Heatmaps and its benefits

Heatmaps a new tool in today’s digital marketing world. In simple terms it can be termed as the tool to measure the success of your website. It is a graphical presentation that uses  colour coding to represent different values. It shows user behaviour on specific web pages or web page  templates. It shows where the users have clicked on a page, how far they have scrolled and been on a particular web page.

The benefits of heat maps are very rewarding. It helps to know which areas of your  website are getting more clicks. This analysis is shown in a visual image which is very easy to understand at a glance. Later the same analysis is used to plan out a strategy. Heat maps are the most popular insight tools available to any company which wants to improve its user experience on their website.

Analytics tools like Google Analytics or Site Catalyst are great at providing metrics to show which pages users visit but they can lack detail when it comes to understanding how users engage with those pages. Heatmaps can give a more comprehensive overview of how users are really behaving.

Heatmaps are also a lot more visual than standard analytics reports, which can make them easier to analyse at a glance. This makes them more accessible, particularly to people who are not accustomed to analysing large amounts of data.

Good heat mapping tools, such as Heatmaps enable analysts to segment and filter the data. This means that it can be easy to see how different types of users are engaging with a particular page

Benefits of Heatmaps

1. Direct overview of web page performance:

It draws instant attention to important issues in your website. There are different types of heat maps. A click heatmap reveals the clicking patterns of the users. It shows the visibility of your website. Attention shows which part of your web page most is engaging to its users. Movement it tracks the movement of the mouse. Lastly GEO heatmaps shows the territories or countries where usage are higher or lower.

2. Providing visual paths to understand the numeric values:

A well known saying fits well here,“ A picture is worth a thousand words”, and a heatmap similarly is worth a thousand numbers.

Its major benefit is picture is easier to understand rather than numbers written in columns and rows. A graph made from an excel having numbers are much easier to understand at a glance rather than the whole spreadsheet. A spread sheet presentation will be having a higher bounce rate rather than the rest of the website and the spreadsheet numbers would not be able to explain the reason behind it.

The same data if reviewed in a heat map quickly reveals the problematic click rate rate is due to a link being hidden in other misleading elements, or that a high bounce rate could be explained by a low-visibility page.

Heatmaps is the best tool to conceptualise and interpret data and patterns making it easier for the analytics and designers to make changes according to the gaps identified by studying the heat maps.

3. User friendly web design:

Effective web designing is not an easy job. Any website which looks good and complete involves hours of research and work. It involves questioning your own choices and recognizing areas of improvement. In a web design learning from the users is very important. Heatmaps plays a very important role to make out what your audience does, what they are liking and what not. Navigational patterns can also be known by the use unfiltered feedback. One can also check the success of future websites before opening to large number of audience.

4. Better understanding of your audience choice and providing them with more better experience

Web design is a visual communication art and the various elements of a website displays a series of messages. The goal of the designer could be to sell a service, product or an idea to your users who are a part of the conversation. The designer needs to show interest in understanding how they react to your message and understanding of a particular post on the webpage. One has to design the website in a manner that it stands out of the crowd in order to attract maximum audience

This also involves understanding what are the things that the audience dislikes and get distracted while searching, and this is why friction scores on heatmaps can be so helpful. Such a tool can automatically track data to give you an idea of where and when the user has the dislike

Heatmap filters can show how different your audience reacts to the same web page. Listening to a specific audience lets you offer them a better experience.

5. Helps companies make knowledgeable choices

It helps the managers to make better choices from the available web design choices. Users can analyse which webpage is having all the requirements as per their need.

One more important area which heat maps cover is exposing dangerous frauds. These one amongst the various heat map options available.  Senior management and boards can benefit from periodically requesting and discussing fraud-risk maps. One section is likely and the unlikely, but potentially most dangerous, fraud risks the company faces? How can we know that the frauds are happening and in which areas? And what’s being done to prevent them?

Ideally, fraud risk heat maps are built through a collaborative effort involving people of different levels and across functions and represent a consensus about the potential financial, regulatory, and the impacts various frauds could create on the Company’s reputation. The heat maps depicted here show hypothetical assessments of fraud risks, prior to risk mitigation by controls, in companies in two different industries. They illustrate how risks can vary dramatically from one company to the other. It helps the Company to identify the risk factor and take the necessary steps to overcome them in advance.