How to Analyze Heatmaps: Practical Guide

Categories
User Experience (UX)

Welcome to the ultimate guide to heatmap analysis ⚡ . Understanding heatmaps is like reading the pulse of your website – it’s the health check you didn’t know you needed.

This article will empower you to:

  • Decipher the color-coded mysteries of your heatmap
  • Unearth insights into user behavior
  • Harness heatmaps analyze to enhance your website’s UX and conversion rate

Dive deep into the world of heatmap analysis, and you’ll be aware of your website’s performance.

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Our not-so-secret weapon? Plerdy – the tool that transforms raw data into actionable insights. It’s the linchpin in your toolbox, turning the heat up on your competitors. Don’t miss out on the Plerdy advantage, your passport to website success. ⚡

What is Heat Map Analysis?

Heatmap analysis, a real game-changer in the digital arena, is your magic mirror to the soul of your website. It’s about turning the spotlight on your website’s performance, transforming the abstract dance of user interaction into a vibrant, visual narrative.

Heatmap analysis is your Sherlock Holmes, making sense of the cryptic clues left behind by your website visitors. It enables you to:

  • Highlight the red-hot zones of user interaction
  • Track the icy cold regions that need some warmth ⛄
  • Unveil the user’s journey from entry to exit

This process breathes life into data, representing clicks, scrolls, and movement as a spectrum of warm and cool colors. The hot reds, vibrant oranges, and sunny yellows depict areas where users linger, while the cool blues signal lesser engagement.

To analyze a heatmap is to embark on a thrilling treasure hunt, uncovering hidden gems of insights that can turbocharge your website optimization strategy. It’s not about shooting in the dark but rather using a guided approach to understand the story behind each click.

So, strap in, and let’s navigate the labyrinth of user behavior. Harness the power of heatmap analysis and turn the tide in your favor. Remember, knowledge isn’t just power in the digital world – it’s the key to unlocking the treasure chest of user engagement and website success.

When You Should Use a Heatmap

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Regarding website optimization, a heatmap is your Swiss Army knife – a multi-tool you should always have in your digital rucksack. But when should you pull it out?

  • When you’re eager to spice up your website’s UX: Heatmaps help you figure out user interaction’s hot and cold spots. They help you roll out the red carpet for your visitors, ensuring a seamless journey from start to finish.
  • If conversion rate optimization is your endgame: Heatmap analysis uncovers the secret recipe of clicks and scrolls that lead to successful conversions. It’s the secret sauce that can jazz up your conversion strategy.
  • When you’re on a mission to minimize bounce rate: By highlighting the pain points causing users to jump ship, heatmaps help keep your audience on board.

In short, use a heatmap when you’re ready to turn the tables on your website performance. It’s about seizing the reins, using data to steer your website towards a user-centric haven that invites clicks and retains them. So, don’t keep your heatmap on the back burner – it’s time to let it sizzle and revamp your website into a user magnet.

What Does a Heatmap Show?

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Imagine a magic lantern that reveals the hidden activity on your website. That’s what a heatmap does. It’s a visual storyteller, turning the abstract tale of user interaction into a compelling, color-coded narrative.

A heatmap unearths:

  • Click hotspots: Areas attracting the most user interaction light up in warmer hues, revealing where users click most.
  • Ghost towns: Cooler colors indicate areas untouched by users – the ghost towns of your website.
  • User journey: The path most traveled by users, showcasing their journey from arrival to exit.

A heatmap is a mirror reflecting the story behind each click, scroll, or mouse movement. It’s the X-ray vision of your website’s performance, laying bare the bones of user behavior.

To analyze a heatmap is to don the detective’s hat, piecing together the clues left behind by user interaction. It helps you see your website through the user’s lens – their likes, dislikes, and everything else. So, light up your magic lantern, let the heatmap guide you, and transform your website into a masterpiece that users love to explore.

How Does a Heatmap Work?

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Think of a heatmap as a symphony conductor orchestrating the user behavior on your website. It works by tracking and translating user actions into a color-coded spectacle. Here’s the game plan:

  • Tracks user behavior: Every click, scroll, and the mouse movement is logged.
  • Transforms data into visuals: The logged data is translated into a color spectrum – from hot reds to cool blues.
  • Presents a visual narrative: The final heatmap paints a picture of user interaction, with colors indicating the frequency of actions.

A heatmap works like a thermal camera, capturing the heat of user interaction across your website. It’s the bridge between raw data and actionable insights, a visual translator that turns numbers into narratives.

So, lean on heatmap analysis – it’s time to let the colors of user behavior guide you to an optimized website that clicks with your audience.

Heatmap Analysis Framework

Now is the right time to clarify how one can analyze a heatmap. At Plerdy, when we have a set task to check how users behave on a certain website, we usually follow this procedure with a heatmap:

  • First, we generate ideas of what we should check on the heatmap.
  • Next, we analyze and build hypotheses for what and how we should improve based on the heatmap data we analyze.
  • We go page by page on the heatmap (home, product, cart, payment page, and so on), seeking abnormalities that prevent users from moving to the next page. Also, we analyze and understand why the user doesn’t make a mini-conversion. For example, adding an item to the cart, filtering goods, using the search function, etc.

Next, we analyze the results obtained from the heatmap, and on their basis, it becomes evident how to improve UX.

How To Analyze A Heatmap: Best Cases From Plerdy

Installing a heat map by Plerdy allows you to analyze how users behave on your website deeply. Below, I’m sharing a few best cases of its usage and explaining how this analysis runs.

Pro-Street.dk Heatmap Analyze

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The analysis of a heatmap on pro-street.dk pointed to a low scroll depth. If only 25% of users scroll down the page, there is something wrong with the first screen, as the heatmap shows. We analyze that the main issue is the huge logo and partner’s ad taking up the greater part of the space on the page. How to solve it? A good idea would be to make them smaller and place something more eye-catching in the central part instead.

All in all, based on the received results from the heatmap, I’ve recommended how to solve the problem:

  • re-sizing (making smaller) huge elements, including the logo and advertisements;
  • eliminating useless icons;
  • concentration on their service rather than making partners’ ads the main focus;
  • adding catchier content and CTAs;
  • improving navigation by adding subheadings, internal links to related content, and a fast scrolling button.

Implementing the described actions will decrease the bounce rate and significantly improve the website’s usability.

How to Analyze Heatmap Data on 3das.com

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The heatmap installed on 3das.com demonstrates that the website has repeated elements such as the “Search” and “Contact us” fields. According to the heatmap, it would be wise to leave them used once and relocate the social media icons to a footer.

Also, we see on the heatmap that the website lacks an FAQ section and pagination. Adding them would simplify the user experience.

As the heatmap shows, the website content is not adapted to mobile devices, which impacts the bounce rate. How to solve it? Adjust your content for desktop and mobile users to make users stay on your website and convert. And I also recommend adding a zoom function for images.

The heatmap shows that users tried to click on some parts of the text though it had no links. If these parts interest users, making them clickable would bring only good.

Besides, if we analyze the heatmap, 3das.com needs unifying fonts and adding catchy CTAs to increase conversions.

Results of the Alseresport.com Heatmap Analyze

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The Alseresport.com heatmap analysis demonstrates rather good results. In particular, the heatmap we have analyzed demonstrates that the cart and checkout pages look pretty good and safe. As for the home page, the heatmap shows that the search bar and the login button are often clicked. Nevertheless, there is space for improvement.

Considering the heatmap, I have two useful recommendations for its simplification:

  • to enable the user to see the password you are typing in;
  • to allow logging in via a social media account.

Also, the heatmap demonstrates that because of a rather low scroll depth, not all users see the 5-euro discount offer at the bottom of the page. Therefore, I recommend displaying this offer on a pop-up, for instance, 15 seconds after a user loaded the page.

After we analyzed the heatmap, we saw that the images on the website need to be unified in a single style and improved in quality.

Visitors lack some information because of the heatmap and 65 clicks on the “Contact” button in the footer. Therefore, the content should be expanded and structured:

  • add details about delivery methods, for instance;
  • present the product descriptions in tables;
  • highlight headings for better perception.

And though the heatmap shows there is a good FAQ section, the relevant button should be located in a more visible place.

Analyzing the heatmap, I also recommend forgetting about the “no results found” page. Instead, we should offer alternatives as similar to the user’s request as possible to improve the heatmap. Enabling users to filter the products would also positively impact the UX and user’s behavior. And the heatmap will show it.

Analyze UX with a Heatmap on Animalessalvajes.world

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The first thing to pay attention to on the heatmap is a pop-up that appears 5 seconds after the user loads the website. Unfortunately, 5 seconds is too short, not enough for a visitor to understand the website fully. This is why after I analyze the heatmap, I recommend changing the display rule for this pop-up, making it appear in 15 seconds, or at a 30% page scroll, for instance.

Next, duplicated elements. If we look at the categories in the menu, the main bar, and the search bar, they are the same. We can either remove them or change them to improve the heatmap. Plus, the search bar also appears twice on the home page. One will be enough.

In the right part of the screen, when I analyze the heatmap, I see a massive blank white space that brings no use but harms UX.

Again, the heatmap shows that the search bar does not stand out among social media icons in design. However, it is more important; thus, it should stand out and be more visible.

I’ve noticed too many articles on the homepage. It is better to leave the most valued on here and add pagination.

I would also make the phrase “Discover more” clickable to lead users to the dedicated category pages. Alternatively, I’d add the buttons with CTA on those categories to hint to users where they need to click. The heatmap would show a significant improvement.

The subscription form placement. The heatmap shows that only 24% of visitors scroll to this place, so it should be placed slightly above or re-designed. The neutral design makes the subscription form not very noticeable. How to solve it? We need to make it catchier by complementing it with a banner and changing the style or the message. Adding a bit of creativity to the website’s slogans would attract more conversions and improve the heatmap.

Again, because of a very low scroll depth, the elements in the 4th region could be placed upper on the page if they bring value.

How to Analyze Gothombi.com Heatmap

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The first thing that draws my attention on the heatmap is the big banner that takes up almost the whole first screen. How to solve it? I recommend resizing it since it is more important to give here valued info rather than just showing an image. Besides, the “Learn more” button also leads users to the first screen that gives no details, as the heat map shows.

Estimating the scroll depth on the heatmap, I see that only 47% of users got to the third region, and 53% of visitors saw only a nice image. So, in general, we need to resize images to enhance the load speed because now it is rather low.

Though we see no important information on the homepage, as the heat map shows, we can find it in the footer. However, the links there lack an “a” tag, so they look like texts, not links.

The subscription form containing information about Covid is a good idea, but it could be improved to grab more attention since we see no clicks here. Unfortunately, another subscription form in the footer shows no clicks on how to subscribe, which is no surprise because people rarely scroll down to it. We could present the form via a pop-up with rigid display rules to increase its visibility.

When we fill in the subscription form and click “Subscribe,” the button reappears, and we are sent to another page, as the heat map shows. This is not good for UX. The user should know for sure that their query has been sent. I recommend improving the spam check page design by moving the ReCaptcha to the previous page without going to another page. Plus, a message stating that the form was sent without a spam check was added.

Daybydaycrm.com Heatmap Analyze

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When we go to daybydaycrm.com, the first thing we see on the heatmap is an immediate pop-up. Judging by the heat map and the 124 clicks on the “Hide” button and only three replies, we see something wrong. The pop-up asks users what prevents them from signing up. If we have just loaded the website, we have not had enough time to familiarize ourselves with its content. Therefore, we cannot reply. Therefore, I recommend adjusting the display rule, giving users more time to browse the website.

The heatmap shows that the Features and Pricing buttons are the most frequently clicked. Adding an arrow to hint that this section comprises more tabs would be a good improvement.

In general, for better UX, I strongly recommend the following:

  • making the menu bar floating;
  • adding an arrow for a quick return to the top of the page;
  • enabling zoom-in opportunities for images;
  • enabling users to see the password they are entering when logging in;
  • simplifying registration by allowing logging in via social media profiles;
  • adding buttons with CTAs after the described prices;
  • creating an “About Us” page to tell users more about the company and its representatives.

What else draws my attention when I analyze the heat map is that the “Learn more” button gets more clicks than the “Get started free” button, probably because of the design. So we could make the latter button stand out to get clicks.

Another important piece of advice on the heatmap is to remove duplicated elements. For instance, following the “Support” and “Contact” links in the footer will lead us to the same page.

Conclusions: Mastering Heatmap Analysis ⚡

In the vibrant world of heatmap analysis, every color sings a different tune. You’ve become a maestro, easily decoding clicks and user behaviors. The concert of colors—ranging from hot red to cool blue—holds no secrets from you. You’ve explored the depths of Fullstory’s recordings, harnessed the power of Hotjar’s tools, and plotted your course to success.

  • Seeing is believing, and there’s no clearer sign of user interaction than a well-analyzed heatmap.
  • It’s not just about the numbers anymore. You’re telling a story, painting a picture with your data.
  • With Plerdy’s suite of heatmap tools at your disposal, insights come naturally.

Don’t let your website be a blind spot. Make it a canvas. Use heatmaps to identify areas that need a new coat of paint. Fix errors, optimize the user experience, and watch the traffic flow.

So what’s next? The ball is in your court.

Ready to take the next step? Get started with Plerdy today and let your website’s colors shine.

Remember, a good heatmap is worth a thousand clicks. So don’t just chase the numbers—make them count.

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Article by:
CEO Andrew Chornyy

CEO Plerdy — expert in SEO&CRO with over 14 years of experience.

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