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Top 5 Questions to ask when selecting heatmap vendors

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Just realized I’ve not been writing anything since I switched to my new job, almost half a year already! There has been lots of new challenges in my new role, one of my recent challenge is to support on page level analysis for several existing clients – instead of simply reporting the most popular pages, also analyze what PART of a given page is drawing users’ attention and action. As I mentioned in my previous post, heatmaps can be your friend on answering this type of question, and in this post I’d like to share the top 5 questions that I will ask while approaching the different heatmaps vendors.

Heatmap Sample

 

Question 1: How do the heatmaps work in multi-screens sceniaro? How does the platform work with responsive websites / fluid design websites?

I don’t think we need to explain how users are shifting their web-surfing experiences from 1 screen to multi-screens and the importance of mobile friendly web sites; even Google would rank mobile friendly site higher in its SERP. With the rise of responsive websites, that on the other hand adds complexity to heatmaps generation – 1 single heatmap is no longer be able to answer how users are interacting with a given page.

It’s important to understand how the platform handles this new era of web surfing experiences: Does the platform supports responsive website out of the box? Do I need to tweak my tracking code to measure the different versions of my website? How do I see the performances of different versions of my website: are different heatmaps generated or there’s a filter within the platform for me to choose the version (desktop, mobile, etc) I want to analyze?

Question 2: How are heatmaps generated in the platform? Do heatmaps generated on the fly based on the LIVE website or saved as snapshots within the platform?

One of the advantage to utilize heatmap solution is to compare how a UX revamp on a given web page  drive better engagements or even conversions. However, some of the heatmap platforms on the market are not saving your website screenshots and heatmaps on regular basis, but simply overlaying the clicks spots data to the current LIVE website. In that case, you won’t be able to compare the performances of your before / after revamp page, and the historical data will become irrelevant once your web page is changed.

To avoid this from happening, make sure you understand how heatmaps are generated in the platform, and even if it generates snapshots, ask how OFTEN are heatmaps generated.

Question 3: Can I segment my heatmaps? How are segments defined within the platform?

Segment or Die. Like any digital analytics platform segmentation is probably one of the most important feature for you to gain insights tailored to the audiences of focus instead of the generic aggregates. I can’t stress enough how important it is to understand the segmentation power of your heatmap solution, and as equally important, understand how segments can be defined within the platform: Do I need to modify tracking codes for each segments required? What are the attributes that I can use to create segments? Can I specify events or conversions within the platform and use that for segmentation?

Question 4: What type of integration is supported with other analytics platforms / databases? How can it be done?

I assume heatmap analytics solution is usually the second or third analytics engine that you will implement on your website: mostly likely you already have tools like Google Analytics or Omniture installed. It will actually be powerful if you can integrate your heatmap platform with the existing platforms that you own so that you can utilize some existing intelligence.

For example, can I pull the segments created from my existing platform to the heatmap platform? Can the heatmap platform utilizes my campaign tagging parameters so that I can segment my heatmap based on my paid marketing efforts? Can I bring my A/B testing and heatmap platforms together so that I can compare the 2 variations not only based on the defined KPI but also user behaviour indicated by heatmaps?

Question 5: How cost is calculated? What type of support do I get?

Costs matter obviously, like when you are comparing any purchases in your daily life. In terms of heatmaps or web analytics platform, it’s important to understand how cost is calculated – usually tools will either be operating at a fixed cost or based on usage, and for those based upon usage some will count on PageViews while some will count on Visits.

Choose wisely which type of package will suit your needs based on your website traffic, usually you can contact the sales person to get a rough estimate of the cost that may incur. It’s also important to understand the type of support you may get from that cost: do I have a dedicated account person to handle my requests? Is my support operating 24 x 7 or if not, how long does that take for the vendor to revert to my inquiry? Does the vendor operate in a different timezone than I do?

Summary

I hope you found my 5 recommended questions useful, and now it’s your turn: what are the other questions that you would ask while you’re selecting heatmap or web analytics vendors? Did you encounter any tricky scenarios and what did you choose at the end? Share with us your own experiences!


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