Heat mapping is a way to get a peek into user behavior on your website. Analyzing a heat map is as simple as looking for “hot” zones—a visual representation of the elements on a page that are driving conversions using variations in color.
Watch this quick video and listen to Amy explain heat mapping so you can see it in action.
How does Cowtown use heat mapping to improve websites?
Heat mapping tools like Hotjar are especially useful for planning UX (user experience) updates to your site. A knowledgeable analysis can help the web designers at Cowtown Creative make more effective updates that reach visitors on areas of a page they naturally already see.
It makes sense that your navigation menu and a call to action, for instance, should be placed “above the fold.” That’s the upper part of a page that appears first on any device, and that users generally don’t scroll past. We can see on a heatmap that the top of a page is red or pink, and the bottom of the page is blue. Those hot and cold zones can help inform decisions about where to place the information your website visitors are looking for.
Why is user behavior on the page so important?
Looking at a heat map won’t tell us everything we need to know about your site users’ behavior. As part of a website audit, what it does help us do is take site analytics such as page views, bounce rates, and time spent on specific pages, and analyze them within the context of on-page actions.
Behavior tells us more about how useful, usable, and accessible your site is for customers and prospective customers. Those three elements are the top-level concerns for improving UX and, ultimately, making your website more valuable to growing your brand and improving ROI on all your inbound marketing and advertising.
What do your website visitors really think about your site? Here’s a 5-minute article and quiz just to help you check in on your site’s UX and performance.
What does my site’s heat map really tell me?
If you have some important information or a call to action that’s buried in an arctic-blue zone on your heat map, that’s a UX issue that you should address. If any of your integrated marketing efforts (digital ads, print collateral, social media, etc.) drive prospective customers to a page that isn’t getting clicks or views in the right places, you’re essentially wasting that investment.
The big question is: How do you fix it? That’s where Cowtown Creative can help. Contact us today to set up a low-cost website audit. We’ll provide a report that analyzes user behavior and recommends the most effective updates you can make for your website to improve UX and maximize your marketing ROI.
At Cowtown Creative, we focus on the details so your big-picture marketing strategy is more cohesive and helps you meet your business goals. We’ll help you bring it all together.
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