Heatmaps allow marketers to see where their users spend time on a page. Heatmaps are becoming increasingly important in the world of digital marketing. These can provide important information that can help you improve the quality of your website. Knowing what your visitors are doing is important to understand what they like and don't like.
While heatmaps look great and attractive on their own, they also contain a lot of information. They give you access to data that will help your page get better results. Heatmaps are among the top analytics tools in your content marketing arsenal.
What are heatmaps?
Heatmaps are an excellent market research tool. They show you where your users' attention is. They show you which parts of the screen your users are looking at and where they are clicking.
Heatmaps are one of the top analytical tools in content marketing because they help you get relevant information about how your users interact with your website. Heatmaps use graphical elements to show you which parts of your website visitors are clicking, scrolling, or moving their mouse over. They can help you see which features of your site your users are moving around the most, and you can also use them to see what your visitors think of your website.
Types of heatmaps
There are 3 types of heatmaps:
- Click tracking heatmaps
- Scroll heatmaps
- Segment heatmaps
Click tracking heatmaps
These show you where the most clicks are occurring. They're primarily used to determine which buttons, CTAs, form fields, etc., on your site are working best.
Click tracking heatmaps enable you to see which parts of your website are being clicked on, but they have the disadvantage of not showing the movement of mice, only the location of clicks.
When designing a user-friendly website, it's important to know which areas of your site are popular and which are less so. Once you know this, you can quickly determine which CTAs and button types are most effective.
Click tracking heatmaps can help you identify which areas you need to optimize to improve the effectiveness of your site. Use them to see which areas of your site, and perhaps sub-sites, if you have any, are the least visited and clicked areas. If you look at these and analyze them, you could be the owner of an SEO-friendly website.
Here is an example to help you better understand what I meant above:
I mentioned the role of CTAs and buttons on your site. They can help you increase the conversion rate and user experience on your website. If you've used a click tracking heatmap to see that buttons in red get more clicks because their color is attention-grabbing and that "Continue" CTAs have the most success on your site, then use them. So, if you put into practice buttons and CTA texts that are successful based on heatmap analysis, believe me, your website will produce more results than you think.
Scroll heatmaps
Scroll heatmaps consider mouse movements, or more specifically, how many visitors scroll down your website. These heatmaps are interpreted by color. The warmer the color, the more people scroll to that part of the website, and a cooler color signifies that consumers don't go there.
Scroll heatmaps help you calculate how long it takes on average to read a blog article. You can also guess which links to which pages are inserted in which part of the blog article. After all, if the average reading time is just under 4 minutes, but it takes 6 minutes to read the link to the page you want to link to, then that link is not in the right place. Therefore, my advice is to always place the most important links at the beginning of the blog article so that visitors can see them. So, placing links pointing to a product or service in the most popular places on your site will make your blog posts more valuable.
Segment heatmaps
Segment heatmaps provide information about which areas of your website are popular and which are less visited. But there's more to these heatmaps than that. For example, they can also show you where a click came from. It can track a user's activities and origins and evaluate the data taking these into account.
Here, you don't need to think about which country the click came from, but whether it came to your website after clicking on a PPC-based ad, whether it was a social media ad that sparked interest in your website, or whether it came organically.
These play a big role in web analytics because they can help you know which platforms are bringing more visitors to your site. This way, you can also know the specific needs of your visitors by finding out which social media platforms they reach your blog from the most.
The good news for you about segment heatmaps is that they can help you find demographic data about your site visitors.
Now let's look at the elements that can help you create successful content using heatmaps.
1. Create attractive visual material
I have already mentioned the role of scrolling heatmap. This heatmap is where you can take the most advantage when it comes to content marketing. I'm sure you're aware that you need attractive visuals to make your blog article a success. Who likes bulk text without pictures and videos? I think no one.
With a heatmap, you can quickly test whether a particular image is attractive enough, and if you even put a link on it, you can see whether visitors click on it or not. If they get as far as the image, you're half the winner, but if they click on the link you've placed on it, you're the winner. Unfortunately, that doesn't always work.
In this case, you will need to change the image and the link. You need to experiment to see which visuals and links will bring clicks to your website. Don't give up!
2. Write clear, transparent blog articles
If there are no clicks on your blog articles, visitors don't read through the article, or you keep getting stuck at one point, something needs to change. Make sure your website has a simple design, not cluttered. Of course, keep your articles updated, as outdated articles will not be as successful. Look at heatmaps to see where there are stuck links and why your visitors are not clicking or scrolling more, and try to solve the problem with the advice mentioned above.
3. Improve your conversion rate
Click tracking heatmaps can help you find out why your website has a low conversion rate. One of the best tools for developing conversions, as mentioned earlier, is the CTA. Place them in a location that is easily visible. Make sure they are placed in a popular location. Heatmap can help you determine the best place for CTAs.
Final thoughts
It is clear that heatmaps can drastically improve your website. They help us determine which parts of the site are the highest priority and which areas need improvement. Colors can be eye-opening.
I recommend using the tools discussed in this blog to analyze your website performance. Feel free to use A/B tests to find out which of your blog articles is more successful and change things that aren’t working to improve not only your user experience but also your conversion rate.
