How to make use of the data collected by heatmaps?

A heat map is  essentially a map that visually represents data making use of a wide variety of visual elements. Heatmaps like everything require analysis and although it isn’t particularly hard to do there is a but knowing how to navigate it is always advantageous. Given that the data is accurately analysed and implemented the right way.

After you do  have a heatmap here is a suggestion of all the questions you should consider asking yourself:

This sort of heatmap will be portrayed by having a visual of your website and different segments of  it being highlighted by different colours, what you can gauge from this is how far your audience has scrolled (usually denoted in red, yellow, and green light).You can use this information to strategically place the most  important communication where you know your audience will see. This will also help you know which information your audience is seeing and more importantly what they are not.

Is your audience clicking on all the key elements on your page (such as links and buttons)

There are also features that highlight all the clickable elements of  your website with colours (colours vary and signify the amount of times they have been clicked). This will ensure you are aware of which clickables are working for you and which are not, for the purpose of improvement. This insight can be used to alter your CTA, its design, and positioning to make it more effective.

Is there any unnecessary element on your website that people are getting confused by?

More often than not there are certain elements on websites that seem like clickables but are actually not, this leads to your audience getting confused. A heatmap can tell you exactly where this happens and where your audience has clicked expecting them to be clickable elements. This insight can be used to eliminate or tweak elements that foster confusion and can make some visual changes to make it clear to your audience which ones are clickable and which ones are not.

Are there any elements on your website that have shown to be distracting?

After a particular point or a few web pages your audience’s interest inevitably wanes, heatmaps can be used to ascertain exactly at what point  this happens. This insight can be used to try and find out why there is a wane in interest, if it is because of editorial or visual content. Necessary tweaks can be made with the hopes of better results.

Is your audience experiencing issues while accessing your website over a variety of devices?

Nowadays a lot of the internet traffic that is being generated by mobile devices, it is extremely likely that your website is being perceived differently on the mobile phone and a desktop, by comparing the respective heatmaps you can tell how and which elements work differently and alter your approach

These are some questions that can be answered with the help of a heatmap.