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Use a Heat Map to Boost Website Usability!

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Use a Heat Map to Boost Website Usability!

It's been proven that websites have specific areas where human eyes always spend the most time, and heat maps are the ultimate tool for determining exactly where most eyes look fist.

With a heat map, webmasters like yourself can improve and tweak a website to put the most valuable stuff in the most opportunistic spots. Read more about heat maps, and how to implement one on your site!

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What's a Heat Map?

Beginning as research taken from eye tracking software, a heat map is a software program that tracks the path that a website user's mouse cursor takes as he or she navigates through the website.

When this data is recorded for many users, a typical "pattern" can be seen. On a heat map, the most frequented areas where mouse cursors have been are usually red, orange and yellow, and the lesser-traveled areas are seen in green and blue. Areas not frequented at all are not colored.

Above: a classic heat map diagram for a web page. The darker/more red & orange regions are the "sweet spots" for advertisements, since they were proven to be the regions where peoples' eyes instinctively travel to the most.

Using Heat Map Info for Ad Placement

By placing ads in the "hottest" regions of a heat map, you're giving them the most exposure -- it's a simple formula and also a good rule of thumb. As results have shown, the top/center and upper-left regions of a website get the most attention.

Beware of using too many ads above the fold -- a January 2012 statement from Google spoke of an algorithmic update that punished websites with "too many ads above the fold." To be safe, use ads sparingly -- a top banner ad, a small in-content ad, and be extremely conservative with anything else.

The "Golden Triangle"

golden triangle

The "Golden Triangle" is an industry term referring to the sweet spot on a search engine results page, which happens to be shaped like a triangle with its most viewed point near the region where a website's logo typically rests.

This particular heat map region is a benchmark not only for websites, but for articles and even search engine results pages. It is also a major determinant for ad placement. In this example, when looking at Google AdWords placement: the top/center region gets the most visibility, with the top of the right column getting second string.

Heat Maps as a Marketing Analysis Tool

One of the most profound advantages of heat maps is that they give insight into visitor behavior. You'll be able to see what most people on average are clicking or gravitating to. Here are a few other important points:
  • With a heat map, you can see which part of a link is being clicked more. For instance, if you have a link such as "cars for sale," you might notice that most people are clicking on the word "cars" within that hyperlink, instead of the "for sale" part of it. Look for these kinds of behaviors as a whole, and you can more effectively fine tune your site's navigation and enhance your linking strategy.
  • You can reveal poorly performing areas of your site with a heat map. For instance, if many visitors are clicking an non-hyperlinked image, they're probably expecting something to happen. These kinds of actions are much easier to diagnose when your website has a heat map feature. Locate these spots, and hyperlink them accordingly to where visitors are most likely expecting them to point to!
  • As previously mentioned on this page, look for "high click traffic" spots on your page, and consider putting an ad there for maximum results. Also, pay attention to highly trafficked areas on your menu. Is there anything you can do to make it better or less cluttered?

Get A Heat Map For Your Site

Until Google Analytics includes a heat map feature (which is rumored to be sooner than later), there are alternative programs you can use to see where the most activity occurs on your site. These heat maps are based on the areas where your visitors' mouse cursors have been trailing.
Mouseflow
Mouse-tracking software that lets you actually view video of how your visitors navigate your site. A really cool innovation in viewing visitor behavior on your sites. Plans range from free, to $264/mo.
ClickHeat
The free (but very basic) solution to getting a fully-functional heatmap up on your site.
Crazy Egg
This full Analytics package includes a heat map feature, with prices ranging from $9/mo to $99/mo.
Click Density
Another web analytics package offering heat map technology to show where your visitors are looking and clicking to. Its pricing plans start at $5/month.
Click Tale
An enterprise solution for implementing a feature rich heat map solution, with analytics and heat map playback. Plans range from $99/mo to $990/mo.

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Heat Map: Reader Feedback

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  • Reply
    Deadicated Jan 13, 2012 @ 7:53 pm | delete
    A very interesting Lens, I learnt something; I shared it with my "23 Squidoo" Lensmaster's Circle on Google Plus (73 strong and counting).
  • Reply
    Brian Gruber Oct 5, 2011 @ 11:23 am | delete
    Wondering if you could review my website that also generates heat maps as well as visitor recordings. It's at http://www.luckyorange.com. I think it compares nicely to the site's you listed.
  • Reply
    toolman1 Sep 10, 2011 @ 10:27 pm | delete
    In your opinion, which of the programs you list gives you the best bang for your buck?

    Thanks.
  • Reply
    iQwestArticles Sep 6, 2011 @ 9:45 am | delete
    Great lens, Pixelrage!

    The positioning of ads is very interesting, but still remains tough for me to completely figure out. I definitely like incorporating a block of text ads in the body of a post. Since I figure they know more than me, I typically mimic the positioning of ads similar to that of larger, more well known, sites (HubPages, etc.), but I haven't been nearly as successful in generating the click-through rates on similar content written on these sites versus content written on my personal sites. Keeping inline with the heat map, I'm now experimenting with moving the block of text ads in the body of the post, below the title, from being right-justified to being left-justified.

    Again, thank you for the tips. Every bit helps!
  • Reply
    debb Aug 27, 2011 @ 5:46 pm | delete
    any one give inspectlet.com a shot? they seem to do visitor screen captures and heatmaps and they are cheaper. any one try them?
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Pixelrage

Hi, I'm Mark, and I go by the screenname "Pixelrage" - thanks so much for checking out my work here on Squidoo! If you need to get in touch with me,... more »

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