Hotjar is a digital marketing tool that lets you collect data and feedback on the UX of your website. Unique to Hotjar, you can create “heatmaps” of clicks, movement, and scrolls on your webpage. Heatmaps are a visual representation of clicks on a specific web page. I love this tool, and here I have identified a few ways where Hot Jar really earns its value in comparison to a more traditional form of click tracking, Google Analytics and Tag manager.
Sure, you can track clicks with Google Analytics, and some other tools. But those tools only give you numbers of clicks. It can be difficult to visualize thousands of clicks on a single page, and the impact those clicks have on user experience.
Also, you have to set up Google Analytics click tracking manually. Setting up Google Tag Manager can be a pain, especially if you aren’t well versed in HTML. If you have access to a developer, working with them can help, but there is still a delay in getting the code set up on your site.
Hotjar on the other hand, is a breeze to set up. Hotjar is installed in 2 minutes by putting a piece of code in the header right next to your Google Analytics tracking code. After installing Hotjar and then deciding what page to track through your Hotjar user dashboard, it will automatically start tracking clicks, movement, and scrolls.
On top of Hotjar being user friendly, its visual representation of the user experience is extremely useful for anyone trying to increase conversions on their site. I set this up on my own website to see how a group of UVU students would interact with my content.
As you can see in the screenshot of drewtadd.com, it’s pretty obvious that users aren’t getting a lot of direction on where to go. The clicks are pretty evenly distributed on the menu items in my header. This isn’t necessarily bad, but really I want users to view my resume or contact form. Using Hotjar, I found that I need to update my site with a few CTA’s that will push people to the pages I want them to go to.
Hotjar is a fantastic tool that is actually available for FREE to students and hobbyists with small websites! Take a look at hotjar.com for some more information.