What is a Website Heatmap and Why Should You Use One?

It’s vital, then, to look for ways to improve your site. One option for generating better results is to utilize a website heatmap. Here’s the lowdown on this type of tech tool and why it’s beneficial.

Website heatmaps explained

Heatmaps help us understand what users do when they visit our web pages. Heatmaps make visualizing and understanding complex data quicker and easier as they act as graphical representations of information, depicting values by color.  You can use website heatmap software to gauge where visitors click, how far down they scroll on each page, what they look at, ignore, and more.

The maps track users’ mouse movements, logging behavior at every point. You then receive visual reports showing visitor activity through reds, oranges, greens, and blues. The warm colors identify areas that browsers interact with often, while the cooler greens and blues highlight elements that get no or few clicks. This visual type of website storytelling aggregates information to facilitate data analysis and help you see growing trends, what to optimize for increased engagement, and areas of your site to remove altogether.

Different heatmaps help website owners learn different things about the performance of their platforms. For example, scroll maps show the percentage of visitors who scroll down to any point on a page, while click maps give you an aggregate of where exactly users click their mouse if they’re on desktop computers and where they tap their finger when using mobile devices.

Move maps show where people move their mouse as they navigate across pages. The spots where they place their cursor indicate where they look as they go. You might also take advantage of desktop and mobile heatmaps to compare your site’s performance across different devices. All these heatmaps have excellent benefits that make the software worth investing in.

5 benefits of heatmaps

You’ll find many affordable heatmap options on the market, some of which have free trials so you can test out the programs before you buy. If you don’t use a heatmap tool, you have to do a lot of guessing about what people like and don’t like and what they use and don’t use on your website.

1. Inform your decisions

Use the information to see how to redesign your site so you don’t waste valuable money on changes that don’t get results. You’ll understand how to move CTAs to get people reading or clicking-through and where to put vital deal, product, contact, and FAQ details so people don’t miss them.

2. Cut down on customer service

Once you achieve better response rates and sales from this, you should also notice you don’t have to spend as much time on customer service, as people will be more likely to view the information they need and won’t have to get in touch to ask as many questions.

3. Provide more relevant information to your customers

If you learn people don’t care about certain parts of pages, you can remove these and use this valuable real estate for more practical information or visuals. You could, for example, add more product photos to help attract shopper attention or make them feel secure that they’re buying an item they’ll like. Or, you could use the space to cross-sell, upsell, or showcase bundle deals.

4. Better understand your audiences

Heatmap tools also allow you to filter data for different audiences. Categorize results to see how people use your site at various times of the day, move about on different pages, or view varied content types. This detail can provide insights into which shopper types convert better. For instance, is it the one who quickly skims pages and hurries through your site, or the consumer who takes more time, reads every word, scrolls lower, and browses slowly?

Alternatively, you might notice that shoppers who visit your site at lunchtime on weekdays are more likely to buy, or those who arrive on a Sunday evening purchase more. In turn, this helps you see which customers to focus on with your marketing.

5. Learn which content performs best

Heatmaps also enable you to understand which images and videos perform the best, where to position ads for best results, and which fields in online forms or checkouts turn consumers off. Use all the data you receive from heatmaps to sharpen your website and the buyer’s journey. This will drive more conversions and make it easier for you to reach your business goals.