Every quarter you should be making it a point to go through your website and freshen things up a little. You might ensure pricing is reflected accurately and that your portfolio is current. However, I also recommend that once yearly you take a deeper dive into your website for a larger refresh. Friend, please don’t take this step based on your own opinion or go into this project blindly. There is a tool that’s going to make your life so much easier and significantly increase conversions on your website. Read on to see how I strategically plan website content using Hotjar.
What is Hotjar?
Hotjar is a behavior analytics and user feedback service. You’re likely already using Google Analytics, but Hotjar is much more than that. Hotjar will allow you to see what your website traffic is actually doing on your website. You can view something called a heatmap which will show you using warm and cool colors where the majority of your traffic is clicking on your website. You can use a scroll function that will visually show you what percentage of your users are making it to various points down your webpage.
How to plan website content using Hotjar
First, you’ll install Hotjar (for FREE up to three pages) on your website. Allow some generous time to pass so that you can get adequate data with a lot of user’s analytics. Review what users are clicking, where they are scrolling, and what they are reading. Hotjar provides actual screen recordings that you can also analyze to see what each user is really doing. This is so helpful when you want to learn where specific stopping points are on your website for your audience.
After you’ve been able to collect enough data and get a good idea of what your traffic is currently doing, you can start determining areas you want to make improvements and plan content.
How I use the data to make changes on my website
Over on my website’s homepage, I have a FREE editable bridal guide opt-in. It sits nicely towards the bottom of this page. It’s performed okay – but I know it could be better.
In looking at my heatmap in Hotjar, I can see that the majority of my website audience is going elsewhere on my site closer towards the top of the page. Only about 25% of my audience (currently) is scrolling all the way down to where this opt-in lives. This is one of many things I will be adjusted on my website for next year. I will strategically place that higher up on my homepage to see if that changes the conversion for that freebie.
Another example would be driving more users to my contact page. This is most likely your end goal for your website, too, am I right? We want our audience to reach out to us! I have great calls to action currently that are performing, but my contact calls to action sit further down on a lot of my pages. To convert more clicks to my contact page I will adjust those call to action buttons that are being clicked on more often to link to my contact page.
The difference between Hotjar and Google Analytics
I’m sure by now you can determine the difference, but I’d like to share how I use both of these tools effectively. Google Analytics provides me with numbers for my website visitors. I can see how many users land on my website each day, where they came from (Facebook, Pinterest, etc.), and what pages were viewed. It’s great when you’re planning your marketing to determine what is working to drive traffic to your website.
Hotjar on the other hand, provides analytics for your user’s activity on your page, as outlined earlier. I use Google to strategically plan how to drive traffic to my website, and I use Hotjar to strategically plan my website content to gain more conversions.
How to do this legally
Did you know that when you’re collective ANY sort of user information from your website traffic it is required by law to have a privacy policy on your website? This includes Google Analytics, Hotjar, and even your contact form on your website. Make sure you’re legally legit and covered – even if you’re not using Hotjar you likely have a contact form on your website, right? I personally use and trust The Creative Law Shop for all of my legal contract needs, including my website’s privacy policy. Use code THEKATECOLLECTIVE10 for 10% off your order!
Fiend, I really hope this helps you to gain a much better & more clear understanding of your website traffic! I’d love to hear from you and what you learn with your data and how you plan to update your website accordingly with this information. Contact me and I’d love to walk you through what I recommend – FREE & no strings attached!
