Key Behavioral Metrics
Simple error tracking is just the start; analytics can reveal how users actually interact with your site. The key behavioral metrics are:
- Page views — Which pages are visited and how often
- Sessions — Groups of page views by the same user within a time window
- Bounce rate — Percentage of visitors who leave after viewing only one page
- Time on page — How long users spend before navigating away
- Scroll depth — How far down the page users actually read
- Click patterns — What elements users interact with (and which they ignore)
- Conversion rate — Percentage of visitors who complete a desired action
Funnel Analysis
These metrics form a funnel — each stage filters out users who do not proceed:
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Page Views (100%) │
│ All visitors who arrive │
└──────────────────────┬──────────────────────────┘
│ ~60% continue
┌──────────────────────▼──────────────────────────┐
│ Engagement (60%) │
│ Scroll, click, spend >10 seconds │
└──────────────────────┬──────────────────────────┘
│ ~25% continue
┌──────────────────────▼──────────────────────────┐
│ Action (15%) │
│ Add to cart, start form, watch video │
└──────────────────────┬──────────────────────────┘
│ ~30% continue
┌──────────────────────▼──────────────────────────┐
│ Conversion (5%) │
│ Purchase, submit, sign up │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Usability Signals in Analytics Data
Understanding usability through analytics means looking for signals of confusion: high bounce rates on landing pages, form abandonment halfway through especially when hitting a sticky field, features with zero clicks despite being prominently placed, or users repeatedly hitting the back button, excessive clicks on an unclickable object dubbed a rage click, and many more signals can point us towards user problems.
However, we need to be careful as sometimes we can infer the wrong thing from a behavior. For example, many supposed dead clicks on a page could indicate anchor or scrolling touches, and users may also be highlighting content for copy-paste. A full session replay can capture nuance, but aggregating all details is hard, and watching replays can be time-consuming.