Distinctive Reports and Usage - Yahoo! Web Analytics - page 257

as a final note, i would once again like to caution you on site-wide entry point
path analysis reporting, as it is unlikely to tell you much about anything. so always do
specific path analysis on unique entry points or destination points, and preferably on
parts of a well-understood funnel within your organization, or finally as a simple yet
powerful next-page analysis feature.

Using Scenarios for Funnel Analysis

Scenarios are the term Yahoo! uses for what is generally known as funnels. (a funnel
typically describes a process and a set of steps toward a goal. For a sales process, this
is typically visualized as a number of prospects at the top of the funnel and a number of
follow-up steps where prospects drop out of the funnel; and from the large number of ini-
tially interested people, the funnel narrows toward the end where a sale might complete it,
keeping only interested people on each step as you move forward.) there are two types:
p • redefined scenarios

a

• d hoc scenarios

257

When you think about it, funnels are not that much different from paths. Fun-
nels are multipurpose and better utilized than paths. But there are multiple ways to
look at a funnel:
Linear fixed funnel toward conversion in this type of funnel, you set the number of pages
that have to be visited in a specific order without jumping out of the funnel in between
them. an example of this is a funnel starting at the last steps of an e-commerce cart,
where you provide payment and delivery details. in this example you cannot provide
half the payment and delivery details and come back later. thus, it is fixed, and you
optimize with that in mind.
Linear nonfixed funnel toward conversion in this type of funnel, you set a number of pages
that have to be visited in a specific order, but you could jump out of the funnel and
come back in later. an example of this is a funnel starting from the seRp (an internal
search engine result page), then moving on to the added to cart page. here you can do
multiple searches and click back and forth between the seRp and the chosen product
page before you move forward and later add a product to the cart.
Nonlinear path toward conversion this type of path is an unplanned path by the visitor
who can visit n number of undefined pages before ending up on a successful conversion
page. an example is a high-value lead generation form where the visitor typically has
questions that need to be resolved before a conversion can take place.

Note: For more on conversion funnels, visit the following blog post:
http://visualrevenue.com/blog/2007/02/use-conversion-funnel-analysis-
to.html