Finalsite + CrazyEgg: Read and analyze a heatmap report

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Misty Flowers

A heatmap is a picture of a web page with colors laid on top to show where visitors click. Bright, warm colors (yellow and red) mark the spots clicked most, and cooler colors (blue) mark the spots clicked least. It works like a weather map, but for visitor attention: instead of guessing what people care about on a page, you can see it. This article explains how to read the four report views CrazyEgg provides for their heatmap: Heatmap Report, Confetti Report, Overlay Report, and List Report.

💡 Quick answers

  • What does a heatmap show? Where visitors click. Brighter areas receive more clicks. See the heatmap report documentation.
  • When do reports appear? Once a heatmap has tracked at least one visitor. See Viewing heatmap reports.
  • What are the other reports? The confetti, overlay, and list reports show the same clicks in more detail.
  • Can results be narrowed down? Yes, by date and device. See Filtering heatmap reports.

Before you start

This article is part of the Finalsite + CrazyEgg series in Finalsite Support. Looking for another Finalsite article? Check out the full set:

In this article

Read the reports

Each heatmap includes several reports for the same page. Start with the heatmap, then use the others to look closer. To see the heatmap reports in action, watch this CrazyEgg heatmap video. For more walkthroughs, see the CrazyEgg YouTube tutorials.

Report What to look for
Heatmap Report Bright areas with many clicks, and bright areas on text that is not a link.
Confetti Report Each click as a dot, colored by a chosen detail such as device or traffic source. Every click counts separately, so one visitor can appear many times.
Overlay Report Plus markers on clicked elements. Red markers have more clicks than blue. The Live view shows links and buttons, the Other view shows non-clickable elements in gray, and Both shows everything.
List Report Clicked elements ranked by clicks and percent. The Visible, Not Visible, and Both tabs separate what shows in the screenshot from items such as drop-down menus. Exports as a CSV file.

CrazyEgg heatmap report for a school district home page, with click activity layered over the page and a panel of summary measures on the right, including median page load, rage clicks, dead clicks, and page bounces.

A heatmap report shows the page with click activity layered on top and summary measures alongside.

Example CrazyEgg click map. Warm yellow and red spots over navigation links and headlines show where visitors clicked most; cooler blue areas show fewer clicks.

Example click map. Source: CrazyEgg.

Example CrazyEgg confetti report. Each click appears as a colored dot on the page, and a Referrer panel lists traffic sources from most to least clicks.

Example confetti report. Source: CrazyEgg.

Example CrazyEgg overlay report. Plus and minus markers sit on clicked elements, and a pop-up shows 358 clicks, 268 people clicked, and a New vs Returning split.

Example overlay report. Source: CrazyEgg.

Example CrazyEgg list report. A table ranks clicked page elements by element name, type, clicks, and percentage, with Visible on this page, Not Visible, and Both tabs.

Example list report. Source: CrazyEgg.

Analyze what the heatmap shows

Find popular areas

High-click links show what visitors value most. CrazyEgg suggests placing an important item, such as a sign-up field, closer to a bright area and then creating a new heatmap to test whether the new placement works better.

Spot clicks on plain text

Bright spots on headlines or sentences that are not links show what visitors expected to find. See "Spot dead space and rage clicks" for how to read these clicks.

Check where visitors exit

In the list report, the Both tab lists the most-clicked links. If the top rows are links that lead further into the site, the exit is a good one. See The power of the list report: High exit rate.

 Real-world scenarios

  • A quick link receives almost no clicks. The list report ranks it near the bottom. Relabeling it with the words families use can make it easier to spot.

Share and export reports

Send a report to someone without a CrazyEgg login with a share link, or export it for a document or slide. See Sharing a heatmap with a share link and Exporting reports.

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