Heatmaps

A heatmap lays a colour overlay on top of a web page to show where visitors pay attention. Warm areas mark places that attract many clicks, taps or long scrolls, and cool areas are ignored. For example, a heatmap in Hotjar or Microsoft Clarity might show that visitors keep clicking a heading that is not a link, while the real call-to-action button below it is barely touched.

Analytics numbers tell you that a page loses visitors, but not why. Heatmaps give a quick visual answer to what people actually do on the page, which helps when you are redesigning a landing page, pricing page or sign-up form. They suit pages with enough traffic to show a pattern. On a page with only a few visits a week, a heatmap can mislead because a handful of clicks look like a trend.

• Check which types are included, such as click, scroll and mouse movement maps.
• Ask whether maps are separate for desktop, tablet and mobile visitors.
• Test whether the tool handles pages that change, such as pop-ups, menus and personalised content.
• Ask how many page views a plan covers before sampling or limits apply.