MENUMENU
  • Services
    • Services
      • Search Engine Optimization
      • Local SEO
      • Generative Engine Optimization
      • Digital PR
      • Content Marketing
      • Email Marketing Services
      • Lifecycle Marketing
      • Paid Media Advertising
      • Social Media Marketing
      • Creative Design Services
      • Conversion Rate Optimization
      • Website Design & Development
      • Amazon Marketing Services
      • Franchise Marketing
      • Franchise Development
      • National to Local Marketing
      • Reporting and Data Analytics
      • Digital Marketing Strategy
  • Who We Serve
    • Who We Serve
      • Franchise Marketing
      • B2B Marketing
      • Lead Generation
      • Ecommerce
      • We Build Custom Strategies
      • View Sample Industries
  • About Us
    • About Ignite Visibility
      • Our Story
      • Our Values
      • Our Team
      • Clients
      • Diversity & Inclusion
      • Our Blog
      • Marketing Resources
      • Franchise Marketing Resources
      • Careers
      • Hiring Notice
  • Case Studies
  • Awards
  • Contact
  • 619.752.1955
Home / Conversion Rate Optimization / How to Use Heatmapping to Increase Landing Page Conversions

How to Use Heatmapping to Increase Landing Page Conversions

January 28, 2021 By John Lincoln

As Director of Conversion Rate Optimization here at Ignite Visibility, anything that increases conversions is my jam.

Since they’re so effective, you can imagine that heatmapping and onsite surveys are some of my favorite tools in the toolbox.

A heatmap analysis can help you better understand your audience, far beyond your basic KPIs. Here’s the rundown on how to up the ante for landing page conversions.

How to Use Heatmapping to Increase Landing
How to Use Heatmapping to Increase Landing

What is Heatmapping?

Many conversion metrics tell us what’s happening, and when.

Meanwhile, heatmapping and other tools can help tell us why these conversion events happened.

They do so by providing a visual display of density marks where visitors spend the most time on landing pages. This could be above or below the fold. It can show us what parts of the page are the most popular, or where users get confused.

Why Heatmapping Helps

Heatmapping can answer questions like:

  • Which content are visitors finding helpful?
  • Are visitors seeing our main selling points, social proof, contact forms, and other crucial pages?
  • Are site visitors reaching the bottom of the page?
  • Are they dropping off the page?

Ultimately, knowing the reason behind certain events helps marketers better understand their audience and users—which can lead to heightened conversion rates on landing pages.

And while a heatmap isn’t the full picture, it allows us to fill in the gaps of information, which helps us achieve better results for our clients.

How to Perform a Heatmap Analysis Using Different Apps

Most heatmap analysis apps offer three different views of heatmaps:

  1. Click: This shows which elements of the web page visitors are clicking on.
  2. Scroll: This shows how far down the page visitors are scrolling.
  3. Move: This shows where visitors are moving their mouse on the page. It offers insights as to where visitors’ attention is focused as they navigate throughout the page.

At Ignite Visibility, our tool of choice for analyzing on-page behavior is called Hotjar.

heatmap hotjar
Image Source: Hotjar Heatmap Analysis

You can also download and share heatmaps to share with your team or clientele. Another interesting feature is that heatmaps split by device type, so you can compare and contrast desktop, tablet and mobile users’ experiences.

As awesome as it is, Hotjar isn’t the only app giving heatmap examples.

Another option is Tableau. Their heatmap is part of their embedded analytics offering, but it’s not the best for these purposes because you have to input the data yourself.

Fullstory is a good option for those who like the numerous integrations. Their intelligent heatmaps work in tandem with high-fi session replay to show website managers or agencies how users are interacting with the site in question.

Smartlook works with both site pages and mobile apps, which is a cool feature. They have three overlays (click, move and scroll) just like Hotjar. The data is retroactive and you can compare and contrast visitors. Public links are available for you to download and share with teammates or clients.

There are even more options, like Mouseflow, Figpii, Lucky Orange and CrazyEgg. That’s a lot to choose from, but let me emphasize something. As Ignite’s CRO Director, myself and my team are partial to Hotjar.

Heatmap Examples in the Real World

Audiense is a company that helps identify target audiences for businesses.

audiense example
Image Source: Audiense

They experienced a drop in conversions, so they used Hotjar’s heatmaps to reorganize and reallocate their landing page space. It worked, and they brought their conversion rate back up to a healthy level.

Here’s a heatmap example from an Ignite Visibility client. It’s for a page consisting of a list of common questions on a website about loans:

Heatmap Analysis Example
Heatmap Analysis Example

You can see from the blue marks that most of the activity is centered around jumbo and conforming loans.

What are some actionable takeaways from this example?

Since this question is the most popular, you can move it to the top of the list. Alternatively, you can develop a content section around it so it’s not hidden behind a click-to-reveal (because less clicks for popular web content make it easier for visitors to locate).

Hotjar Also Uses On-site Surveys

In addition to heatmapping, Hotjar also has the capability of using on-site polls. You’re probably familiar with these types of pop-ups (they’re pretty popular!).

These on-site surveys usually ask open-ended questions like:

  • Are you finding the information you were looking for?
  • Is anything stopping you from converting today?

Here’s an example of what one might look like:

onsite survey hotjar
Hotjar On-site Surveys Customizable Widget

This type of data is qualitative, not quantitative. On Hotjar, you can select from a few different question types (long text answer, short text answer, radio buttons, checkboxes or net promoter score). You can also change the settings for when the poll triggers on the page, either immediately after a page loads, a set number of seconds afterward, when they’re about to abandon or when they scroll to the fold.

It’s valuable because it captures visitor feedback right then and there. They’re still in the moment and their questions about your business, product or service are still top of mind.

This feature provides an opportunity for users to voice their concerns before they forget about it entirely, and it doesn’t involve opening an email and clicking a link.

Not everyone will go out of their way to answer this question. Some people will exit the page regardless.

However, there’s something to be said for those that do choose to type in their question. After all, if they’re wondering about a particular topic, it’s highly likely that other site visitors are, too. This is especially true for websites with a lot of visitors.

Here’s an example from one of Ignite Visibility’s own clients.

One of our clients is in the bedding industry. We ran a pop-up poll to help us improve their website’s on-page experience. Here’s the question we asked visitors:

“Are you finding the information that you’re looking for?”

With open-ended questions, you’re going to get a variety of answers. To help make the data more actionable, we boiled these answers down to five key categories:

  1. Mattress
  2. Pricing
  3. Medical related
  4. Warranty
  5. Financing

Here are the results of our on-site survey through Hotjar:

onsite survey results hotjar
On-site Survey Analysis

This is super interesting given the context of our digital marketing efforts with our bedding client. Originally, we thought that our landing page had enough information about the mattress. We didn’t want to bombard visitors with too much copy or turn them off from clicking anything.

But as you can see from the on-site survey results, most of the questions we received were about mattresses! So what does this tell us?

Namely, it tells us that we could indeed do with more copy on the landing page.

Then we broke the analysis down the mattress category further. We did this by dissecting the questions within the sector and organizing new content around those questions.

Using this approach, we went ahead and added multiple short paragraphs of informational copy that answered the key questions their visitors had.

The result of our efforts?

An increase of time on page and an increase in conversion rate.

It’s exactly what we were hoping would happen, and it worked! Though I’m not surprised, because the steps we took aligned with the notion of providing useful, easily accessible content to the company’s specific audience.

According to Hotjar, Hubspot Academy used their on-site poll service, which resulted in a 10% conversion rate increase. Irish airline Ryanair also used the tool and found it useful.

Another feature of Hotjar is this: You can literally replay sessions that real visitors took on your site. Selecting a few of these visits and taking notes on them could provide you with additional context about your audience that you may not have otherwise acquired.

The moral of the story here is this: If you’re not using a tool like Hotjar, you could be missing out on a ton of actionable data.

These Heatmap Examples Help Us Get to the Core Of Landing Page Conversions

Conversion metrics like traffic sources, page on time, bounce rate, interactions per visit and so much more can tell us a lot.

But there’s something about heatmapping that can do what these otherwise-valuable key performance indicators cannot. They practically follow a person’s eyes (or mousepad) to show a bit more about their thought process.

Much of it is unconscious, but it just goes to show that conversions are not all about the numbers. Looking at a heatmap analysis can help you cater to your visitors. While they aren’t all the same, you can deduce what most people do, and act accordingly.

As for the on-site polls, that’s yet another service from Hotjar that the Ignite Visibility team (myself included) love to use in the right time and place. It’s not something to implement haphazardly, but it’s a smart service to pull out as needed.

Related Posts

  • High-Converting Landing Page Optimization (Part 1 of 4)

    This post is the first in a four-part series on common landing page templates and…

  • 40 Ways to Optimize Your Landing Pages and Skyrocket Your Sales

    A landing page, in the world of marketing and advertising, is a standalone web page…

  • 8 CRO Questions to Ask about your Landing Page

    Your website landing pages are your most important online assets for conversions. They are literally…

About John Lincoln

John Lincoln (MBA) is the CEO of Ignite Visibility, a top performance marketing agency backed by Mountaingate Capital. A digital marketing strategist and keynote speaker, Lincoln has managed over 1,000 marketing programs for brands like DoorDash, HBO, Tony Robbins, and Experian. Under his leadership, Ignite Visibility has been named a leading digital marketing agency in the U.S. and made the Inc. 5,000 list six times. Lincoln also spearheaded the development of CertaintyTech, a cutting-edge media mix modelling and forecasting platform. An award-winning marketer, Lincoln has authored three books, including Advolution (2022), and produced films such as SEO: The Movie. Recognized as a Top Business Leader, he has been featured in Forbes and The New York Times and spoken at global events like Web Summit and SMX. Lincoln's mission is to empower businesses through innovative digital strategies while reinvesting in clients, employees, and the community.

About Ignite

Ignite Visibility is a premier full-service digital marketing agency. We were founded in San Diego, CA but are now a 100% remote-first company with Igniters and clients around the globe.

Ignite Visibility is one of the highest awarded digital marketing agencies in the industry, works with some of the biggest brands in the world and is a 6x Inc. 5000 company.

noun-trading

Our Services

Ignite Visibility offers Award-Winning Services including comprehensive full-funnel digital marketing strategies. Learn more about our most popular service offerings below:

  • SEO Search Engine Optimization
  • PPC Pay Per Click
  • Email Marketing
  • Social Media
  • Creative
  • View All Services

Contact Us. Let’s Chat!

  • This field is hidden when viewing the form

Marketing Guides

SEO In 2020: How To Prepare For Major Disruption

"SEO: The Movie" - Have You Seen Our Film? Watch Now

"Social Media Marketing: The Movie" - Have You Seen Our Film? Watch Now

Amazon Seller Central vs Vendor Central

Listen To The Podcast Featuring The Best Minds In Marketing

John Lincoln Interviews Global Director of Digital Marketing & Strategy at Qualcomm, Jessica Jensen

Check Out 227 Free Online Marketing Classes

The 2020 Guide To Dominating SEO With Advanced Schema

Learn More About Our Digital Marketing Agency

Learn More About Our SEO Services

Learn More About Our Paid Media Services

SELECT CATEGORY

Become A Contributor

Interested in writing for Ignite Visibility?

APPLY NOW

noun-chat

Let's Chat

Ready to grow your online visibility and sales?

Request Your Free Proposal

Work With Us

NEWSLETTER // SIGN UP NOW










noun-strategy

Free Marketing Resources

  • Digital Marketing Resources
  • Marketing Strategy Videos
  • Weekly Marketing News Recaps
noun-strategy

Most Popular Blogs

  • How Long Does SEO Take?
  • Multi-Location SEO: Top Strategies
  • Google AI Overviews: Everything You Need to Know
  • Technical SEO 101
  • 18 Google Ad Extensions You Should Use
  • Complete Guide to Google Responsive Display Ads
  • Capitalizing on Local Service Ads
  • How SEO and PPC Work Together
  • Community Management Best Practices
  • B2B Social Media Marketing Guide
  • VIEW ALL BLOGS
noun-letter

Join Our Newsletter

CONNECT WITH US

  • facebook
  • twitter
  • instagram
  • youtube
  • linkedin

Services

  • Search Engine Optimization
  • Generative Engine Optimization
  • Pay Per Click Management
  • Social Media Marketing
  • Email Marketing
  • Conversion Rate Optimization
  • Website Design & Development
  • Creative Design
  • Content Marketing
  • Digital PR
  • Franchise Marketing
  • Digital Marketing Agency Services

About

  • Our Team
  • Our Values
  • Clients
  • Industry
  • Reviews
  • Careers
  • Marketing Resources
  • Privacy Policy & Service Terms
  • Advertising Disclosures
  • Sitemap

Contact

4370 La Jolla Village Drive
Suite 320
San Diego, California 92122

619.752.1955

Join The Newsletter

Sign up for our newsletter to get the latest from Ignite Visibility.











google parther logo

©2025 Ignite Visibility. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy and Terms of Service