How to Use PostHog Paths to See Where Users Go After the Homepage

To see where visitors go after your homepage, use PostHog's native Paths insight: set the starting point to the homepage and it visualises the actual routes people take, how the traffic branches, and where they exit. A HogQL pageview query is a useful supporting check on which destinations get the most traffic, but Paths is the right tool because it understands the order of events, which a raw query doesn't.

Why Paths and not a query

The question "where do users go after the homepage" is fundamentally about sequence — the page they viewed next, in order, within a session. That ordering is exactly what the Paths insight is built for and what's awkward to express in plain HogQL (it needs per-session sequencing). So lead with the native insight here, and use HogQL for the supporting numbers.

Build the Paths insight

1. In PostHog, open Insights → Paths.
2. Set the start point to your homepage pageview (path /).
3. Choose pageviews as the path type (you can include custom events too).
4. Optionally cap the number of steps so the diagram stays readable.

PostHog draws the flow: from /, what share went to /pricing, what share to /blog, what share to the signup, and crucially, what share exited without going anywhere. The wide exit branches are the story — they're where the journey you intended breaks down.

Reading it, ask two things: are people reaching the pages that lead to conversion (pricing, signup), and where does the largest branch leave the site entirely?

A supporting check in HogQL

Paths shows the flow; this HogQL confirms which destinations actually pull the most traffic, as a sanity check on what the diagram implies:

SELECT
  properties.$pathname AS path,
  count() AS pageviews,
  countDistinct(person_id) AS visitors
FROM events
WHERE event = '$pageview'
  AND properties.$pathname != '/'
  AND timestamp > now() - INTERVAL 30 DAY
GROUP BY path
ORDER BY pageviews DESC
LIMIT 12

Illustrative sample output:

path	pageviews	visitors
/pricing	4,120	3,010
/blog	3,480	2,640
/signup	1,260	1,150

This doesn't prove these are the next pages after the homepage — only Paths shows order — but if /pricing is both a top destination and a top next-step in the diagram, you can trust it as a key route to protect.

Turn the flow into a decision

If the Paths diagram shows most homepage visitors exiting rather than reaching pricing or signup, your homepage isn't pointing people anywhere — the next-step links or CTAs aren't doing their job. If they reach pricing but drop there, the problem moved downstream. Either way, the biggest exit branch is your first place to work. If you'd like that drop found and the fix shipped as a Pull Request each week, that's what Velyr does.