What is a heatmap?
How website heatmaps work — click, scroll, and movement maps — and how to use them to improve a page.
A heatmap is a visual summary of how visitors interact with a page, aggregated across many sessions. Warmer colors mean more activity; cooler colors mean less. Instead of watching one session at a time, a heatmap shows you the pattern across everyone.
The common types
- Click maps — where people click (and tap), revealing dead clicks on things that aren’t actually links or buttons.
- Scroll maps — how far down the page people get, so you can see whether your call to action sits above or below where most people stop.
- Movement maps — where the cursor travels, a rough proxy for attention.
Why device matters
Behavior on mobile is not the same as on desktop. A button that’s obvious on a wide screen can be buried on a phone. Good heatmap tools split the view by desktop, tablet, and mobile so you fix the right layout. YakDesk does this by default.
Using heatmaps well
- Start with a page that matters (home, pricing, checkout).
- Look for dead clicks — a sign people expect something to be interactive.
- Check the scroll map — is your CTA in the range most people actually reach?
- Pair the heatmap with session replay to watch the individual sessions behind a surprising pattern.
Heatmaps come standard with YakDesk, alongside recording and live chat. See how it works.