Website navigation path using graph theory
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.