Quick answer: The Behavior Flow report in Google Analytics shows the paths visitors take through your site, from the page or traffic source where they start, through each page or event they interact with next, to the point where they leave. You find it under Behavior, then Behavior Flow. Use it to spot pages where many visitors drop off, check whether people follow the route you intended, and see what visitors do after landing on key pages. It works best with a clear question, a segment and a page-level view, rather than staring at the default diagram.
What the report shows
Behavior Flow draws your traffic as a diagram from left to right:
- The first column is the starting point, by default the landing page, but you can change it to a traffic source, device category, country or another dimension.
- Starting pages shows the pages where sessions begin.
- 1st Interaction, 2nd Interaction and so on show the next pages or events visitors reach.
- Grey bands between columns show how traffic moves from one node to another. Thicker bands mean more sessions.
- Red bars under each node show drop-offs, the share of sessions that ended there.
Hovering over a node shows sessions, through traffic and drop-offs. Hovering over a band shows how many sessions moved along that connection.
It is one of the few places in Universal Analytics where you can see sequences of pages rather than totals for each page.
Where to find it and related flow reports
- Behavior > Behavior Flow: paths through pages and events.
- Audience > Users Flow: a similar diagram where the starting dimension is something like country or device. Useful for comparing groups.
- Behavior > Events > Events Flow: paths through events only.
- Conversions > Goals > Goal Flow: paths through the steps of a goal, including where people loop back or enter mid-funnel.
If you have a defined sequence, such as a checkout or a multi-step form, the Goal Flow and funnel reports are usually clearer. Our guide to goal funnels explains how to set them up.
Settings that make the report useful
The default view is often a confusing tangle. A few changes help.
Choose the right starting dimension
Click the dropdown above the first column. Options include:
- Landing Page: where sessions start
- Source or Medium: compare how organic, paid, email and social visitors move
- Device Category: compare mobile and desktop paths
- Campaign: see what visitors from a specific campaign do
Starting with Device Category is a quick way to spot pages that work on desktop but lose mobile visitors.
Switch between automatic grouping and pages
By default, Analytics groups pages by URL structure, so many blog posts may appear as one node like /blog/. That keeps the diagram tidy but hides detail. Switch the view to show individual pages when you need specifics, or to content groups if you have set them up.
Adjust the level of detail
The level of detail control shows more or fewer connections. Fewer connections make the main paths stand out. More connections reveal smaller routes.
Apply a segment
Segments narrow the report to a group of sessions, for example visitors who converted, visitors from organic search, or new versus returning users. A flow for converters compared with a flow for non-converters often tells you more than the full picture.
Highlight and explore nodes
Click any node to:
- Highlight traffic through here: shows only paths passing through that node
- Explore traffic through here: opens a focused view centred on that page
- Group details: lists the pages inside an automatic group
Exploring from a single important page, such as a pricing or service page, is one of the most practical ways to use the report.
Add steps
The diagram starts with a few interaction columns. Use the step controls to show more interactions when visitors take longer routes.
Questions Behavior Flow can answer
Where do visitors leave?
Look for nodes with large red drop-off bars, especially on pages that should lead somewhere, like service pages or product pages. A high drop-off on a blog post may be fine. A high drop-off on a quote page is a problem.
Do visitors follow the path we designed?
If you expect visitors to go from a service page to a case study and then to contact, highlight the service page and see whether that route appears. If most people go back to the home page instead, the next step may not be clear.
What do people do after landing on a key page?
Explore from your most important landing pages. Do visitors from ads go straight to the form, or wander off into the blog? Our guide to bounce rate explains how to interpret visitors who leave after one page.
Are visitors stuck in loops?
Repeated nodes, such as a page leading back to itself or two pages bouncing between each other, can suggest confusing navigation, a form that reloads with errors or content that does not answer the question.
Do mobile visitors behave differently?
Start the flow with Device Category. Large differences in drop-off on the same page often point to mobile usability problems.
Which events happen along the way?
If you track events such as video plays, downloads or button clicks, choose the view that includes events. You may see that people who play a video go on to the contact page more often. Our guide to event tracking covers setting those up.
Limits to keep in mind
Behavior Flow is useful, but it has quirks:
- Sampling: flow reports are often based on a sample of sessions, especially on busy sites or long date ranges. Look for the sampling note at the top and shorten the date range if needed.
- Aggregated paths: you see common routes, not individual visitors. Small paths are grouped or hidden.
- Automatic grouping can mislead: a single node may combine very different pages.
- Interaction columns are not time: “2nd Interaction” means the second step, not a particular time after landing.
- Hard to export: the diagram is visual. For detailed analysis you may need other reports or custom tools.
- Data quality matters: spam traffic, missing tracking on some pages or duplicate tracking code distort the flow.
Setting up clean views and filters first helps. Our article on Google Analytics views covers a sensible setup.
Turning findings into action
The report shows where something happens, not why. Pair it with other tools:
- Heatmaps and session recordings to see what visitors do on a page with high drop-off. See our guide to heatmaps.
- Site search data to see what visitors look for when they cannot find it.
- User testing to watch real people try the same path.
- A/B tests to try a clearer next step and measure the difference.
A simple routine works well: pick one important page each month, explore its flow, form an idea about the drop-off, make one change and compare the flow a few weeks later.
FAQ
Why does my Behavior Flow show only a few pages?
Automatic grouping is combining pages, or the level of detail is low. Switch to individual pages and increase the connections shown.
Can I see the path of one particular visitor?
Not in this report. It shows patterns across sessions.
What does a red drop-off mean?
The session ended on that page or event. Whether that is bad depends on the page’s purpose.
Is Behavior Flow available for all properties?
It is part of standard Universal Analytics properties and views.
Know where visitors go next
The Behavior Flow report helps you see how people actually move through your site and where they give up. Used with a clear question, it points you to the pages worth fixing first. If you want analytics set up so the reports give you answers you can act on, see how we help businesses know what’s working.
