Using heatmaps is a great way to gain useful information about how visitors interact with your website. Installing a heatmap and monitoring visitor activity is not complicated, and it helps you improve overall user experience, conversion rates, and revenue. In the following article, I will explain how to use heatmaps to improve conversions. But first, it’s important to understand what a heatmap actually is.
What is a heatmap?
The term “heatmap” may sound a bit complex, but in reality, heatmaps are quite simple. A heatmap is a map of your website pages showing where users scroll and click. Heatmaps feature “hot” areas where visitors focus and “cold” areas that visitors ignore. The terms come from the general concept of a thermal map showing hot and cold regions.
How are heatmaps beneficial for you?
Heatmaps are a great way to accurately track browsing data on your website. They show you exactly which parts of the page attract attention and which parts visitors ignore. This helps you, the website owner, draw marketing and design conclusions regarding the changes that need to be made on the site. Heatmaps help you for several reasons:
- See hot areas on the site – Heatmaps show which pages and areas are “hot” spots, areas that attract the most attention from visitors. This is useful for seeing which parts of the homepage or landing page attract attention and which parts are ignored.
- See which buttons get the most clicks – Click maps are very useful for seeing which calls to action and other buttons on your site received the most clicks and are most effective at converting visitors. This includes newsletter signups, lead form submissions, account registrations, conversions, and other types of interactions. Using heatmaps, you can see which buttons perform best, allowing you to make necessary adjustments (changing button color, increasing text size, enlarging buttons, and more).
- Click tracking – Heatmaps that track clicks show which elements were clicked on your site (and which were not). If your page has many links, buttons, and other clickable elements, heatmaps are very useful for seeing which ones work best. If you have many links or buttons that get no clicks, this data can help you optimize the page and improve the chances of getting more clicks.
- See who scrolled to the bottom of the page – Heatmaps track how many people scroll to the bottom of your page. This is very helpful if your product requires a long explanation and the landing page is deep with a call to action at the bottom. If a low percentage of people scroll all the way down, the page is likely too long or not engaging enough to keep visitors interested. Using this data, you can redesign and rearrange the page to improve conversion rates.
- Identify user experience issues – Heatmaps help identify problems with website navigation, element layout, and overall user experience. Sometimes users can get confused by too many menus, complicated navigation between pages, confusing sections on the site, and more. Using heatmap data, you can simplify the website layout, make navigation easier for visitors, and improve the user experience, which will increase clicks, signups, and purchases.
How does working with heatmaps help improve conversions on your website?
One of the most effective actions you can take with heatmaps is running A/B Testing to improve website conversions. Using tests, you can examine different buttons and elements on the site and observe their performance through visitor actions.
In A/B Testing, you set up two different versions of a page, and the system displays the versions to visitors in an equal 50/50 split and then analyzes the results. By analyzing the resulting data, you can evaluate which changes need to be made to maximize user engagement, conversions, and revenue. You can run A/B Testing on different button colors, other design elements on the site, specific copy, different placements, and a variety of other options. By using these tests, you can draw conclusions about which changes should be made to maximize visitor actions and increase conversions.
Recommended plugins for using heatmaps
Now that we understand the importance of using heatmaps to improve conversions, you should check out the two most recommended heatmap plugins:
Hotjar
The tool Hotjar helps you understand how users interact with your website. The insights from the tool allow you to redesign and prioritize buttons and elements that perform better, improving site performance and maintaining user satisfaction.
The tool comes with heatmaps that include recordings of the user’s customer journey, movement through funnels on the site leading to conversion, form analysis, and other useful tools. Using the tool gives you a high-level overview of what is happening on the site to manage it effectively.
Hotjar can be used with a free plan that allows limited use of the tool – a limited number of Sessions (a full customer journey) and a limited amount of recording time. In principle, the basic free plan is sufficient at least to get started, especially since the costs of advanced plans are quite high – $31 for the Plus plan and $231 for the Business plan, which are relatively similar in features to the basic plan but allow use on high-traffic websites.
CrazyEgg
The simple plugin from CrazyEgg allows you to connect the system to your websites. Using the system, you can view visitor heatmaps, user recordings, and data with actionable insights about visitor behavior. CrazyEgg’s system also includes features to run and implement A/B Testing, track user scrolling on the page, and get actionable conclusions.
CrazyEgg offers a 30-day trial period but does not have a free basic plan. Pricing for CrazyEgg varies based on the monthly number of tracked pageviews; the basic plan at $24/month tracks 30,000 pageviews, while the most expensive PRO plan at $249/month tracks half a million pageviews. Larger businesses can request a custom plan.
Summary
Heatmaps can give you practical insights into what is currently happening on your site in terms of visitor actions. If you implement these insights, you can improve the conversion rate on your site and boost other performance metrics. In this article, we covered the benefits of heatmaps and their ability to improve website conversions. In addition, I introduced 2 recommended heatmap plugins, the most prominent being Hotjar, a high-quality heatmap tool suitable for any website size that also comes with a free basic version.
About the author
Dvir Naaman, 26, entrepreneur at heart, loves e-commerce websites and specializes in SEO.
