How to use heat maps to improve your website's UX and conversion rates

Today, the potential of your website is virtually unlimited. There are 5.3 billion internet users worldwide. The number will only increase as more of the population goes online.

However, competition for organic website visitors couldn’t be higher. A report found there were 1.88 billion unique websites in 2021. As e-commerce and B2B markets continue to saturate, how will your website stand out from the competition?

Analyzing heat maps UX data is the best way to optimize customer’s attention. In this guide, we’ll explain all you need to know about heat maps and how to boost the UX.

What are heat maps?

Heat maps are visual representations of what users do on your website. Heat map tools analyze mouse cursors, clicks, and eye-tracking. After data collection, user behavior is visualized with a variety of heat map types.

Data shows up on heat maps according to a gray or color scale. Most visualizations opt for the latter, in which red is the warmest color and blue is the coldest. Warm zones indicate high usage, while cold zones show the opposite.

Not everyone is a data analyst or UX designer. Data visualization is vital to getting buy-in from management and key stakeholders. Heat maps paint a vivid picture of the user experience (UX) and help you identify areas for improvement. 

For WordPress site owners, understanding heat maps is crucial for optimizing themes and plugins that significantly impact user behavior. By analyzing heat map data, you can decideabout which WordPress themes are more effective in engaging users and which plugins enhance the user experience by facilitating navigation and interaction.

A heat maps UX representation also helps you gain new insights into how users use and engage with your website. They’re also used in other industries. For instance, contact center solutions use heat maps to show peak call demand. In the gaming industry, developers utilize heat maps to understand player behavior within a game and create more engaging, natural gameplay. 

Who uses heat maps?

Sure, you can help draw website traffic by simply optimizing for competitor keywords and other SEO tactics. However, that will only get you so far. Today’s users also want a smooth experience. A variety of roles use heat maps to improve UX. 

Heat maps are especially useful to certain groups of people, such as:

• UX designers: Visualized data about user behavior inspires clean, intuitive website design. Heat map analysis dictates evaluation and continuous improvement of usability and functionality.

• Marketers: Heat maps give marketers an easy way to monitor website marketing materials. Visual insights identify areas that highlight or distract user attention. Data helps them adjust the location of promotions and call-to-action buttons.

• UX analyst: Visual representations help your analysts look at user behavior. This data is combined with quantitative website data to generate new strategies for better outcomes.

Why the heat maps UX is important

It may seem like heat maps are mostly for marketers and web designers. In fact, everyone at the company can easily interpret them, meaning everyone can get involved in improving the user experience.

There are several benefits to using heat maps.

Understand your customers

Tracking user behavior through mouse, touch, and eye interaction gives you more data points. Data visualization shows which areas of the page attract the most attention. It also identifies which areas are mostly ignored. You can use this information to repeat what users flock to and drop what they fail to engage with.

Heat maps UX data applies to e-commerce, B2B, SaaS, and other industries. Whether you offer enterprise VoIP solutions or online counseling sessions, heat maps help you understand how customers use your service.

Optimize layout and design

Heat maps help your team optimize web pages. Scroll and click data identifies whether users are interacting with your website as intended. For example, customers may be confusing images for links. Or poor design misdirects them to the wrong place.

Looking at the heat map visualization, your designer quickly identifies an image with text as the culprit. You remove the image. The click rate goes up on your intended target, a flash sale ad.

Increase conversions

Marketers can use heat maps to evaluate content strategy. Heat maps show how visitors interact with landing pages, CTA buttons, product pages, business blogs, and other areas. Heat maps add an extra source for measuring variables such as link placement. 

For example, seeing cold colors over a CTA link demonstrates something is wrong. Heat map data shows that the button placement is below the fold. (The fold is the area of the screen where users must scroll to see more of a web page on their device). Your marketers now place the button higher up the page.

More accessible and inclusive

Part of excellent UX design is to make every page element accessible to a diverse audience. Heat maps help polish your site design for ultimate ease of use. Tools that allow for session recording let your team observe user behavior concerning accessibility. This information lets you include their experiences when planning redesigns.

Benefits to your users

Your users are a combination of existing and potential customers. Anytime you improve the UX, you are increasing your acquisition and retention rates. 

There are several ways insights from heat maps benefit your users.

• Easier navigation: Heat maps streamline site usage for your customers and prospects.
• Improved shopping experience: Designers can adjust your web pages to highlight what’s most important.
• Quicker buying process: Insights guide design for a more efficient purchasing experience.
• Better device optimization: Heat maps help your team identify problems due to varying screen sizes and aspect ratios. Customers get a more consistent experience across all of their devices.
• Enhanced content relevance: By combining insights from keyword research with heat map analysis, you can tailor your content to match what users are actively searching for. This ensures that your website provides relevant and valuable information, ultimately enhancing the user experience.

WordPress users can leverage this insight by employing responsive themes and user-friendly plugins that align with the visual and navigational preferences indicated by heat maps. This ensures that both existing and potential customers enjoy a seamless browsing experience, leading to higher retention and conversion rates.

Visualizations to evaluate the heat maps UX

Heat maps on their own don’t come as a one-size-fits-all solution. There are many different types of heat maps available. Each type of heat map helps you evaluate different elements of your website and the UX.

Click maps

Click heat maps do exactly what they sound like. They are heat maps that visualize where users are clicking on your web pages. It shows where users are clicking and also how often.

Click maps are especially useful for showing where users interact to navigate. It also highlights what links or CTA buttons are attracting the most and least attention. Click map visualizations help your team adjust and optimize pages for usability.

Scroll maps

Okay, so understanding click maps seems simple enough. How about visualizing user scrolling behavior? Scroll maps take a less easily quantifiable data point and make it easy to understand.

Each user scrolls a finite amount before either bouncing or clicking to another page. Scroll maps measure the length users scroll and depict it for easy understanding. Naturally, the top of each page is bathed in warm colors. The further down you get, the colder the colors become. 

This helps your team see where the fold is for the average user. Move crucial content that is below the fold to the top for better results or usability. 

Scroll maps are best used when combined with other heat maps, such as click maps. For instance, an ignored page element may be due to being below the fold. But how will your team know this without a scroll heat map?

Move maps

Clicking and scrolling aren’t the only things people do on your website. Mouse movement and hover maps measure a lot of what users are doing between on-screen actions. How are they moving their mouse cursor around the screen before clicking a link?

For example, an easily navigable page would depict a map with focused movement areas. Meanwhile, a cluttered page may show that users go off in all directions, searching for the next page or CTA button. 

Move map session recordings show individual user behavior. It shows where users move their mouse and what elements they may linger on. 

Let's take a page with high bounce rates. Users are arriving on your HR research site in search of labor forecasting reports and leaving without clicking. UX designers find the issue is due to users searching for the download button and giving up. The problem is that the incoming link was supposed to download the report automatically. The functionality is eliminated, and users are directed to a download CTA.

Eye tracking maps

So far, we’ve been talking about what the user’s mouse cursor is doing on a page. What about where they are looking? Is it even possible to record where users look on a screen? 

There are two ways that heat map software can track eye movement. The first way is by using sensor technology that tracks eye movement, position, and points of gaze. Of course, you only have access to this data if the user gives your program access. 

Heat map tools with an eye-tracking algorithm also accomplish a similar feat. These programs estimate eye movement based on user behavior and heat map analysis data.

Either way, eye-tracking heat maps are invaluable. Users don’t all naturally use their mouse cursor to highlight what they are looking at. Eye tracking data discovers new insights that aren't found otherwise. 

For example, tracking data shows that users hold a point of gaze over a link before clicking the back button. What’s going on? Marketers slightly alter the link wording for clarity. Soon after, the point of gaze time goes down, and the click heat map starts turning red over the targeted link.

In another example, users keep looking at an area of the screen. Unfortunately, that area of the page is static and of no use. Your designers take advantage of this information. They place a CTA box encouraging users to sign up for email marketing content. 

Mobile maps

Mobile internet users have become the majority. In Q1 of 2023, mobile devices accounted for 58.33% of all global internet traffic.

Mobile heat maps let your team focus on the majority of your potential customers. These maps are crucial for mobile design. The way mobile users interact with a web page is different from those on a laptop or desktop. 

For starters, there is no mouse cursor. Instead, they navigate through touch. The page is also displayed differently. 

Mobile maps demonstrate what users do with their fingers as they move, hover, and click on website elements. Users move a page both horizontally and vertically while scrolling and navigating. During this time, you can glean mobile-specific insights.

For instance, heat maps show that most users touch the bottom right corner of the page to scroll. Your team realizes that a popup box is interfering with users' ability to scroll. They are inadvertently clicking the box repeatedly before giving up and bouncing from the page entirely. 

Your designers then move the box to the opposite side of the screen. Over time, the warm zone of your scroll heat maps expands down the page. Your markets now value new real estate for content. 

5 steps to implement heat maps

Heat maps bring clarity to how and why your users behave in a certain way. While seemingly complex, heat maps are easy to use if you follow these steps.

Define your goals

Objectives drive any business tactic or methodology. Before adding heat maps to your toolkit, you must first decide what their purpose is. How are you hoping to improve or optimize your website?

Some business goals may include the following:

• Audit individual pages for performance or useability.
• Establish a baseline for user behavior and engagement.
• Reduce the bounce rate of the home page, landing pages, or other pages on your website.
• Better understand how users navigate your website.
• Reduce cart abandonment.
• Identify your average above-the-fold space for every web page.
• A/B test the success of marketing campaigns with link placement, color, font, and other components.
• Increase conversion rates on target pages or across the site.

Choose the right KPIs

The road to success begins with a destination (goals) and a plan to measure progress. Depending on your objectives, you will need to monitor the relevant key performance indicators (KPIs).

This data will go hand in hand with heat map data in furthering your knowledge of user behavior and intent. Example KPIs include:

• Conversion rate: The percentage of the time users perform converting actions.
• Bounce rate: The percentage of visitors who exit your site after viewing only one page.
• Engagement rate: Measures the success of each piece of content.
• Average time on page: How long users spend on a page before going somewhere else.
• Average session duration: How long users spend in one website session with your site.
• Click-rate: How often visitors click links, buttons, and other site elements.

Google Analytics or your web hosting provider helps you track these KPIs and other website performance metrics. There are also a range of tools like Hubspot or Adobe Analytics that can help you delve deeper into your website analytics.

Choose your heat maps

Next up, it’s time to identify which heat map types are best suited to your plan. Which visualizations will best inform your team? Which heat maps can guide you in accomplishing your business goals?

The odds are that you’ll want to use several different heat maps to improve your UX visual design. For example, scroll maps work synergistically with click maps, producing greater actionable insights. 

Remember you can choose from:

• Click maps
• Scroll maps
• Mouse movement maps
• Hover or attention maps
• Eye tracking maps
• Mobile maps

Find the right heat map tools

You know what you need to measure and visualize. So, what tool should you use? The sea of heat map apps is overflowing with options. Each will have different capabilities, integrations, and features. 

Find a solution that has the heat maps and data recording that you need to accomplish your goals. 

Here are a few examples of heat map tools at your disposal:

Hotjar: A comprehensive set of heat maps, session recordings, and built-in UX surveys. Helps your designers put user feedback into action. 

Mouseflow: Visualization software that comes with six heat map tools. Heat map generation begins as soon as you put the code in your site.

Crazy Egg: Heat map app with surveys, A/B testing, and session recording. Also comes with automatic error tracking to help the UX team eliminate issues.

Dragonfly AI: A suite of e-commerce analytics tools, including heatmaps. Data is recorded in real-time. AI automates optimization for rapid UX improvements.

Analyze your heat maps

Maybe it’s obvious, but eventually, it's time to start looking at those heat maps. The first thing to keep in mind is the sample size. A heat map won’t tell you much until you record enough traffic. Every day that passes means you have more data points collected with which to make insights.

In this way, heat maps become increasingly accurate over time. Just always keep this concept in mind after initiating heat maps or after making design improvements. 

Heat map analysis starts with several basic questions.

Where are the areas of high activity?

One of the first details you’ll clean up is what page elements are getting the most attention. List these out and compare them to their importance. Prioritized interactions like CTAs and account sign-in should be dripping in warm colors. Any discrepancies between lists indicate areas to address.

What are the areas of low activity?

Likewise, with high activity, compare low activity against your high-priority page targets. If there’s a match, flag that component for immediate attention from your UX team. Also, analyze cold zones against other user data to better understand why they are being ignored.

What are the click patterns vs scroll behavior?

Click patterns indicate where site users want to go or what they want to do. Scrolling indicates they are either engaging with page content or looking for something else. How do these two visualizations compare on each of your pages?

For example, on a homepage, the goal is for users to click on what they need right away. In comparison, you are hoping the warm scroll zone extends to the large majority of your landing pages.

Do the heat maps align with your goals?

Again, it may be a bit obvious, but you want your heat maps to align with your goals. Are users paying attention to marketing materials? Are visitors able to get where they want to go instead of bouncing from pages left and right?

Don’t be too alarmed with initial heat map data. It’s the baseline from which to optimize the UX. As your team makes insightful design and marketing decisions, you will start to zero in on your goals.

3 tips to get the most out of heat maps for UX

Follow best practices to get the most out of the heat maps UX visualization.

Optimize CTAs

One of the best ways to increase conversion is to optimize your CTA for the UX. What does that mean? It means making your call to action obvious and easy to see. You want CTA buttons above the fold on landing pages. Auditing with scroll heat maps ensures this is the case.

You can also use heat maps to experiment with places. Interaction maps that track clicks and movement make it easy to see where the user interacts with a page. Heat maps give your marketing team instant inspiration for A/B testing of CTA buttons. 

Try moving links to the hottest zones and see if conversions improve. Alternatively, you can alter the size, color, or font to see if it gains more user attention. Use marketing tools with a provider like Namecheap. You can combine website tools for a comprehensive overview.

Lower cart abandonment rate

Heat maps aren’t just for your home page and landing pages. They help analyze every user interaction on your website, including the checkout process. Now, the reasons customers abandon online shopping carts are vast. That doesn’t mean you can help eliminate friction.

Analyze heat maps from every page of the checkout problems and look for trends. For example, users clicking “back” or “previous?” That may indicate they are having issues confirming what happened in the last step. For example, they might be double-checking the shipping address. You could resolve this by showing the entered address somewhere on the next page.

Or, click maps might show users often going back to the product or homepage. This could indicate an opportunity for upselling and cross-selling. Add a recommended products box to show complementary items or those often purchased together. 

Identify dead zones

You may be using a good website hosting provider, but you can still suffer from poor website design. Part of a good user experience is delivering a site that functions as intended. Heat maps can show you cold zones where users are ignoring features or links. They also depict if users are continually clicking on areas of the page that don’t do anything. 

Why would they do this? Perhaps an image looks like a CTA button. Or worse, maybe a link is broken and not going anywhere. These types of events confuse users and hurt your reputation.

Don’t let the heat get to you

As competition for user attention increases, don’t give customers a reason to look elsewhere. An optimal UX starts with a quality domain registrar. Namecheap provides PremiumDNS hosting. These services ensure your customers experience fast page loads and that your site never goes offline.