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How To Find Hot Spots On Your Blog

  • Crazy Egg Heat MapsWith Crazy Egg you can learn where your users are actually looking on your page. You can do this in one of two ways: heatmaps or confetti.

    The image to the left is an example of a heatmap. Those light-colored spots are where people have clicked on my blog. Brighter spots translate to more user activity.

    What is this good for?
    Glad you asked. It can tell you:

    • The best place for your ads (and better placement means more money for you)
    • How your content encourages your readers to click deeper
    • Find out which layout simply works better

    And even more informative is their confetti layout. This shows you the same activity on a page, but in the form of dots. When you click on each dot you get a high-level overview of the person who clicked on that spot. For example, you can learn what search term they used (if any), their operating system, their browser, window size, do they prefer boxers or briefs…(okay, just kidding about that one). :lol:

    Additionally, you can find out the top 15 referrers to your blog, all conveniently color coded to show who came from where and what they clicked on when they arrived at your blog.

    Did I mention this was free?

    [tags]heatmaps,confetti,crazy egg,monitoring,traffic,blogging,tips[/tags]

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38 Comments
  1. #1 Brown Baron (192 comments.) says:
    July 1, 2007 at 10:20 am

    I’ve been thinking of crazyegg for a while now. I think that the reason I haven’t signed up is that I already use Google Analytics and Reinvigorate along with the other tracking codes of various widgets. I’m wondering if it will have an effect on my loading times.

    Of course, I admit that I’m a stat junkie :mrgreen:

    • #2 Mark says:
      July 1, 2007 at 12:52 pm

      Me too. Haven’t heard of Reinvigorate. I agree that using these things sometimes comes at a cost of download speed. I’m not sure how Google Analytics compares to a heatmap though, but then again, I still need to get my head around GA, too.

  2. #3 Tay (58 comments.) says:
    July 1, 2007 at 1:34 pm

    I used to use Crazy Egg before I started using Google Analytics. Now I don’t use Crazy Egg anymore, but I suppose it would be useful, because I really did like their heat maps. Maybe I’ll start using them again, especially now that my site has actually grown a lot and moved to its own domain! ;)

    • #4 Mark says:
      July 1, 2007 at 1:39 pm

      Hi Tay, I think there’s something to be said for actually seeing on the page where users click. Very valuable information. I still think Google Analytics gives one a wealth of information, but as far as I can tell, they don’t have anything that compares to a heatmap. But true, that’s only one part of the equation.

  3. #5 Grace (32 comments.) says:
    July 1, 2007 at 9:26 pm

    There was the “F” heat map theory on my blog. (Where people usually read in an “F” shape.) I guess this is more useful. :grin: Thanks for sharing.

    • #6 Mark says:
      July 1, 2007 at 9:30 pm

      Oh yes, I’ve heard of the “F” heatmap. I believe that’s typical user behavior when reading a web page or even a printed page. Glad you found this to be useful. :)

      • #7 Grace (32 comments.) says:
        July 2, 2007 at 9:58 pm

        Exactly. But I guess there are exeptions if your ads are more catchy than your content. :smile:

  4. #8 Bush Mackel (69 comments.) says:
    July 2, 2007 at 6:17 am

    *shrugs* I just thought that the picture of your blog with the heatmap looked cool. ha ha.

    Personally, I haven’t tried any of these services for my site yet, but on that note, I don’t have any ads on it either.

    • #9 Mark says:
      July 2, 2007 at 6:28 am

      Cool, yes, but my goal is to have even more spots and brighter ones at that. ;)

  5. #10 Mike (143 comments.) says:
    July 2, 2007 at 7:31 am

    I’ve been meaning to try out crazy egg for a while just for the heck of it. Thanks for the reminder :P

  6. #11 Danielle (6 comments.) says:
    July 2, 2007 at 8:34 pm

    That sounds really cool! Thanks for the tip, as I had never heard about this and am really excited to try it out. I am a fanatic for new ways of fretting over my blog! :wink:

    • #12 Mark says:
      July 2, 2007 at 8:45 pm

      Hehe…”fretting”, that’s a good way of putting it. :lol: I do that, too. So tell me, do you blog even when you’re not at a computer like I do? I’m always thinking, “what can I blog about next?”

      • #13 Danielle (6 comments.) says:
        July 2, 2007 at 8:56 pm

        I am “blogging” no matter where I am now. Post-Its are one of my most important “tools” as I write little notes to myself at work and bring my little notes home.

        • #14 Mark says:
          July 2, 2007 at 9:06 pm

          I’ve been thinking about getting one of these for myself. It’s called the Picopad.

          • #15 Danielle (6 comments.) says:
            July 2, 2007 at 9:15 pm

            I love it! It is so sleek – I could plot my next move in miniature. But you know I will end up at the bar with my friends and I will be writing in my Picopad trying to figure out how to get more bright spots on my blog.

  7. #16 Mike (143 comments.) says:
    July 2, 2007 at 8:53 pm

    I installed their javascript earlier today. I guess I’ll find out in a few days if my blog even has any hot spots :P

  8. #21 Kyle Eslick (35 comments.) says:
    July 3, 2007 at 10:55 am

    I don’t use Crazy Egg a ton, but I’ve been using it off and on for about 8 months now. I use it the most when trying to figure out where exactly to place stuff on my site.

    • #22 Mark says:
      July 3, 2007 at 11:54 pm

      Hi Kyle, good to see you here. :) I’m hoping to learn where the best places are for my advertisements from this thing. I surmise that it is most useful when you make a change to discover the impact, otherwise, it’s business as usual. Thanks for stopping by!

  9. #23 ReviewSaurus (2 comments.) says:
    July 3, 2007 at 12:03 pm

    I don’t see any point in using any service like this. If you have some links like categories on the right hand side, then people will definitely click there.

    • #24 Mark says:
      July 3, 2007 at 11:51 pm

      Hi ReviewSaurus, well, with a thing like Crazy Egg it could confirm what you are trying to achieve. So if you are seeing the spots (and bright ones at that), then you know you’ve got something in the right area of you blog. But if you don’t, then that’s also informative.

      Thanks for dropping by, and I hope to see you return. :)

      • #25 ReviewSaurus (2 comments.) says:
        July 4, 2007 at 12:08 am

        @ Mark : I really think that its more in a design that can drive things pretty neatly. Hot spots work according to the design..that’s what I believe :)

  10. #26 shashank (3 comments.) says:
    July 4, 2007 at 10:58 pm

    thats a great thing you mentioned here..never heard of crazyegg before

    • #27 Mark says:
      July 4, 2007 at 11:01 pm

      Hi shashank! I’m glad you like it. It’s definitely something that I’ll be keeping an eye on. Hope to see you here again. Thanks for dropping by!

  11. #28 Mike (143 comments.) says:
    July 5, 2007 at 12:21 am

    So far the heat map is showing that the majority of people click on the feed subscribe button, yet my reader count dropped last night…lol.

    I don’t think I’ll ever get RSS feeds. Such a mystery :)

    • #29 Mark says:
      July 5, 2007 at 7:04 am

      I think RSS stands for “Really Simple See-saw”. :razz: Mine goes up and down, too, but I don’t think it’s people subscribing and unsubscribing on a frequent basis (at least that’s what I tell myself before I go to bed at night). It’s just that the numbers can’t always be obtained in a reliable basis.

      Maybe Brown can share his secrets on the issue (between you and me, I think he’s got that many feed readers setup to bump that number up ;) )

  12. #30 Mike (143 comments.) says:
    July 5, 2007 at 12:22 am

    Hey! You have the comment editing thingy! Where’d ya get it? :mrgreen:

  13. #34 shashank (3 comments.) says:
    July 5, 2007 at 3:51 am

    hi Mark
    why don’t you add a top commentator list in your sidebar….just a suggestion
    it will help you built a community around your blog …i can’t do that becoz i am at blogger and i miss that thing very much.

    • #35 Mark says:
      July 5, 2007 at 7:06 am

      Hey there, I tried one or two plugins in the past and wasn’t totally thrilled with the way it worked. I’ll revisit that. Any suggestions on what works well?

  14. #36 The Monetizer (1 comments.) says:
    May 13, 2008 at 12:46 am

    I tested out Crazyegg many months ago but found it was giving me some issues with other java and flash widgets I had on my blog, such as Entrecard. It was slowing the blog load time as well… So unfortunately, crazy egg had to go..In theory it’s a great idea though and if it isn’t conflicting with other stuff on your blog, it’s well worth a try..

    The Monetizers last blog post..17 Bookmarking Sites that Dofollow You

  15. #37 Mark (844 comments.) says:
    May 13, 2008 at 7:14 am

    @The Monetizer
    I haven’t used it in a while due to other reasons, but I see where you’re coming from. It’s easy to get the code a little cluttered at times leaving you with the decision of what to cut and what stays.

    Thanks for taking the time to comment! :)

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