There are all sorts of analytics and web traffic statistics services around; and some even offer clickstream data whereby you can piece together the route a visitor takes through your web site.
Where these software applications and services usually fall down is showing you more granular details. For example, in the scenario where there may be multiple links to a certain page on any given page, what version and link placement did a visitor follow?
ClickTale is an interesting service that can tell you not only which version of link on a page was clicked, but also how far down the screen the person scrolled to get to that link, what they read on the page and what they didn't - and that's for starters.
Web site visitor recording
One of the best ways to test the usability of a site is to watch how people navigate it. It's costly to carry out that sort of monitoring as usually someone needs to be present or the visitor filmed as they browse the site.
This is basically what
ClickTale does, but without the high cost - it captures all mouse movements, clicks, scrolling and keystrokes (aside from passwords) which can be played back to you. There's no camera involved, it all happens via a small snippet of code you add to your pages.
HeatmapsMost of us have seen heatmap data used in various reports around the web. A heatmap is a graphical representation of activity on a page - a little like rainfall intensity maps issued by weather bureaus.
There are all sorts of ways heatmaps are generated - some involve very complex studies that track eye movement and some just clicks. ClickTale has approached it differently.
Noticing that mouse movements often correlate with eye movements, ClickTale's heat map feature compiles this data to provide a visual representation of what visitors are looking at and focusing on within the page. It will also show how far down a page a person scrolls before taking an action or abandoning the site - a powerful feature that can help refine placement of critical texts.
Click heatmaps are also available, as are "attention" heatmaps, showing which areas are read and those that are glossed over.
ClickTale and form analyticsOne of the most frustrating aspects of form development is gauging at what point a visitor is more likely to abandon a form through asking too many questions or the wrong sort of questions. ClickTale's form analytics module includes among its many features the ability to discern what fields were the last ones to be completed before the form was abandoned. This level of form analytics can great reduce the amount of time it takes to develop forms that offer the highest possible level of conversion.
The form analytics module can also show how long a person interacted with a form and what form fields are the most confusing, based on error levels where a particular form field data needs to be re-entered.
Free ClickTale accountThis only just scratches the surface of ClickTale's many analytics features.
ClickTale says any process you have can be tracked and optimized and by taking advantage of their extensive set of analytics filters, you really zoom in on problem areas to gain a better idea of what is happening on your web site.
Rather than rely on this basis ClickTale review, If you would like to give the service a whirl, sign up for a
free ClickTale account so you can better gauge if what it offers will be useful in your online business as a tool to help increase sales and other critical conversion points.
Michael Bloch
Taming the Beast
http://www.tamingthebeast.net Tutorials, web content, tools and software.
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