Heatmap

A heatmap is a visual summary of visitor behaviour on a page. Warm colours show areas with a lot of activity and cool colours show areas with little. The main types are click maps, which show where people click or tap; scroll maps, which show how far down the page people get; and move maps, which track mouse movement on desktop as a rough indication of attention.

Heatmaps are useful for spotting problems that analytics numbers alone cannot explain. A click map might show people clicking an image or heading they expect to be a link, or ignoring the main button. A scroll map might show that most visitors never reach your pricing or testimonials, which suggests important content is buried too low or the page loses them earlier.

Treat heatmaps as clues rather than answers. They show what people did, not why, and they need enough sessions to be meaningful. Always look at mobile and desktop separately, because layouts and behaviour differ. Session recordings, user feedback and an audit of the page help explain the patterns, and an A/B test confirms whether your fix actually improves conversions. Heatmap tools record visitor behaviour, so mention them in your privacy policy and respect consent rules where they apply.

How to improve it

• Install a heatmap tool on key landing pages and collect enough sessions before drawing conclusions.
• Review mobile and desktop heatmaps separately.
• Move important content such as proof and pricing higher if scroll maps show few visitors reach it.
• Make elements people try to click actually clickable, or make them look less like links.
• Turn each finding into a hypothesis and confirm it with an A/B test.

How PageScore checks it

PageScore does not record visitors, so it does not produce heatmaps. Its first-screen CTA check, headline checks and AI review of a mobile screenshot cover many of the same questions: whether the key message and action are visible and clear.