Research Fundamentals Part 4: Heat Maps and Session Replays: What to Actually Look For

Research Skills · Part 4 of 6

Heat Maps and Session Replays: What to Actually Look For
⏱️ 2-min read

Heat maps and session replays show you how people actually behave on your site. Not how you think they behave. How they actually do.

But most people look at heat maps, say “that’s interesting,” and then do nothing with the data. Here’s what to actually look for.

Heat Maps: Four Types

Click Maps show where people click. Use them to find:

Visitors clicking non-clickable elements (they expect something to be a link but it’s not)
Important buttons getting ignored (your call to action isn’t getting clicks)
Distractions getting too many clicks (navigation or secondary links pulling attention away)

If people click a non-clickable element repeatedly, make it clickable or redesign it so it doesn’t look clickable. If your main call to action gets fewer clicks than your navigation, you have a priority problem.

Scroll Maps show how far people scroll. Use them to find:

Content below the fold that nobody sees (important information buried too deep)
Early drop-off points (people leaving before seeing key information)
Long pages where people don’t reach the call to action

If 70% of visitors never scroll past your first screen, anything below that might as well not exist. Either move critical content higher or make above-the-fold content more engaging.

Move Maps show where cursors hover. Use them to find:

Hesitation points (cursor hovering over something repeatedly suggests confusion or interest)
Reading patterns (what people actually look at versus what you think they look at)
Ignored sections (areas where cursors never go)

If cursors hover repeatedly over a feature description, people are interested but maybe need more information. If cursors never enter your benefits section, redesign it to be more noticeable.

Attention Maps combine time and scroll data to show what people actually focus on. Use them to find:

Most viewed content (what’s actually getting attention)
Skipped sections (what looks important to you but gets ignored by users)
Reading depth (how much of your copy people consume)

If your carefully crafted value proposition gets 3 seconds of attention while an unimportant image gets 20 seconds, rethink your layout priorities.

Session Replays: What to Watch For

Session replays are recordings of real user sessions. Watch 20 to 30 sessions looking for these patterns:

Rage clicks. People clicking the same element repeatedly in frustration. Usually means something’s broken, too slow to load, or not working as expected. Fix these immediately.

Dead clicks. People clicking elements that don’t do anything. They expect interaction but get nothing. Either make it functional or redesign it to look non-clickable.

Confusion loops. People navigating back and forth between pages trying to find information. This suggests unclear navigation or missing content.

Form struggles. People filling out forms, deleting entries, trying again, then abandoning. Watch which fields cause problems. Maybe the label is unclear. Maybe you’re asking for information people don’t have. Maybe the field validation is too strict.

Hesitation before important actions. People hovering over the signup button for 10 seconds before clicking suggests last-minute concerns. What objection isn’t being addressed?

Quick bounces. People arriving and leaving within 2 to 3 seconds without scrolling. The page doesn’t match expectations or fails to grab attention immediately.

How to Use This Data

Don’t just collect pretty visualizations. Turn observations into test hypotheses:

Observation: 40% of visitors click a non-clickable image
Hypothesis: Making that image a clickable link to the product page will increase engagement
Test: Add the link and measure click-through rate

Observation: Session replays show people struggling with the “Company Size” field in the signup form
Hypothesis: Changing it from a text field to a dropdown will reduce form abandonment
Test: Implement dropdown and measure completion rate

Observation: Scroll maps show 60% of visitors never see the pricing section below the fold
Hypothesis: Moving pricing information higher will increase conversion by addressing concerns earlier
Test: Create variation with pricing visible without scrolling

How Many Sessions to Watch

For heat maps: let them collect at least 1,000 to 2,000 page views before making conclusions. Smaller samples can be misleading.

For session replays: watch 20 to 30 sessions minimum. You’ll start seeing patterns after 15 to 20. If you’re not seeing clear patterns, watch 20 more.

Focus on sessions from people who almost converted but didn’t. Those reveal the friction points that stop conversions.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

💡 QUICK WIN
Install a heat mapping tool if you don’t have one. Hotjar has a free tier. Set it up on your main landing page and checkout flow. Check back in one week after collecting 500+ views.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Coming up in Part 5:
Web analytics foundations every A/B tester needs to know.

Reply with questions anytime.

– Atticus

P.S. The single most valuable session replay insight: watch people who added items to cart but didn’t purchase. Whatever stopped them is your next test.

---