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Companies we speak with usually understand what they need from an online marketing strategy. They want a well designed website, consistent and branded social media channels, a sound SEO and web marketing plan as well as good quality content and these are all things which are vital to maintaining a strong and consistent brand online and generating business on the web.

However, it’s important to remember that just because you think something works or looks good, it doesn’t mean that all of the visitors to your website will agree. They might not understand quickly enough that your busines is what they’re looking for, they could be a lot more confused than you think when it comes to navigating your site, they might be endlessly searching for contact details or simply don’t like what they see.

Knowing this kind of information is fascinating, important and the next step in evolving your website.



mouse_movement_screenshot

A heat map showing mouse movements


Although there are many important factors, user experience is just as important as web design, calls to action and compelling content. After all, if someone can’t even navigate your site properly all the rest won’t really matter!

There are several services available that aim to give you detailed information about a user’s experience when they’re on your site. You can find out countless things such as which links people are clicking on, how long they spend on each page and at what point they decide to leave.

However, these are just the “standard tools” available. A real understanding of user behaviour comes from recording live sessions of users navigating your website (yes, you are indeed being watched a lot of the time on the websites you visit!). This can then be visualised in the form of heat maps, whether that be mouse heat maps, click heat maps or scroll maps that will show a range of things, such as what the last 100 users have been doing on your website and so on.

You can combine all of this information with bounce rate, time spent on your site and other traditional tools that you can get from your analytics statistics and you start getting a very clear understanding of how users are behaving on your site, where you may be going wrong and where you could improve and convert more.

Overall, the information can be used and adapted in order to make your website more useful and more effective. A more effective website can mean people stay on your site for longer, find what they’re looking for and even generate more business leads.

All kinds of things can then be worked on and amended, such as coding issues, navigation problems, compatibility issues and much more!

Here at Codastar we’re able to record, track and analyse different kinds of page activity in this way and can present the information back to you in the form of heat maps, reports and most importantly recommendations for moving forward and making improvements that will increase your conversion rate.

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