Term
Heatmap
A colour visualisation of where visitors click on a page, how far they scroll and where they stop. It shows why nobody fills in a form, and the tool collecting it usually needs cookie consent.
Updated
What it means
A heatmap is a colour display of how visitors behave on a particular web page. Warm colours show where people click most or linger, cool colours what they ignore. Unlike the numbers in web analytics, it shows behaviour directly on the page.
The most common types are the click map, showing clicks, and the scroll map, showing what percentage of visitors reach each depth of the page. Some tools also record mouse movement or whole sessions as video.
A heatmap answers questions numbers cannot: why people do not click a button, whether they see the price list at all, whether they click on an image that is not a link, or where they abandon a form. It is an important input for improving UX.
How it works in practice
On a company website a heatmap is most useful on landing pages, the price list and the contact form. If most visitors never scroll down to the form, moving it higher can lift the conversion rate without spending anything on advertising.
We recommend validating changes with an A/B test. The heatmap reveals the problem and suggests a hypothesis; the test confirms whether the change actually helped. Deciding on the strength of a coloured picture from a few dozen visits is usually misleading.
Heatmap tools process data about visitor behaviour and generally use cookies. They therefore need cookie consent before they run, and the provider must be named in the privacy notice. Session recordings must not capture the contents of forms containing personal data.
What to watch out for
The most common mistake is drawing conclusions from a small sample. A heatmap from a hundred visits may just show chance. Meaningful conclusions need enough visits and separate analysis of mobile and desktop, because people behave differently on each.
The second risk is a forgotten tool that runs for years collecting data with no purpose. Every extra script slows the site and widens the processing of personal data. It is sensible to switch a heatmap on for a specific question and off again once it has been answered.
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