Website Heatmapping: How to Know If Your Website Is Working

Have you ever wondered if your website is really working? Do you know the most common actions users are taking? 

Sure, Google Analytics or your CRM analytics can tell you which pages people are visiting the most and how long they stay on those pages.

But what are users clicking on? Where are they hovering ont the page?

Heatmapping for websites is the answer.

Let’s dive into what heatmapping is, how your business can use it, and what it well tell you.

1. What is website heatmapping?

Metric-measuring tools, like Google Analytics, are fantastic in so many ways. 

But they fall flat when it comes to giving a full picture of user engagement across your website pages. 

Enter, heatmapping: a visual way to see how your audience is engaging with your website. 

Heatmaps measure clicks, scrolls and movement across your website pages. Using a color spectrum, from hot to cold, you can easily see how your users are interacting with your site.

2. Why should I use heatmapping?

Central to website optimization, heatmaps tell the story of what’s working and not working on your website pages in terms of design, copy and any lead magnets or free offers. 

Heatmaps are a tool you can use to promote continuous improvement.

With the data heatmaps provide, you can make changes to your website to improve the user experience, increase conversions and grow traffic.

3. How to use a heatmapping tool

We use a heatmapping tool to review our clients’ websites periodically to evaluate what changes could be made to boost conversion rates. 

Here are some effective practices to follow when analyzing the data:

• Focus on the platform getting the most page views first, whether that’s desktop, tablet or mobile, and always start with the homepage.

• Ask yourself this question: Are your calls-to-action (CTAs) getting the engagement you are hoping for, based on clicks? If not, it’s time to consider changing up the design and copy.
• Look at the scroll map of the page and compare this to the click map to see where user flow begins to get cold and fall off. Elements not being reached/interacted with should be reworked, reorganized or even removed if they’re not converting.
• Evaluate what main navigation elements are being clicked on the most and look at the heatmaps of those secondary pages to see what’s happening. Focus on high-engagement pages as areas for improvement. The same rules apply here, are these pages converting? If not, it’s time to consider making changes.
• Review your actual conversion pages (contact, quote, etc.). You’ll have an idea if these are working already, based on leads you’ve received. But visually you’ll want to evaluate if the design and copy are getting engagement, if the form is too far down, too long, etc. and if there are any potential barriers to lead-capture.
• Download screenshots, compile a list of recommendations and meet with your team to review the findings.
• Take action!

Investing in a good heatmapping tool will reap a positive return. A few good ones to try include:

• Optimizely
• Crazy Egg
• Hot Jar
• Heat Analytics

Final Thoughts

Ready to get started? With tons of great heatmapping platforms available, how do you choose the right tool?

Here are two key considerations to keep in mind:

• Features. Many tools offer additional value-added features you may wish to utilize, such as visitor recordings, funnels, and polls.
• Pricing Plans and Limitations. As yourself if it’s cost effective and will the plan offerings align with your projected page views and number of websites being tracked?

Regardless of the tracking tool, heatmaps will provide you with critical user data you can’t get anywhere else, and the data will ultimately help your design and copy teams better align their strategies to meet your goals of capturing leads and increasing revenue. After all, that’s your primary goal.