering, preprocessing, noise reduction, descriptive statistics and detailed analysis of three basic specific objects: elements, (sub)paths, and couples of elements. In each case, lists of frequent objects --- subject to particular filtering and sorting --- are available. We call the corresponding interactive tools Element, Path, and Couple Analyzers.We also allow in-depth exploration of individual elements, paths, and couples: Element Explorer investigates composition and convergence of traffic through an element and allows conditioning based on the number of preceding/succeeding steps. Path Explorer visualizes in and out flows of a path and attrition rate along the path. Couple Explorer presents distinct paths connecting couple elements, along with measures of their association and some additional statistics.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.3 INFORMATION STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL
      H.3.5 On-line Information Services
          Subjects: Web-based services

Additional Classification:
  G. Mathematics of Computing
  G.2 DISCRETE MATHEMATICS
      G.2.2 Graph Theory
          Subjects: Graph algorithms; Path and circuit problems

General Terms:
Algorithms, Design, Performance