Recherche avancée

Sur d’autres sites (3397)

• Matomo vs WP-Statistics – which web analytics plugin suits you best ?

  2 avril 2020, par Joselyn Khor — Analytics Tips, Plugins

  Due to the endless choices, you may be wondering which web analytics plugin (GA, Slimstat or WP-Statistics) to choose from on the WordPress directory. If the choice is between WP-Statistics and Matomo for WordPress, we’ve got you covered. Have a look at which could be the best option for you. Our team tested the WP-Statistics plugin to see how it compares. It’s hard not to be biased, but we’ll try our best to give you a fair assessment.

  The main considerations in this article : 

  • General overview
  • General comparison
  • Similarities
  • Differences
  • Three notable feature category comparisons
  • Which tool suits you better ?

  General overview

  What’s Matomo Analytics for WordPress ?

  Matomo for WordPress is a free, privacy-friendly web analytics plugin that lets you understand website visitors and how they behave on your site. With comprehensive insights, you get the opportunity to increase conversions, and the know-how to improve your website. 

  It lets you undertake essential analysis by tracking information, such as, where visitors are coming from, what your most popular pages are, and how visitors are using your site.

  In addition to the fundamentals, the tool also allows for advanced tracking and analysis with features that give you a full understanding of behavioural patterns and website performance. This enables you to optimise your WordPress website to increase sales or engagement.

  It offers a complete analytics package with the bonuses of 100% data ownership, no data sampling, and GDPR compliance. 

  What’s WP-Statistics ?

  WP-Statistics is currently the most used self-hosted WordPress statistics plugin. It provides reports that let you analyse who your visitors are, where they’re coming from, and to an extent what they’re doing on your website.

  Like Matomo for WordPress, it gives you an understanding of your audience which helps you make decisions on how to improve your website for more conversions. 

  As it’s self-hosted on your own WordPress servers it can be seen as a privacy-friendly choice with a few tweaks (more on this below).

  Like Matomo for WordPress, it gives you an understanding of your audience which helps you make decisions on how to improve your website for more conversions. 

  General comparison

  Let’s compare the installation process and the dashboards that get installed in your WordPress.

  Installation

  Both Matomo and WP-Statistics are installed directly in your WordPress so you’ll be able to see your analytics reports right in your WordPress dashboard. You can install them both straight from the WordPress Directory.

  The installation process for both plugins is beginner-friendly. You simply need to find them on the WordPress directory, click on ‘Install Now’, and tracking should start immediately in your WordPress dashboard.

  Dashboard

  For the main Matomo platform you’ll see :

  • Visitors – Overview, Visits Log, Real-time, Real-time Map, Locations, Devices, Software, Times, User IDs, Custom Variables, User Type
  • Behaviour – Pages, Entry Pages, Exit Pages, Page titles, Site Search, Outlinks, Downloads, Events, Contents, Engagement, Transitions, Users Flow, Top Paths, Page Author, Page Location, Page Type, Crawling errors
  • Acquisition – Overview, All Channels, Search Engine & Keywords, Websites, Social Networks, Campaigns, Campaign URL Builder, Crawling overview
  • Ecommerce – Overview, Ecommerce Log, Products, Sales, Multi Attribution
  • Goals – Overview, Multi Attribution, Choose Goals, Manage Goals
  • These may be worded differently from WP-Statistics, but they show you all the information you need to know about your traffic, pages, etc.

  Previous

  Next

  In the dashboard for WP-Statistics you’ll see :

  • Overview, Hits, Online, Referrers, Search Words, Search Engines, Pages, Visitors, Categories, Tags, Authors, Browsers, Top Visitors Today
  • These are the only things you can see in the dashboard. So you can’t click into them for a drop down section to get deeper insights. 
  •  

  

  Key similarities between Matomo and WP-Statistics

  • Free to use
  • Self-hosted – All data collected is stored only within your own servers, no third parties have rights over your data, and logs or report data will never be sent to other servers. 
  • Beginner-friendly – Both offer simple reporting for people who are very much beginners and only want basic insights. With Matomo the advantage is also that you can get more details should you ever want/need to.

  Key differences between Matomo and WP-Statistics

  The main differences fall in these categories : features, privacy, documentation/support, security, active development, extensibility, price and ads.

  Features : 

  WP-Statistics – On a fundamental level, WP-Statistics is focused on simplicity and the basics. There are fewer reports than Matomo and they function on a level that suits beginners who are interested in seeing only the numbers of visitors on the website, and how often each page is viewed. 

  Matomo – provides an interface with similar simplicity. However, there is also a more feature-rich and more comprehensive user interface available. In addition to the basics, Matomo offers features like Goals, Ecommerce, in the free version which show a deeper level of insight. WP Statistics does not let you track essentials like Goals or Ecommerce.

  Privacy : 

  WP-Statistics – One of the concerns we wish to raise here is for data privacy. There doesn’t appear to be an opt-out option in WP-Statistics, which could be problematic for some privacy laws such as GDPR. There’s also no documentation on this.

  We were a bit concerned to see that WP-Statistics didn’t have IP anonymization enabled by default. Considering the IP address is personal data, it means you are not compliant with privacy laws such as the GDPR when you use this plugin unless you tweak the settings. They mentioned : “In previous versions, there was an option called Hash IP. When Hash IP was activated, the IP addresses wouldn’t be stored in the database, but instead, a unique hash would be used. In this new version, an option has been added to store IPs anonymously. This option is active by default.” However, when we installed this and tested it on multiple WordPress installations, this option was not active by default. 

  Matomo – has more measures in place to ensure privacy is respected, such as, opt-outs. Due to the stringent privacy features in place, Matomo is well equipped to ensure GDPR compliance. Matomo has an abundance of user guides and FAQs you can follow to configure your platform to fully comply with GDPR. There’s even an 12-step compliant checklist. The most compelling proof is that the leading voice on GDPR – The European Commission uses Matomo Analytics. 

  Documentation/Support : 

  WP-Statistics – has little documentation, FAQs, and no support.

  Matomo – has thousands of FAQs and user guides, as well as a dedicated support team and forum you can turn to for help. Should you ever run into any issue, this might be something important to consider.

  The contrast in support between WP-Statistics and Matomo for WordPress :

  

  

  Security :

  Matomo takes protecting your data very seriously. We have a security bounty programme giving security researchers money should they find any security issues. Matomo also performs a security review for every new release. We couldn’t find anything similar in WP-Statistics.

  Active development : 

  WP Statistics – doesn’t seem to have active development. The last change in this plugin was over three months ago (source : https://github.com/wp-statistics/wp-statistics/commits/master) and in general, only 10 people really contributed to it (source : https://github.com/wp-statistics/wp-statistics/graphs/contributors, the graphs shows little contributor activity.) 

  Matomo – has been built by hundreds of contributors (source : https://github.com/matomo-org/matomo/graphs/contributors), and is actively maintained by multiple developers including developers who work on this full time. This means you can rest assured that Matomo will be there for you in the future, it will receive regular improvements.

  Extensibility :

  WP-Statistics – have a section on their website offering customisation but for a price. 

  Matomo – should you want any changes and have some developer knowledge or some developers at hand, you can completely customise and extend Matomo for free. There are also one hundred additional plugins available for Matomo for free. 
  

  Price :

  The main WordPress plugins ‘WP Statistics‘ and ‘Matomo Analytics – Ethical Stats. Powerful Insights.‘ are both free.

  WP Statistics and Matomo also sell paid add-ons. However, WP-Statistics’ paid add-ons are ones already integrated in Matomo for free. These basic features are provided as the development team believe they’re necessities to a fully functional analytics platform. 

  Ads :

  WP Statistics shows you ads, whereas Matomo doesn’t.

  Three most notable feature category comparisons

  Both Matomo and WP-Statistics have basic tracking categories in the WP dashboard. In addition, Matomo has feature categories that can be expanded e.g. when clicked, Visitors drops down to reveal 11 more features. 

  We’ll compare three feature categories : Visitors, Behaviour, and Acquisitions.

  1. Visitors (WP-Statistics) vs Visitors (Matomo)

  Let’s dive into how each analytics platform provides insight into the visitors feature category.

  WP-Statistics

  

  WP-Statistics – We can see WP-Statistics gives you bare bones tracking capabilities so you don’t get a really detailed picture of your visitors. It allows you to monitor users currently online in real-time, which is useful to look at the most recent activity on your site. WP-Statistics doesn’t offer a dropdown section to see more about your visitor’s behavioural patterns. There is no Visitors category in WP-Statistics, just individual features in the dashboard but we can group three options together to compare with Matomo’s Visitors category, these are : Online, Browsers, Top Visitors Today.

  Matomo

  

  

  Comparison

  Matomo – In comparison, Matomo has a Visitors category with a dropdown list that lets you drill deeper into what your visitors are doing. It lets you evaluate every action an individual user has taken on your website which is compiled into a full historical profile. Matomo gives an in-depth view. E.g. you can look at individual visit logs, locations, and devices.

  This lets you see what the life-time journey of an active user looks like, or perhaps you want to see what a profile looks like for a user who comes back time-and-time again without ever purchasing ; there is no better way to gain insights to these journeys and this is why the Visitor Profiles feature is so widely used by Matomo users.

  2. Pages tracking (WP-Statistics) vs Behaviour (Matomo)

  For this comparison, WP-Statistics has a few features that can be combined to compare with Matomo’s Behaviour category. 

  WP-Statistics

  

  The Pages section in WP-Statistics gives a basic look at your most popular pages so you know which pages get more visits and those which aren’t performing. This helps with content improvement. You can also see other features in this Behaviour category like Browsers and Hits – these also provide basic stats to help you get a general sense of visitor behaviour. 

  Matomo

  

  Comparison :

  Matomo on the other hand has stats that go into greater detail. The features under the Behaviour section of the tool let you draw actionable conclusions e.g. seeing that a page has a higher exit rate than it’s supposed to, so you optimise that page to prevent people leaving and help them progress through your website. 

  Not only can you see popular pages, you can look at : which page people viewed first when they visited your website ; which page they left from ; what people search for on your site ; and see how people are flowing through pages. Most importantly you can see how each of these reports perform over time so you can improve engagement and conversions on your website.

  3. Referrers (WP-Statistics) vs Acquisition (Matomo)

  For this comparison, WP-Statistics has a few features that can be combined to compare with Matomo’s Acquisition category. 

  WP-Statistics

  

  WP-Statistics gives you Referrers, Search Words, and Search Engines. Which give a basic understanding of the channels that work best for you. This is helpful to know where to focus more of your attention.

  Matomo

  

  Comparison :

  With Matomo you see multiple layers of stats to understand how your acquisition channels are performing. So you can see tables of data that drill into visits, downloads, bounce rate, and newsletter sign ups. For example seeing that Facebook is the channel bringing in the most visitors to your site. This gives you a better sense of which acquisition strategy is working for your site. 

  Who suits WP-Statistics

  This is a great starter pack for people who want a lightweight, functional statistics plugin that gives you a basic overview of website hits and visitors. It’s very easy to use, so it’s great for beginners and those who want simple tracking. If you have basic goals for your website or blog’s success then WP-Statistics is enough for you to get numbers on visitors, page views, and hits, but won’t be suitable for a larger-scale business or organisation. 

  It’s suited for hobby websites, blogs, and freelancers who want simple, effective stats tracking, who don’t need detailed insights on site performance or tracking. 

  Who suits Matomo

  Matomo can be used for the same basic reporting, but has the capability for you to go deeper into more advanced reporting in a different UI if you need it. It’s an option that can work for a wider range of users – from beginners to analysts. There are features to suit all skill levels. This complete suite of features makes it a more comprehensive tool, as you can get more out of it. Ideal not only for bloggers and beginners, but also powerful enough to suit businesses, privacy-respecting organisations, and those who would benefit from conversion optimisation features. 

  You can draw insights from all stages of the customer journey – you’ll track behavioural patterns as soon as visitors enter your site, to their progression through your site, and ultimately to conversion and exit. It’s also an ethical choice because you get 100% data ownership. 

  If you’d like to look deeper into your data then Matomo would also be suitable for you. Matomo’s UI is lean, very easy to learn and shouldn’t overwhelm users in the way another tool like Google Analytics might do. If you think Matomo suits you best, you can install it for free now.

  Advantages of using Matomo

  Truly privacy-respecting

  There’s no messing about when it comes to privacy. As a lot of users are based in Europe, Matomo adheres to the strictest privacy laws and can be counted on as a privacy-respecting tool that’s used by many government entities. Needing to comply with major privacy laws (GDPR) in Europe means Matomo can proudly ensure users are making the ethical choice.

  GDPR compliance

  You mitigate the risks of getting caught out and fined for breaching GDPR regulations. There’s a complete list of documentation, guides, information, and tools to make sure you’re on the right side of GDPR. 

  All-rounder

  Matomo gives you a clearer picture of your visitors which helps you make better decisions for your website overall. The support and documentation is thorough which means you get more out of your Matomo experience.

  Conclusion

  Both tools will do you justice in terms of fundamental reporting, but Matomo Analytics will outshine if you want a greater understanding of your website and want to carry out deeper levels of analysis.

  You can draw useful insights with WP-Statistics so it has to be said that they are doing something right with an entry-level offering. The simplicity is great, but you won’t really get more than a basic idea of how your site is performing.

  On the flipside, this simplicity could also be a double-edged sword for WP-Statistics in that it’s too simplistic to draw actionable insights. If you’re wanting to know anything that could increase sales, conversions or subscribers – then you wouldn’t really get the reports to do so. 

  WP-Statistics also falls short when it comes to updates and support. So a major difference can be seen in support, active development, ads, security, documentation, which many people may think about until they’re in trouble and find they need these resources. Matomo offers support, continuous product development, and extensive documentation. There are also no ads, making it more enjoyable to use.

  One thing we’d like to raise awareness about is WP-Statistics’ claims of being privacy-respecting without much documentation to back up those claims. There is a lack of privacy features which could put some website owners at risk of non-compliance. Just be sure to check that you’ve carried out the steps to comply with the privacy laws in your country.

  Matomo makes it clear that privacy is essential as is compliance to privacy laws like GDPR. The strength also lies in the peace of mind you get from a tool that’s used by global privacy leaders such as the European Commission. 

• Screeching white sound coming while playing audio as a raw stream

  27 avril 2020, par Sri Nithya Sharabheshwarananda

  I. Background

  



  

  1. I am trying to make an application which helps to match subtitles to the audio waveform very accurately at the waveform level, at the word level or even at the character level.

  


  2. The audio is expected to be Sanskrit chants (Yoga, rituals etc.) which are extremely long compound words [ example - aṅganyā-sokta-mātaro-bījam is traditionally one word broken only to assist reading ]

  


  3. The input transcripts / subtitles might be roughly in sync at the sentence/verse level but surely would not be in sync at the word level.

  


  4. The application should be able to figure out points of silence in the audio waveform, so that it can guess the start and end points of each word (or even letter/consonant/vowel in a word), such that the audio-chanting and visual-subtitle at the word level (or even at letter/consonant/vowel level) perfectly match, and the corresponding UI just highlights or animates the exact word (or even letter) in the subtitle line which is being chanted at that moment, and also show that word (or even the letter/consonant/vowel) in bigger font. This app's purpose is to assist learning Sanskrit chanting.

  


  5. It is not expected to be a 100% automated process, nor 100% manual but a mix where the application should assist the human as much as possible.

  


  



  II. Following is the first code I wrote for this purpose, wherein

  



  

  1. First I open a mp3 (or any audio format) file,

  


  2. Seek to some arbitrary point in the timeline of the audio file // as of now playing from zero offset

  


  3. Get the audio data in raw format for 2 purposes - (1) playing it and (2) drawing the waveform.

  


  4. Playing the raw audio data using standard java audio libraries

  


  



  III. The problem I am facing is, between every cycle there is screeching sound.

  



  

  • Probably I need to close the line between cycles ? Sounds simple, I can try.

  


  • But I am also wondering if this overall approach itself is correct ? Any tip, guide, suggestion, link would be really helpful.

  


  • Also I just hard coded the sample-rate etc ( 44100Hz etc. ), are these good to set as default presets or it should depend on the input format ?

  


  



  IV. Here is the code

  



  import com.github.kokorin.jaffree.StreamType;
import com.github.kokorin.jaffree.ffmpeg.FFmpeg;
import com.github.kokorin.jaffree.ffmpeg.FFmpegProgress;
import com.github.kokorin.jaffree.ffmpeg.FFmpegResult;
import com.github.kokorin.jaffree.ffmpeg.NullOutput;
import com.github.kokorin.jaffree.ffmpeg.PipeOutput;
import com.github.kokorin.jaffree.ffmpeg.ProgressListener;
import com.github.kokorin.jaffree.ffprobe.Stream;
import com.github.kokorin.jaffree.ffmpeg.UrlInput;
import com.github.kokorin.jaffree.ffprobe.FFprobe;
import com.github.kokorin.jaffree.ffprobe.FFprobeResult;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.OutputStream;
import java.nio.file.Path;
import java.nio.file.Paths;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicLong;
import javax.sound.sampled.AudioFormat;
import javax.sound.sampled.AudioSystem;
import javax.sound.sampled.DataLine;
import javax.sound.sampled.SourceDataLine;


public class FFMpegToRaw {
    Path BIN = Paths.get("f:\\utilities\\ffmpeg-20190413-0ad0533-win64-static\\bin");
    String VIDEO_MP4 = "f:\\org\\TEMPLE\\DeviMahatmyamRecitationAudio\\03_01_Devi Kavacham.mp3";
    FFprobe ffprobe;
    FFmpeg ffmpeg;

    public void basicCheck() throws Exception {
        if (BIN != null) {
            ffprobe = FFprobe.atPath(BIN);
        } else {
            ffprobe = FFprobe.atPath();
        }
        FFprobeResult result = ffprobe
                .setShowStreams(true)
                .setInput(VIDEO_MP4)
                .execute();

        for (Stream stream : result.getStreams()) {
            System.out.println("Stream " + stream.getIndex()
                    + " type " + stream.getCodecType()
                    + " duration " + stream.getDuration(TimeUnit.SECONDS));
        }    
        if (BIN != null) {
            ffmpeg = FFmpeg.atPath(BIN);
        } else {
            ffmpeg = FFmpeg.atPath();
        }

        //Sometimes ffprobe can't show exact duration, use ffmpeg trancoding to NULL output to get it
        final AtomicLong durationMillis = new AtomicLong();
        FFmpegResult fFmpegResult = ffmpeg
                .addInput(
                        UrlInput.fromUrl(VIDEO_MP4)
                )
                .addOutput(new NullOutput())
                .setProgressListener(new ProgressListener() {
                    @Override
                    public void onProgress(FFmpegProgress progress) {
                        durationMillis.set(progress.getTimeMillis());
                    }
                })
                .execute();
        System.out.println("audio size - "+fFmpegResult.getAudioSize());
        System.out.println("Exact duration: " + durationMillis.get() + " milliseconds");
    }

    public void toRawAndPlay() throws Exception {
        ProgressListener listener = new ProgressListener() {
            @Override
            public void onProgress(FFmpegProgress progress) {
                System.out.println(progress.getFrame());
            }
        };

        // code derived from : https://stackoverflow.com/questions/32873596/play-raw-pcm-audio-received-in-udp-packets

        int sampleRate = 44100;//24000;//Hz
        int sampleSize = 16;//Bits
        int channels   = 1;
        boolean signed = true;
        boolean bigEnd = false;
        String format  = "s16be"; //"f32le"

        //https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/audio types
        final AudioFormat af = new AudioFormat(sampleRate, sampleSize, channels, signed, bigEnd);
        final DataLine.Info info = new DataLine.Info(SourceDataLine.class, af);
        final SourceDataLine line = (SourceDataLine) AudioSystem.getLine(info);

        line.open(af, 4096); // format , buffer size
        line.start();

        OutputStream destination = new OutputStream() {
            @Override public void write(int b) throws IOException {
                throw new UnsupportedOperationException("Nobody uses thi.");
            }
            @Override public void write(byte[] b, int off, int len) throws IOException {
                String o = new String(b);
                boolean showString = false;
                System.out.println("New output ("+ len
                        + ", off="+off + ") -> "+(showString?o:"")); 
                // output wave form repeatedly

                if(len%2!=0) {
                    len -= 1;
                    System.out.println("");
                }
                line.write(b, off, len);
                System.out.println("done round");
            }
        };

        // src : http://blog.wudilabs.org/entry/c3d357ed/?lang=en-US
        FFmpegResult result = FFmpeg.atPath(BIN).
            addInput(UrlInput.fromPath(Paths.get(VIDEO_MP4))).
            addOutput(PipeOutput.pumpTo(destination).
                disableStream(StreamType.VIDEO). //.addArgument("-vn")
                setFrameRate(sampleRate).            //.addArguments("-ar", sampleRate)
                addArguments("-ac", "1").
                setFormat(format)              //.addArguments("-f", format)
            ).
            setProgressListener(listener).
            execute();

        // shut down audio
        line.drain();
        line.stop();
        line.close();

        System.out.println("result = "+result.toString());
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        FFMpegToRaw raw = new FFMpegToRaw();
        raw.basicCheck();
        raw.toRawAndPlay();
    }
}



  



  Thank You

  


• The Ultimate Guide to HeatMap Software

  20 septembre 2021, par Ben Erskine — Analytics Tips, Plugins, Heatmaps

  One of the most effective ways to improve the user experience on your website is to use heatmap software. As well as in-depth insight on how to improve your website and funnels, user behaviour analytics complement traditional web metrics with insights from your customers’ point of view. 

  Heatmap software shows actual user behaviour. That means that you have a visual representation of why a customer might not be converting instead of guessing. 

  By tracking clicks, mouse movement, and page scrolling as well as analysing above the fold content engagement and overall session recordings, heatmap software helps improve user experience and therefore customer retention and conversions.  

  

  What is heatmap software ?

  Heatmap software is a data visualisation tool that uses colour to show what actions a user is taking on a website. 

  If there is a design element on a page that many users engage with, it will show as red/hot. For elements that are less engaging, it will show on the analysis as blue/cold. 

   

  Heatmap software like Matomo helps businesses to improve user experience and increase conversions by tracking elements such as :

  • Flow through sales funnels 
  • Individual session recordings for user experience 
  • A/B page comparisons 
  • Form analytics for sign ups and conversions 
  • Media interaction such as instruction or sales videos
  • Clicks on important links and information 

  Using data visualisation software like a heatmap provides more in-depth data when combined with standard website metrics. 

  What is heatmap software used for ?

  Heatmap software tracks website user behaviour to improve website performance and increase conversions. 

  Heatmaps can show you a detailed analysis of : 

  • Where visitors are clicking (or not clicking) 
  • Where visitors are hovering with their mouse
  • How far users are scrolling or stopping 
  • Where the focus is above the fold 
  • What roadblocks or frictions customers are facing in the sales funnel

  Analysing activity on your website and across channels from your customers point of view is critical in developing a customer-centric business model. 

  This is because heatmaps not only show you what customers are doing but why they are doing it. 

  Heatmap software is ideal for businesses updating and redesigning websites. It also helps to answer important growth questions such as “how can we improve our user experience ?” and “why is our sales funnel not converting better ?”. 

  The benefits of using data visualisation like heatmaps for your website

  Heatmaps are critical for improving websites because they drastically improve customer experience. 

  Customer experience is one of the most important factors in modern business success. A Walker study found that customer experience is one of the biggest differentiators between brands, overtaking other factors such as price. 

  Where straightforward website metrics show customers left a page without action, data visualisation and session recordings show what happens in between them arriving and leaving. This gives web developers and marketers invaluable insights to improve website design and ultimately increase conversions. 

  How heatmap software improves your website and conversions

  There are a few key ways that heatmap software boosts website performance and conversions. All of them focus on both creating a seamless buyer journey and using data to improve results over time. 

  How heatmap software improves conversions ; 

  • By improving UX and usability– 70% of online businesses fail due to bad usability. Heatmaps identify user frustrations and optimise accordingly 
  • By improving content structure – Heatmaps take the guesswork out of design layout and content structure by showing real visitor experiences on your website 
  • By comparing A/B landing pages – Using heatmaps on alternate landing pages can show you why conversions are working or not working based on user activity on the page
  • By optimising across devices – See how your visitors are interacting with your content to learn how well optimised your website is for various devices and remove roadblocks 

  Heatmap analytics you need to improve website user experience

  Click heatmap

  Click heatmaps are useful for two key reasons.

  Firstly, it shows where website users are clicking. 

  Heatmaps that show clicks give you a visual representation of whether copy and CTA links are clear from the customers’ point of view. It can also show whether a customer is clicking on a design feature that doesn’t link anywhere. 

  Secondly, it shows where website users are not clicking. This is just as important when developing funnels and improving user experiences.

  For example, you may have a CTA button for a free trial or purchase. A click heatmap analysis would show if this isn’t clicked on mobile devices and informs developers that it needs to be more mobile-friendly.

  

  Mouse move or hover heatmap

  Like a click heatmap, a mouse hover heatmap shows how you can improve the overall user experience.

  For example, hover heatmaps identify where your visitors engage on a particular webpage. Ideally, of course, you want them to engage with CTAs. Analysing their mouse movements or where they are hovering for more information gives you an indication of any page elements that are distracting them or not working.

  

  Scroll heatmap

  A scroll heatmap uses colours to visualise how far down in a page your visitors scroll. For most web pages, the top will have the most impressions and will naturally get less views (i.e. get “colder” on the heatmap) further down the page. 

  This lets you find out if there is important content positioned too far down the page or if the page is designed to encourage users to keep scrolling.

  No matter how good your product or service is, it won’t convert if potential customers aren’t engaged and scrolling far enough to see it.

  

  Above the fold analysis 

  Above the fold is the content that a visitor sees without scrolling. 

  In a heatmap, the “Average Above the Fold” line will show you how much content your visitors see on average when they open your page. It also shows whether the page design is engaging, whether it encourages visitors to keep scrolling, and whether important information is too far down the page and therefore being missed. 

  Above the fold analysis is arguably the most important as this is the section that the highest number of traffic will see. Using this information ensures that the right content for conversion is seen by the highest number of visitors. 

  

  Session recording

  Session Recording lets you record a real visitor session, so you can see clicks, mouse movements, scrolls, window resizes, page changes, and form interactions all in one. 

  They allow you to understand the experience from the point of view of your visitor and then optimise your website to maximise your success.

  Heatmap software like Matomo takes this one step further and allows you to gather session recordings for individual segments. By analysing sessions based on segments, you can further personalise and optimise based on customer history and patterns.

  

  Final thoughts on heatmap software 

  Heatmap software improves your user experience by easily spotting critical issues that you can then address. 

  As well as that, heatmap analytics like clicks, mouse movement, scroll, above the fold analysis and session recordings increase your marketing ROI by making the most of your existing traffic. 

  It’s a win-win ! 

  Now that you know what heatmap software is, the benefits of using heatmaps on your website and how it can improve your user experience, check out this user guide on heatmap analytics.