Heatmaps are amazing as a tool for your website when used properly but many companies do not know exactly what they are. In this post we are going to go through answering some of these questions along with making sure everyone fully understand the significance and importance of using them.
What Are Heatmaps?
Essentially Heatmaps are used as a visual tool to determine behaviour of visitors on your website. You are able to see both static pages along with video views of actions completed.
With the static page views you will see different “heat” colours throughout the page showcasing how many people and how often areas of the site page are clicked. Depending on the colour coding, you can then determine if for example there is a high click rate on specific buttons or images vs. other parts.
When viewing the video view of the specific pages you are able to see the actual behaviour of clicks in real time with full mouse movement and see how people are interacting with your pages.
Should You Combine Google Analytics With Heatmaps?
Yes it is always recommended to use multiple analytics tools as each will give different forms of data. Google Analytics is always the first tool your website needs to have installed. Google Analytics gives more an overview of website traffic, data of pages and realtime views which is the foundation of any website.
Once added then the idea of Heatmaps can be added as a secondary tool. Remember that just because you are using one or multiple tools, you should focus on looking through all the data constantly to truly learn how your visitors are interacting on your website.
What Can You Do With The Heatmap Data?
Heatmap data is only useful if you understand what the information is telling you along with implementing suggestions it provides. Remember that Heatmaps will show you exact behaviour of clicks on specific pages of your website, which can help with split testing variations such as moving call to action buttons to other locations of the page, adjusting images, text and other elements.
Should You Reconstruct Every Page Based On Results?
Just like any form of data analysis it is important to take it with specific goals in mind. Just because the heatmap data might show different thoughts compared to what your think visitors will do on the page, you must gather enough of a sample size before truly adjusting the page. If you are adjusting based on small sample sizes, remember that might not fully represent majority.
The best solution is to split test parts of the page slowly and see data on these changes, if positive results then you can continue adjusting other elements. Set your goals on a per page basis and make sure every change has a purpose.
Conclusion
The more data you can gather about your website, the better off you are compared to your competitors. Google Analytics in combination with heatmaps will help you adjust and build high converting webpages based on actual data.
If your company is currently not using any form of analytics, please make sure to consider using some set of tools to be more prepared online.
If you’re interested in digital marketing to take your business in Canada or in the USA into the future, partner with us at Analytics & Beyond. You can book your free analysis evaluation right from our website!