Heat Map
AnalyticsAlso: Heatmap · Click Map · Scroll Map
Quick definition
A heat map is a visual overlay on a webpage that shows where users click, how far they scroll, and where their cursor moves. Colour intensity indicates frequency: hot colours like red and orange show high activity, cooler colours show low activity. Used to diagnose where attention and intent are concentrated on a page.
How it varies across Australia
Across the Australian sites we have reviewed, scroll depth tends to fall sharply after the first screen on mobile, and click activity concentrates on the top quarter of pages regardless of where the primary call to action sits. The gap between where users click and where the CTA lives is the most common finding, and usually the most actionable one.
See conversion efficiency patterns across Australian industries →The three types of heat map
Shows every point users clicked or tapped, including rage-clicks on non-interactive elements.
Shows how far down the page users scroll before leaving, expressed as a percentage of page height.
Tracks cursor movement across the page. Loosely correlated with eye gaze on desktop, unreliable on mobile.
What it actually means
A heat map is a way to see your page as your visitors actually use it, not as you designed it to be used. The gap between those two things is usually instructive.
The most useful finding from click maps is not where people click, but where people click that does nothing. Rage-clicks on static images, paragraph text, or decorative elements are a direct signal that users expected something interactive that wasn't there. That's a conversion problem hiding behind a design problem.
Scroll maps are the most commonly misread. A drop-off at 40% scroll depth doesn't necessarily mean the content below is bad. It often means the content above answered the question well enough that the user left satisfied, or it means the page is too long and the most important information is buried. Which one it is requires more data.
Move maps are the least reliable of the three. Cursor movement on desktop correlates loosely with visual attention, but most Australian traffic is now mobile where cursor data doesn't exist. A move map built primarily on mobile sessions tells you almost nothing.
All three types are diagnostic, not prescriptive. A heat map tells you what happened. It doesn't tell you what to change or why behaviour is concentrated where it is. Pairing heat maps with session recordings and then with quantitative conversion rate data is how you build a case for a change worth testing.
A heat map doesn't tell you why users behave the way they do. It tells you that they do. The why is the work.
How it shows up
Heat map data shows up inside tools like Hotjar, Microsoft Clarity, Crazy Egg and FullStory. The overlay is generated from a JavaScript snippet that logs every user interaction and reports back to the tool's servers. Most tools require a minimum session count before the map is statistically meaningful: typically a few hundred sessions per variant for click maps, and more for scroll maps on long pages.
In practice, heat maps are most useful on high-traffic pages where sessions accumulate quickly. For low-traffic pages, session recordings of individual users are usually more informative than aggregate heat maps built on thin data.
The Australian context
Australian sites tend to skew heavily mobile, which changes how heat map data should be read. Click and scroll data on mobile behaves differently from desktop: tap targets need to be larger, scroll behaviour is faster and more decisive, and move map data is absent entirely. Tools that don't segment heat maps by device type by default will blend the two audiences into a single overlay that misrepresents both.
If more than half your traffic is on mobile, look at your mobile heat map first. The desktop version can tell a very different story and lead to changes that help one audience while harming the other.
Where people get this wrong
Related terms
Common questions
What is a heat map used for in marketing?
Heat maps are used to diagnose how users interact with a specific page: where they click, how far they scroll, and where their cursor goes. Marketers use them to find friction points, misplaced calls to action, ignored content, and elements users mistake for interactive when they aren't.
What is the difference between a click map and a scroll map?
A click map shows every point users clicked or tapped on the page. A scroll map shows how far down the page users travel before leaving. Both are useful but they answer different questions. Click maps diagnose interaction. Scroll maps diagnose attention depth.
Are heat maps accurate?
Click maps are accurate. Scroll maps are reliable when sample sizes are adequate. Move maps are the least reliable and should not be used as a proxy for eye-tracking, particularly on mobile. All heat maps become more accurate with more sessions and less reliable when device types are blended together.
What tools generate heat maps?
The most widely used tools are Hotjar, Microsoft Clarity (free), Crazy Egg and FullStory. Most tools offer click, scroll and move maps alongside session recordings. Microsoft Clarity is a reasonable starting point for Australian businesses that want the data without the subscription cost.
Keep exploring
About New Rebellion
New Rebellion is a marketing intelligence consultancy. We build tools, score Australian businesses on how their marketing actually performs, and publish Debrief every day. This dictionary is part of how we work in the open.
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