A heatmap shows what visitors do on a page, laid over the page itself. You see where they click, where their mouse goes, how far they scroll and where they spend their time. It is the quickest way to find what to test next, and to understand why a version won.
Where to find it:
AiX Optimize, Heatmaps. Analytics has a Heatmap button on every page row, the Dashboard's Busiest pages has one for each page, the Tests tab has one for each test, and the report has a Heat link on each version.
What is collected:
With Track engagement and heat on every page switched on in Settings (the default), every page, post and the home page collect heat data from the first visitor, tested or not. Pages on your other sites with the one line of code collect it too. Logged-in editors and administrators, and bots, are never counted.
The Heatmaps tab:
Every page people visited in the last 90 days, on this site and on every site with the one line of code, as a card. Each card shows the page's picture, title and address, its views, average scroll, Buy clicks and sales, a test running badge when a test is live on it, and a frustrated clicks badge with its dead and rage clicks.
Above the cards, Find a page searches by title or address, a site box picks one site when you have several, and three buttons sort the cards: Most visited, Most revenue and Most frustration.
Opening a map:
- Press View heatmap on a card. The heatmap viewer opens inside the dashboard, with the page on the right and the details on the left. See The Heatmap Viewer, Dead Clicks And Rage Clicks.
- Or press Live on a card. The live page opens in a new tab with a dark bar at the top, where you switch between Clicks, Mouse, Scroll, Attention and Dead + rage, and between devices.
- While you are logged in, any page of this site also opens its heatmap when you add ?rao_heat=click to its address.
The maps are only visible to you, as a logged-in administrator. Visitors never see them.
Clicks:
Every click, from cool blue to hot red where clicks pile up. Up to 8 of the most clicked elements get a numbered badge with their clicks, such as #2 · 1092 clicks. Elements with their own id, such as a form button with an id, always get their badge. Clicks on things that are not links show what visitors expected to be clickable.
Mouse:
Where the mouse moves on desktop. The position is sampled four times a second, up to 300 points per page view, and the mouse often follows the eye.
Scroll:
The page is cut into bands of 5%. Each band says how many visitors reached it, for example 41% of visitors reached this point, coloured from red (everyone) to blue (few). The first steep drop is where the page loses people.
Attention:
The page is cut into 20 bands, each showing the average seconds visitors spent with it on screen and how it compares with the busiest band. A band people read slowly is doing its job, or confusing them. A replay tells you which.
Dead + rage:
Red markers where people clicked and nothing happened, and orange markers where they clicked again and again. These are the quickest wins on any page. See The Heatmap Viewer, Dead Clicks And Rage Clicks.
Reading a heatmap well:
- Look at Scroll first. It tells you which parts of the page most visitors never see, so you know where the other maps matter.
- Then Clicks. Hot spots on things that are not links, such as pictures or headings, are visitors telling you what they expected to click.
- Then Attention. Long average seconds on a section mean people are reading it, or puzzling over it. Watch a replay or two to see which.
- Compare Desktop and Mobile before you change anything. A page can work on one and not the other.
- Wait for a few hundred visitors before drawing a conclusion from a heatmap. The number at the right of the bar tells you how many it is based on.
Heatmaps for one version:
On a test report, Heat on a version's row opens the click map with only that version's visitors. Compare the rows to see why a version won: more clicks on the main button, or more people reaching the price.
A real example:
At Yoursite Bakery School, the click map of the Masterclass page shows a hot spot on the loaf picture, which is not a link. The heatmap viewer confirms it: the picture has 1,097 clicks, more than twice the top Join the Masterclass button with 487, and Dead + rage marks it with dead clicks. The scroll map shows a steady drop down the page, and only 38% of visitors reach 70% of the page, where Join the next class sits. That gives two clear tests: link the picture to the join section, and move a join block higher up the page.
Tips:
- Look at the scroll map of every money page. If few reach your offer, move it up or add a button higher on the page.
- Compare Mobile and Desktop. Phones often scroll further and click less.
- Press Read it with AI in the heatmap viewer, or pick a page in What to test next on the Dashboard, to have the AI read this data for you. See AI Features: Challenger Copy, Report Explanations And Test Ideas With Your Own Key.