The top goal of website optimization is to make it more attractive to website visitors, improve user experience, and increase conversion rates. When it comes to optimization, the key problem is knowing where to start. This problem leads to more, like knowing what needs to be changed and what needs to be retained.
This problem can lead us further down in a spiral of confusion. This is where the heatmaps jump in as a heroic savior. Let’s look at what heatmaps are and how they can kickstart website optimization.
What are Heatmaps
As it is often called, heatmaps or heat mapping is a 2D visual presentation of data or values related to various website metrics. Interestingly heatmapping is something that is used by everyone from social scientists to financial analysts. While those in the search engine optimization (SEO) community are relatively new to the notion of heatmaps, it has been in use for more than a century.
In this article, we will discuss many benefits of heatmaps from the SEO point of view.
How Do Heatmaps Work
Heatmapping is not a brand new method in data representation and processing. It’s an old statistical analysis technique that dates back to the 19th century. They represent complex data because heatmaps are easier to read and understand, unlike charts and tables.
The first step is to create a visual representation of analytical data. The web pages you want to analyze are divided into elements that can be interacted with. Elements are grouped by their tags and by the larger elements they contain, the so-called parent elements.
When the mapping is complete, the heatmap software begins to track and record website visitor activity. Each visitor’s activity is flagged and stored in the database. This software ensures that it only tracks the activity of unique visitors, so you get the most accurate data.
The activities are recorded in real-time, and reports are generated in the same way. Whenever you view the report, you’ll be able to see the latest data, which makes heatmaps a precious tool for tracking website changes and the effectiveness of tune-ups.
Benefits of Heatmaps from the SEO Viewpoint
The benefits of heat maps are very beneficial. Let’s say you want to know which areas of your site are getting the most attention; heat maps show you a visual representation of the same that is easy to understand so that you can make strategic decisions.
Here are the significant perks of using heatmaps:
1. It offers an Instant Overview of your Web Page’s Performance
SEO often requires the use of various analysis and analytical tools. However, each tool has its own strengths. The main strength of heat mapping is that it helps draw attention to apparent issues on a site that would otherwise be lost in a dense spreadsheet.
Scroll through your web page’s heatmap, and it’ll show your pages’ visibility to indicate which parts are most attractive to visitors and even where the mouse cursor hovers the most. Geo heatmaps reveal the location of most visitors so you can see if you are getting traffic from different parts of the country or the world.
Web Diagnostic Heatmaps compose the life of an SEO professional in a much more straightforward manner. For example, the professional will be able to tell which areas of the website are not being noticed, i.e., cold spots. They can then use that data to piece together a plan to heat up those areas by making them more attractive to visitors.
2. Gives a Direct Overview of Key Web Performance
One advantage is that heatmaps quickly draw attention to critical issues on your website.
There are several types of web diagnostic heatmaps, such as the following:
A click heatmap reveals users’ clicking patterns. Heatmaps highlight the average visibility of pages. Attention shows which parts of your website are most attractive to users. Movement track mouse movements. Finally, Geo heatmaps reveal regions or countries where conversions are high.
3. It Provides a Visual Approach to Understand Numeric Values
If an image is worth a thousand words, then a single heatmap can be worth a thousand numbers.
A spreadsheet may tell you that some links have surprisingly low click rates or that the bounce rate of a given page is much higher (and less time spent on the page) than the rest of your website. But spreadsheet numbers won’t explain why. However, looking at the same data in a properly configured heatmap can quickly reveal that the problematic click-through rate is due to a link being buried in another distracting element or that a low-visibility page could explain a high bounce rate.
Equally important, their visual appeal turns heatmaps into invaluable communication tools. They conceptualize patterns and interpret data, making it easy for designers and analytics geeks to talk with professionally focused clients by showing them clearly, understandable results. They also help the designers themselves, giving them an experience through the eyes of their users about what it’s like to navigate their website.
4. Ad Placement and Optimization
Attention maps are perfect when it comes to identifying the most engaging elements on your website. If you want to display ads on your website, you should place them in sections of the layout that capture the attention of your visitors.
It is imperative if you are in the Affiliate Marketing business. By using attention maps, you will increase the conversion rate and return on investment (ROI). On the other hand, if you see that the ads are exactly where they should be, but they still aren’t grabbing attention, you can optimize them. Consider changing the ad image and text so that it fits the theme of your website.
5. Heatmaps Help You Learn What Users Want
Many company owners think that your standard beautifully designed website is good enough to pull in a lot of conversions. It needs more than just a beautiful design.
When it comes to improving conversions on your landing page, heatmaps can help you understand what’s going wrong and how to improve it. For example, a heatmap might tell you that your website visitors are interested in.
Heatmaps can also help you figure out the navigation patterns of your visitors. You can combine A/B testing with heatmaps for both pages to get an idea of how users see your page.
6. Help Businesses Make Knowledgeable Decisions
By helping administrators make better web design choices that can enhance user engagement and conversions, heatmaps enable decisions that stimulate better business results.
Heatmaps are about improving the bottom line. You can talk to us about how we can help you set up a heatmap for your website.
7. Ecommerce Shopping Cart Optimization
Meet the visitors to the shopping cart page. They are ready to buy, making the process as smooth as possible and optimizing the page for better conversions.
Heatmaps can help you position essential elements so that they are more visible. For example, check the display of the free shipping banner, the position of the buy/checkout buttons, and irrelevant elements that grab customers’ attention.
Every time you make a change, be sure to see how it affected the user interface and experience by reviewing the newly generated heatmaps.
Finally, if you decide to use a heatmap to optimize your website for your audience, you can contact us. In many cases, heatmaps will figure out the problem for you, but you still need to consult a professional agency to get the most out of the website optimization process. Call now to get more info about heatmaps and their benefits.