Website navigation path using graph theory

Question

In web analytics, one of the main issues is to find the optimal path of navigation. Question: Is there any literature in graph theory area, which is focused on studying optimal website navigation path?

My Comment to Tom was pretty large. So putting it here:

But in network theory there's a concept of main node (forgot the exact terminology). This node is most important because it has most connection to other pages. Home page is a very simple kind of main node. Also different set of visitors might have different main node. So, if we could capture what is the main node, then if we directly drop the visitor to this page or some other page, then the conversion might increase. Because the visitor who will come to this main page, will able to easily navigate to his required page. And then able to get what he is looking for. Another method people use for shortest path is MCMC methodology. But I'll prefer network method. Figuring out the entire method is pretty cumbersome and I don't have much time. So I was wondering if somebody wrote some journal paper on it, I can refer that.

Answer 1

I've done a lot of web analytics work and while we did do path analysis, we never focused so much on whether the user took the absolute shortest path to the page.

Unlike building a road system, a website should be built to provide different paths to the same content depending on the intent of the user. For example, some users know exactly what they want and will do a search. Other users are exploratory and want to browse.

Finally, sometimes you specifically want the user to step through a handful of pages to sell them on a conclusion. This is called a conversion funnel. If the user landed directly on the conversion point without seeing the info leading up to it, they'd bounce off the site and we'd lose the lead.