10 facts about website heatmaps based on nearly 800 tests. Advice to marketers and business owners

[jun_za]

Hello, community! My name is Andrew, I’m a CEO at Plerdy - tools for Conversion rate optimization, UX, and SEO website improvements. While being an expert in CRO, I decided to write down some tips for you to help you optimize your website conversion rate.

1. The first screen takes 80,3% of all viewing time. This fact means that if you want to increase the conversion rate it’s better to place all call-to-action elements above the scroll.
2. The left side of the page attracts more attention. Namely, the left part of the content takes 69% of viewing time. Therefore, it is recommended to place bullets on this side of the page.
3. Usually, people scan text in a certain way. If you connect the heat points of their clicks they will form the F letter. Headlines, subheadings, and the first words in lines get the most attention. The first two paragraphs are considered to give the best conversion. Users won’t probably read a continuous text with no bulleted or numbered lists.
4. A banner blindness effect leads to lower conversion. The human brain has perfectly adapted to ignore aggressive ads, so we’d recommend you to avoid styles similar to advertising style.

Of course, I can’t leave you without a special offer exclusively for the GrowthHacking community. When purchasing, use the code "GrowthHacking" and receive a 30% discount for all annual subscriptions.

1. There is a marketing method when the character on the image looks at a certain object (a product, a lead form, etc.). This attracts visitors’ attention and indirectly contributes to conversion growth.
2. Automatic sliders as a means of visualization are ineffective. Users subconsciously ignore them for the same reason as the content with banner ads.
3. Design with contrasting colors can lead to lower conversion. If a non-clickable area greatly contrasts with other colors on the website it can get the whole attention of the website visitors. In this case, you should change the usability to distribute the users’ attention among all important target elements.
4. Stock photos are useless. Users learned to ignore even those photos that just look like the stock ones.
5. The conversion of post releases is higher than the conversion of the full text. Inviting previews look more appealing to users than never-ending text, hence they have more chances to hook the visitors and keep them on the page.
6. Small print also shouldn’t be underestimated. Strange as it may seem, people attentively read the text written in small letters whereas big text is carelessly scanned diagonally. Yet use smaller font sizes in moderation, for example, for separate important notes.

Thank you for reading. It’s kindly appreciated. On Plerdy, we love content and we are sure that the more value to the community we provide - the better, so I invite you to check out the UX checking tool that will help you improve your website step by step and a poll: “What is an SEO specialist afraid of?”, vote and see results!

Do you have any questions? Comment or dm me.

 

[tubz]

@jun_za Some of your "facts" do not works for me. This lack of demography and culture reference. It would be more helpful if you can list out your personas to strengthen your learning.

 

[jun_za]

@tubz Conversion Rate Optimization is complex activity to choose the best options for your website through testing. However, some patterns exist and I described them in my post. What do you mean by the second sentence?

 

[tubz]

@jun_za Here are a few specific example for your articulation:

• Demography: Gender, Age, Language, Location, etc.
• Culture: Ethnics, occasional activities, system of belief associated to colors and communication, etc.

Hope this would clarify my sentence.

 

[precurefan2002]

@jun_za Thanks for posting.
I think this question was more of a suggestion. I am currently working on CRO and i also find it most impactful if we operate using Buyer Personas, Segmentation and User Journeys map.
Then instead of optimizing everything you can focus on specific stages of the funnel for a very specific user. Thorough research and data analysis will then allow to better prioritize experiments to be run and chain them for a success of a focus metric.

In any case this does not dismiss anything you've mentioned, so thanks for sharing

 

[hadassahme]

@jun_za Interesting, could you please share some case studies : it would be helpful for us to understand your tool more and also you can to shed the light on tool main features

 

[jun_za]

@hadassahme Sure thing. You can search for case studies in our blog: https://www.plerdy.com/blog/category/cases/

For example, we have a one for TemplateMonster: https://www.plerdy.com/blog/case-seo-audit-templatemonster/

Plerdy is an all in in one analytic software for CRO, some of the main features:

1) Heatmaps, to see all the clicks were made on your website and much more.

2) Video Sessions, to see the exact activity of users on the video.

3) Conversions, easily set up events, track conversion funnels + one-click integration with Google analytics

4) SEO checker, track SEO in real-time + Integration with Google Search Console

5) Forms & NPS, create forms, collect data, improve them + Integrations with a list of CRMs for remarketing campaigns.

 

[inlovewithmybestfriend]

@jun_za Very interesting findings. Thanks for sharing Andrew!

 

[jun_za]

@inlovewithmybestfriend Thank you!

 

[613jono]

@jun_za great post! I especially liked the UX checker. Thanks!!

 

[jun_za]

@613jono

Thank you, UX checklist is really helpful. Also you can check our UX game to find out the worst UX ever: https://www.plerdy.com/ux-game/

Thank you, Glazdham!

 

[shinigami_258]

@jun_za Hi,

That was a nice question, in general heatmaps for websites are used to know the visitor's behavior like where the visitor is spending more time to add your CTA of the page age to add any offers where your visitors can see and know about your product or service. or else you can also add any important sections over there where the visitor is spending more time on your website.