Every 24 hours, the number of websites on the internet increases by a staggering 547,200. That’s more than half a million new sites vying for the attention of internet users around the world.

Because of the ever-increasing competition, the vast majority of websites fail. 90.63 percent of the content on the internet today gets zero traffic from Google, the world’s leading search engine. Without traffic, your site is as good as dead.

So how can you get and keep your business website in the lucky 9.37 percent that receives traffic from Google? Using a website heatmap is one way to start. That’s because heatmaps can help keep your website as optimized as possible, which is great for your site’s visibility.

But precisely what is a website heatmap? How do they work? How can using website heatmaps improve your business?

If you’re asking these questions, you’ve come to the right place. In this comprehensive guide, we tell you everything you need to know about website heatmaps.

What is a Website Heatmap? 

A website heatmap refers to a conversion rate optimization tool that helps developers to know their customers better. A heatmap is essentially a visual representation of data that shows the web designer how users are behaving on a particular site and how they use the site.

Initially, heat maps were developed for traders. Today, they’ve spread everywhere and become one of the most important conversion rate optimization (CRO) tools available.

Heatmaps generally show where your users point the mouse most often. They show how the mouse moves when users are viewing your website. They’re essential in pointing out parts of your site that are most popular and which parts require more web optimization.

Types of Website Heatmaps

There are five main types of website heatmaps. These are click, scroll, segment, mouse tracking, and eye-tracking heatmaps. In this section, we focus on the first three.

Click Maps

Click maps are hover maps that indicate where users make the most clicks. These maps show each click that a user makes, whether that click is on your buttons or other elements within your site.

Clicks are powerful indicators of interest. They reveal which elements are most popular with your visitors and which elements you need to optimize.

Scroll Heatmaps

As the name suggests, scroll heatmaps reveal how far down your website visitors tend to scroll. With this information, you can position your most important content in the appropriate spots. Scroll heatmaps are a good indicator of where to put your main call-to-action to catch the most attention.

Segment Heatmaps

Segment heatmaps reveal parts of your web pages that are most popular with users. Each segment has a different color for easy distinction.

Segment heatmaps help you know which segments are behaving differently from others. This way, you can focus on sites that perform poorly to improve them.

How Do Website Heatmaps Work?

Heatmaps use varied color hues to depict various performance levels. The level of interaction determines what colors you see. Interactions include clicking, scrolling, attention, movement, and geographical location.

As activity increases, colors become more vivid. Colors get cooler with decreasing activity.

What You Miss Out on When You Don’t Use Heatmaps

If you’ve not yet started using heatmaps for your website, you’re missing out on numerous benefits that this diagnostic tool offers. For a better understanding of how essential heatmaps are, here are five things website heatmaps can do for you.

1. Heatmaps Help You Measure Your Site’s Performance

Website heatmaps effectively depict the performance levels of your website using a variety of color hues. By doing so, they highlight the major issues on your website. You get to see users’ click patterns, scrolling behavior, and hovering habits.

This information helps you know how engaging your site is. It makes it easier for you to know how well the site is doing when it comes to keeping visitors interested in your brand.

2. Heatmaps Simplify Numeric Data 

Website heatmaps represent data in a way that’s easy to understand. Based on the color scheme you use, it’s easy to see which parts of your website are performing well, which segments need improvement, and which parts require a total redesign.

3. Heatmaps Enable You to Create a Better Web Design

UX design never happens in a vacuum. All top designers got to where they are partly through learning along the way. In particular, you need to learn from your users to develop a user experience design.

Heatmaps are an excellent source of UX data. They reveal what your visitors do and what they don’t while responding to your web design.

Heatmaps accurately show the navigational patterns of visitors to your website. This direct, unfiltered feedback makes your learning predictive without ever being intrusive. You get to test your future design choices before you deploy them to a broader audience.

4. Heatmaps Perfectly Complement Your Other Analytical Tools 

While heatmaps are highly effective in providing information that no other analytical tool can, they can’t work in isolation. They should be seen as one of the tools in your toolkit. The best thing about heatmaps is that they combine perfectly with other analytical tools.

For instance, you can complement your website heatmap suite with a tool like session replay. With this combination, you’ll be able to see visitors’ activity playing out like a video. You can opt to rewind the video whenever you want and learn more from what you see.

Another tool you can use in combination with a heatmap is Filters. With filters, you can zero-in on particular users. For instance, you can focus on users who browse on their smartphones.

5. Heatmaps Help You Optimize Your Site’s Conversion Rate 

With all the benefits we’ve discussed above, you end up with the best possible version of your business website. Every user you track on a heatmap gives you actionable insights to optimize your website. With improved user experience, visitors are much more likely to convert.

Website Heatmaps Can Transform Your Website

Today’s online marketplace can be incredibly competitive. To stay ahead, you need to optimize your website and keep visitors coming back. By using a website heatmap, you can get all the information to keep your website interesting, engaging, and productive.

Would you like to read more great content on website heatmaps? Please keep visiting our website.