The most challenging task these days is understanding visitors. To know what, why they do it, or just why they don’t. To avoid this, a number of tools are already available to marketing specialists. Among other things, this is the heatmap, which will be discussed below.
However, it doesn’t just help us understand potential buyers. It is also great for testing elements of a website. After all, we can’t go without saying how much help a website can provide during a redesign. Naturally, there are a number of benefits as well, but these are the foremost among them in the article.
What is a Heatmap?
First of all, what is a heatmap? It is used to graphically represent data. This simplifies the understanding of numerical data. It is useless to have figures about the users of the site if we do not understand them. And on the other hand, visualizes the activities. This makes all the positives and negatives of the page visible.
So this is a visual storytelling tool. The colors are very easy to interpret, but that will be discussed later. So it shows where they clicked the most, how long the content was scrolled, and so on. With the data extracted from it, we can greatly improve the user experience. And of course, that will increase conversions.
But when is it worth using a heatmap? When we do customer analysis. This requires that the website is not in the implementation phase. Of course, it is also advantageous to use this tool during the introduction, but more on that later. The point is, we get real data when we already have a larger number of visitors. It takes more time, but it is guaranteed to pay off!
Hot or Cold? Read Them Easily!
Heatmaps basically use a color scale. These range from cool-toned colors to warm. So there is nothing left but to examine the colors and interpret their intensity. At a glance, we have access to a wealth of information. They all become visible in one place. This makes it very easy to construe.
The warmer tone is mostly red and orange. These indicate the most visited places on your site. These are a kind of hotspots on the site. Yellow also indicates busy places, but these are less pronounced. In the halfway of the color scale are shades of green that are already much less visited. Finally, blue and it’s shades are much cooler. They show low traffic areas.
So the colors are good at drawing both busy and lost places. This will show you what is working well and what needs to be improved. So all you have to do is choose the ideal device and enjoy quality data! And now here are some heatmap types that may be useful to you.
Types of Heatmaps
Several types of them can be used, depending on what we are interested in. Of course, they all provide relevant data. The best known and most used is clearly the click map. This shows where the page was clicked the most or the least. For example, you can filter out when a visitor clicks on something that can’t be clicked.
The following is the movement map of the mouse. That is, how the user moves the cursor. This is important because moving the mouse is usually in the direction the visitor is looking. Of course, there are exceptions that do not move the mouse. So this kind of map needs to be handled with more caution.
Finally, let’s look at the scroll and segment heatmap. The former shows how long a particular piece of content has been scrolled by visitors. With the latter, you can see what source the users of the page came from. These are all great for optimizing your website.
Top 3 Reasons When You Need to Use a Heatmap
Do you consider it important to get to know the visitors of the site? Are you looking for the best alternative? Or are you just trying to change the design? These are all aspirations for which a heatmap is essential. If you want to get the most out of your site, you will need such help!
Reason #1: Ready to Understand Your Visitor’s Behaviour?
Satisfaction or dissatisfaction, both need to be understood! Understanding is what you can take to maximize the user experience. However,it is not enough to be aware of the figure on your page. It only shows the direction of travel but does not reveal the reasons. That’s why the heatmap is needed!
This qualitative UX research tool also shows why behavior. Can’t the visitor find the button? Clicking on something that can’t be clicked? Is the link broken and leads to a 404 page? It could be listed. These are all little things that can significantly degrade the user experience. This in turn leads to a decrease in conversion.
That is why it must be done against it! The more you get to know your users, the more success you can have. So it is important to design your website to drive visitors. But attention must also be paid to continuous correction. It is not just man and his needs that change over time. Surely visitors will show up that way. Therefore, it is advisable to perform a heatmap test at intervals.
Reason #2: The UX Differences – Desktop vs. Mobile
Do you have a great website? Okay, and what about the mobile user experience? More and more people are making their purchases and doing business over the phone. That is why responsiveness is so important! It is not enough to optimize a website just for the desktop. Mobile-friendly design is now a basic need of the customers.
Think about it! For a desktop, the screen is much larger. More information is shown together. For your phone, you have to scroll significantly more. Content may appear as just a few lines on your computer, but on your phone, it is much longer. Even though the content is the same length, the size of the screen is significantly affected.
The visitor on the 2 devices will not receive the same. It is likely that a CTA will need to be given a completely different place to operate effectively. Therefore, it is worth examining the differences with a heatmap. This can be used to create the right surfaces. This improves the user experience and, of course, the conversion.
Reason #3: Test Your Website Elements!
Test at launch or on the go! No matter what phase the page is in, an A/B test may come in handy. The point is to compare 2 alternatives. And the heatmap shows how successful it was. Where, by what color, how many people clicked, or how long they scrolled down the page.
If you’re testing in the deployment phase, there’s obviously a smaller sample you can do there. Regardless, it is very useful. The design of the website can be based on the data generated during the test. This way, visitors will come across an optimal page from the start.
On-the-fly testing is also required for refinement and optical tuning. Proper placement and design of buttons, colors, ads can matter a lot. And to make the best decision, you need to test your alternatives. This requires a heatmap that shows what and how it was most effective.
Reason #4: It’s Time to Redesign Your Website?
Need an update? As we wrote earlier, users go through continuous shaping. And of course not only them but the world that creates new needs. Therefore, innovation is needed at least once in the life of a business. Upgrading your website isn’t that hard if you have a good tool for it.
The first step is to analyze the current state of the website, which serves as a benchmark. Closely related to this is the testing mentioned above. We need to look at the effectiveness of the current elements, their impact on the audience. Depending on this, it is worth creating and testing new ones.
Testing is very important during a redesign. The effectiveness of a redesigned website depends significantly on this. It is important to find the best colors, places, and sizes. These all have a big impact on visitor engagement. The heatmap helps to solve this to make the website work most efficiently.
Conclusion
So no matter what stage a website is at, it needs quality data. An indispensable tool for this is heatmap analysis. You can save time and energy and meanwhile get useful information. Whether it’s maximizing the customer experience, website development, or the ideal design. This qualitative tool is definitely the right hand of a marketing specialist.
All you have to do is decide what the subject of the study is and which type of heatmap is best suited for this. You can use more than one at a time, this will obviously give you more information. The point is, if you want to run a quality website, you will definitely need quality data as well. Combine this with a quantitative tool and break ahead of your competitors!
