The Heatmaps dashboard is made up of several main sections:
Below we'll give a quick overview of each section and link to other articles that dive more deeply into how to use each one.
Exploring the Heatmaps dashboard
When you first open the Heatmaps dashboard, you'll be prompted to create a heatmap by clicking the New heatmap button. From there, you'll see the main sections of the dashboard:
URL filters and search bar
You can enter a specific URL or click on one of the Suggested pages that appear when you start typing in the search bar.
You can then use the URL filter dropdown to show data from one URL or a group of related URLs.
When the URL filter that's applied results in heat data being sourced from multiple pages, the aggregated data is shown on a single screenshot.
See our What Are Heatmap URL Filters for more details and examples of match type options.
Session Filters
Session filters let you narrow down your heatmap data. This is helpful if you want to only focus on sessions with a certain criteria. There are several filter groups available:
- Path/URL - navigation during a session
- Session - attributes about a session
- Behavior - actions during a session
- User Attributes
- Technology - technology used in a session
- Feedback - response sentiment
- Experiment - Google Optimize experiments
- Date filter
To learn more about all available filters, see our How Do I Filter Session Data? article.
The screenshot
The screenshot is a visual representation of the URL or URLs your heatmap is displaying data for. You can toggle between device types (desktop, tablet and mobile) and heatmap types (click, move and scroll) using the buttons at the bottom of the screenshot.
You can also view a list of Recordings that match the URL and applied filters by clicking the View recordings button. Additionally, you can download a PDF of the heatmap or a CSV file of the raw data by clicking on the Download button.
To learn more, see our Types of Heatmaps article.
Saved heatmaps
When viewing a heatmap, you have the option to save it by clicking on the Save button. Your applied URL filter and session filters will be saved, enabling you to revisit the specific heatmap and compare it against others.
This feature requires Write-level permissions.
Saved heatmaps will appear on the panel to the left of the screenshot. You can hover over a saved heatmap to delete it or edit the name.
Side panel
The side panel lets you add an extra layer of detail by displaying page-level metrics and data overlays. It also has some helpful tools to let you update the screenshot or view a page's average feedback score.
Page-level metrics
Page-level metrics add even more context to heatmap data and help you spot trends faster. There are several metrics available:
- Total clicks
- Rage-clicks
- U-turns
- Drop-off rate
- Average time on page
- Console errors
Update screenshot
Heatmaps capture data automatically using the same session data collected by the Recordings tool. If the screenshot doesn't look quite right, you can refresh it or manually take a new one.
This can also be helpful if you want to capture click data on dynamic elements such as drop-down menus.
To learn more, see out How to Update a Heatmap Screenshot article.
Overlays
Overlays let you see additional data right on top of the heatmap that can provide even more insights. In the Overlays tab, you can toggle on or off the following data:
- All click data
- The top 3 clicked elements
- Engagement Zones
- Saved highlights
Average Feedback score
The Feedback tool allows you to get visual and instant input from your users. When set up, you can see the average feedback score for the URL of the heatmap you're viewing.
To learn more, see our What is the Heatmaps Side Panel? article.