How to Read User Flow in Google Analytics

The User Flow report in Google Analytics is one of the best ways to see the actual paths people take through your website, not just the pages they land on. Understanding this visual journey shows you precisely where users get stuck, where they drop off, and which paths lead to your most important pages. This article will show you how to find, read, and get actionable insights from the User Flow report and its newer, more powerful equivalent in Google Analytics 4.

What Exactly is the User Flow Report?

The User Flow report is a diagram that maps out how users navigate your site from one page or event to the next. Instead of a table of metrics, you get a flowchart showing the journey. You can see things like:

The top pages where users enter your site.
Where they go from their landing page (the first interaction).
How they continue to move through your site (second, third, and subsequent interactions).
The points in their journey where they leave your site completely (a "drop-off").

In short, it helps you visualize visitor behavior patterns, making it easier to spot friction points and opportunities for improvement that are often hidden in standard reports.

A Quick Note on Universal Analytics vs. Google Analytics 4

If you've been using Google Analytics for a while, you're familiar with Universal Analytics (UA). UA had a dedicated report simply called "User Flow." As of July 2023, Google has shifted everyone to Google Analytics 4. In GA4, the direct "User Flow" report doesn't exist anymore. It has been replaced by a much more flexible and powerful tool called Path Exploration.

We'll cover how to find and use both, as the principles are similar, but it's important to know which version you're working with.

How to Access the User Journey Reports

For Universal Analytics (The Classic User Flow Report)

If you still have access to historical UA data, finding the report is straightforward:

Navigate to your Google Analytics account.
In the left-hand navigation menu, go to Audience > User Flow.

This will bring up the classic visual report showing how your audience navigates the site.

For Google Analytics 4 (The Path Exploration Report)

In GA4, the process is a little different but gives you way more control. You'll be using the "Explore" section to build the report.

On the left-hand navigation menu, click on the "Explore" icon.
You'll land on the "Explorations" hub. Choose "Path exploration" from the template gallery.
You'll now see a default Path Exploration report, which you can customize to fit your needs.

How to Read a User Flow or Path Exploration Report

At first glance, the diagram can look a bit complicated, but it's simple once you know what you're looking at. Here are the key components:

1. Starting Dimension

This is the box on the far left. It's the starting point of your analysis and groups users based on a shared characteristic.

In Universal Analytics, this defaults to a dimension like "Country." You can change it to "Source," "Campaign," or "Device Category" using the dropdown menu at the top left.
In GA4's Path Exploration, the default starting point is often an event like session_start. You can click on the box to change this to any landing page, event, or traffic source you want to analyze.

2. Nodes and Connections

The columns of boxes moving from left to right are called nodes. In a page-based flow, each node represents a specific page on your site. The lines connecting them are the connections, showing the flow of traffic.

Green Nodes (UA) / Blue Blocks: These represent the specific pages users visited or events they triggered. The numbers inside show the volume of traffic.
Gray Connectors: The gray bands flowing between nodes show the user path. The thicker the band, the more users took that specific path.

3. Drop-Offs

The red "waterfall" dropping off the bottom of each node represents the users who left your site from that page. This is arguably the most crucial data point in the report.

A high drop-off rate on a blog post might be normal, but a high drop-off on a checkout page is a major problem that you need to investigate immediately.

Analyzing the Report for Actionable Insights

Looking at the chart is one thing, getting valuable information out of it is another. Follow this process to turn a messy diagram into clear action items.

Step 1: Define Your Question

Don't just open the report and stare at it. Start with a specific question you want to answer. This focuses your analysis and prevents you from getting lost.

Good questions to ask:

How do users arriving from our latest email campaign navigate the site?
What is the most common path users take from the homepage to our pricing page?
Where are mobile users dropping off most often compared to desktop users?
Are visitors finding our key product pages after landing on a blog post?

Step 2: Choose Your Starting Point

Based on your question, select the right starting dimension.

To analyze a specific marketing campaign, start with the 'Campaign' dimension.
To see how organic search performs, start with 'Source/Medium' and filter for google / organic.
To investigate a specific page, like your pricing page, start with that page as the entry point in GA4 Path Exploration.

Step 3: Follow the Predominant Path

Identify the thickest gray connection coming out of your starting node. Where does the majority of your traffic go first? Is this the journey you want them to take? For instance, if you want users to go from the homepage to a product page but most of them are going to the "About Us" page, you might have a user experience issue.

Step 4: Hunt for Leaks (High Drop-Offs)

Your eyes should be drawn to the biggest red waterfalls. These are the "leaky pages" where you are losing potential customers or engaged readers.

When you find a high drop-off page, ask why.

Is the call-to-action (CTA) unclear?
Is the page slow to load on mobile?
Is there a technical error or a broken link on that page?
Does the page create friction, like asking for too much information on a form?

This gives you a clear target for website improvements.

Example in Action: An E-commerce Store Investigation

Imagine you run an online store and notice that plenty of users add items to their cart, but few complete a purchase. You can use GA4's Path Exploration to figure out why.

Set your question: "What happens after a user visits the /cart page?"
Configure the Path Exploration: In GA4, start a new Path Exploration. For the 'Starting Point', choose 'Page path and screen class' and find your cart page (e.g., /cart).
Analyze the Flow: The report will show you every step users take from the cart page. You're hoping to see a thick gray line moving to the /checkout or /shipping-info page.
Find the Insight: But you notice something interesting. A huge chunk of traffic goes from the cart... back to a product page. An even bigger chunk simply drops off. This tells you users are hesitant. They aren't ready to buy and might be looking for more information or are experiencing sticker shock.
Take Action: Armed with this insight, you could test changes to your cart page. Maybe add customer testimonials, display trust seals (like secure payment logos), or clarify the return policy directly on the page to build confidence and reduce hesitation.

Final Thoughts

Analyzing user journeys helps you move beyond basic metrics like pageviews and bounce rates to understand how visitors truly interact with your website. By using Google Analytics' User Flow and Path Exploration reports, you can pinpoint the exact pages where users get confused or lose interest, giving you a clear roadmap for improving user experience and driving more conversions.

While reports inside Google Analytics are powerful, isolating the journey from one specific channel through your website and all the way to a sale in another platform like Shopify or Salesforce often means stitching data together manually. It can be time-consuming. We built Graphed to simplify this entire process. You connect all your sources once, and then you can just ask questions in plain English, like "show me a dashboard of the path users take from Google Ads to a Shopify purchase," and get a real-time, shareable dashboard in seconds. No more manual report pulling, just instant answers.