Good work.
You know which button you’d like people to click on your website. Wouldn’t it be useful to see whether they’re actually clicking it?
Or whether they keep tapping a picture that doesn’t open anything. Or leave before they reach the part where you explain how to get in touch.
There’s a way to see those patterns. It’s called a heat map, and you don’t need to become a data analyst to get something useful from one.
I’d start with one page and one question: can people find the next step? Here’s how to get to the point where you can look.
First, where does the heat map go?
You don’t put those colored hot spots on the page your customers see. Your website looks the same to them.
You connect an analytics tool to the site. It collects information about visits, then shows you the maps in a separate dashboard you sign into. Think of it as a view you use to check the website, rather than another thing the visitor has to deal with.
For this walkthrough, I’d use Microsoft Clarity. It provides heat maps and session recordings, and Microsoft currently offers it free. A recording is a replay of someone’s interaction with the page, not a video of the person sitting at their computer.
The steps below use WordPress for setup and Clarity on a computer for reviewing maps. Other website platforms have their own connection steps. If someone maintains your site, start by asking whether Clarity is already connected.
1. Connect Clarity to your WordPress website.
You’ll need WordPress access that allows you to manage plugins. If you don’t have that, give this part to the person who looks after your website.
Before collecting visits, have whoever handles the site check its privacy notice, consent setup and the settings that hide sensitive content. Microsoft has guidance for consent and content masking. This is part of connecting it properly, even when the plugin installation itself is straightforward.
- In WordPress, go to Plugins → Add New Plugin.
- Search for the official Microsoft Clarity plugin. Install and activate it.
- Open Clarity from the WordPress menu and sign in. Create an account if you need one.
- Connect the project for your website, or create a new one with your site’s details. A “project” is simply where Clarity keeps that website’s reports.
Microsoft’s official WordPress setup guide shows those screens. You can use the plugin route without editing your theme files.
Then check that visits are showing in the dashboard. If it’s empty, confirm the connection before assuming nobody came to the website.
2. Let it collect visits.
Clarity needs visits from the period after it’s connected. Installing it today won’t recreate last month’s clicks if they weren’t being collected.
Microsoft says dashboard data can take a few hours to appear. Seeing the first visit is a setup check. It isn’t enough to decide where all your customers want the button.
Let the site receive its normal traffic, then look for a pattern. The quieter your website is, the longer that may take. Your own repeated test clicks shouldn’t become your entire theory about the customer.
You can get familiar with the tool while you wait. Clarity has a public demo you can explore. Just remember that another website’s patterns won’t tell you what happens on yours.
3. Open one page and look at the clicks.
Once visits are showing, I’d start with your homepage or the service page you send people to most often. Leave the rest of the website for another day.
- Open your website’s Clarity project and select Heatmaps.
- Choose the page you want to inspect and open its map. Use the Visited URL filter if you need to find a specific page.
- Choose the date range you want to review. Select a device view, such as PC or Mobile, rather than mixing their layouts together.
- Start with a click map. Then switch to a scroll map to see how far down the page people reached.
Microsoft’s heat-map guide explains the page selection and controls. “Mobile” here means visitors using your website on their phones. You’re still reviewing their map on your computer.
On a click map, warmer areas show more clicking or tapping. On a scroll map, the colors describe how far down visitors reached. They answer different questions, so check which view you’ve opened.
Now look for three useful things.
Are people finding the button you want them to use? Look for clicks on the inquiry, booking or phone link. If it’s getting little activity, check whether the invitation is clear and easy to spot. A label like “Ask about a repair” gives a visitor more to work with than “Learn more,” provided that’s what the button actually does.
Are they clicking something that doesn’t respond? A picture, a heading or a box can look like a link even when it isn’t one. That can create a busy hot spot without getting anyone closer to contacting you.
In this example, I’d check what the visitor expected the picture to open. If a work gallery would genuinely help, give them a clearly labeled route to it. If the picture is decorative, stop making it look like a button. Clarity’s click maps include clicks on nonlinks, which makes this a useful thing to investigate.
Do people reach the place where you ask them to get in touch? Switch to the scroll map. If the only inquiry button is below a big image and several sections, check how many visitors reach that part, especially on a phone.
A scroll map shows reach. It doesn’t prove someone read every word. But it can help you notice that the useful next step is sitting somewhere many visitors never get to.
Find one thing to improve, then check it again.
You don’t need to move every button after your first look. Pick one thing that seems to be making the next step harder.
Maybe the main button needs a clearer label. Maybe the mobile layout puts a large picture between the explanation and the invitation. Maybe a decorative image needs to stop pretending it opens a gallery.
Write down what you expect the change to help with. After making it, compare the behavior again and follow it through to completed inquiries or useful calls. More clicks alone don’t tell you that more people hired the business.
If there are only a few visits, keep your conclusions modest. You can still ask someone who fits your audience to find a service and work out how to get in touch. Watch where they get stuck without showing them the way.
Prefer to hand the setup to your website person?
That’s perfectly reasonable. You don’t need another dashboard becoming a part-time job. You can send them something like this:
“Could you check whether Microsoft Clarity is already connected to my website? If it isn’t, please look at setting it up with the right privacy and consent settings. Once we have visits to review, I’d like to see where people click on my main page, how far they scroll on a phone and whether they’re finding the way to get in touch.”
That gives the person helping you a clear task. It also gives you a useful question to bring back when the map is ready.
If you’d like help with the page itself, my free guide collection includes The 15-Minute Website Lead Checklist. And if you want to see a fresh direction for your business, you can start with a free homepage preview.
For now, keep it small: connect the tool, open one page and find one thing worth a closer look. That’s a much more useful afternoon than wondering whether the button should be two inches to the left.
