How to Set Up a Hotjar Heatmap

Heatmaps continuously collect data across all pages on your site that have the Hotjar Tracking Code installed. You can then view this data across different types of Heatmaps for clicks and taps, scrolls, and movement.

In this article, we'll learn how to generate a Heatmap including: specifying the URL, viewing a heatmap, applying filters, and saving a heatmap with applied filters.

If you're having issues with Heatmaps, see our troubleshooting guides for:

• Heatmap Screenshot Troubleshooting
• Heatmap Data Troubleshooting

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From your Heatmaps page, click on New heatmap.

Use the URL filter dropdown to show data from one URL or a group of related URLs.

The default match type is URL is, which will show data from a specific URL of your site.

Heatmaps can show data from a single, specific URL or a group of URLs. When the URL filter that's applied results in heat data being sourced from multiple pages, the aggregated data is shown over a single screenshot. See our What Are Heatmap URL Filters for more details and examples of match type options.

Available options in the URL filter dropdown

• URL is
  This is the default match type and is used to target a specific page on your site, ignoring any query strings and fragments that might get added, as well as ignoring the protocol, HTTPS, and the presence or not of 'www'.
• URL is exactly
  Displays data from users who visited a specific URL, including the protocol and any query strings and fragments.
• URL contains
  Displays data for all URLs which contain the entered text. This rule is case-sensitive.
• URL starts with
  Displays “Exact match” results for all URLs that begin with the entered text, including the protocol.
• URL ends with
  Displays “Exact match” results for all URLs that end with the entered text, including strings and fragments.
• URL matches regex
  Displays data for all URLs that match the provided regular expression.

Enter the URL and click Continue.

You can click on one of the Suggested pages that appear when you start typing in the URL search bar. After clicking View heatmap, your heatmap should appear in less than 90 seconds.

From here, you'll be able to select what you'd like to analyze to help Hotjar automatically choose the best map type and overlays when the heatmap first generates.

Why am I not seeing a heatmap for the URL that I enter?

Here are some checks you can make to help identify why a heatmap isn't available:

1. From your Recordings page, see if you have any recordings for the URL you want to view. If you have no recordings, then there is no data for this URL. Having no data can happen when you've not had users visit the specific URL, or that page doesn't have the Hotjar Tracking Code installed. Our guide on How to verify the Tracking Code using browser developer tools can help you confirm the Tracking Code is installed on that page.
2. Check the tablet and mobile Heatmap views, as users might not have accessed the URL on a desktop.
3. If your URL filter is URL is exactly, make sure you enter the URL exactly as it appears in the browser after any redirects. The URL may include a trailing backslash and the protocol, such as HTTPS.
4. Ensure your session capture settings are not targeting a specific page or Event that would exclude the URL you're using to generate your heatmap.

Choose the best screenshot or manually take a new one.

Hotjar will try to choose the best screenshot for you, giving you three options to choose from, but if none of them look correct, you can use the Take new screenshot option on the right.

For more detail on how to update your screenshot, check out our How to Update a Heatmap Screenshot article.

Apply any session filters to refine your heat data.

You can view recordings that match the URL and applied filters by clicking the View recordings button. You can also download a JPG of the heatmap or CSV of the raw click data.

Change the heatmap type or apply an overlay.

Use the filters in the side panel to change the Heatmap type or add an overlay for extra context. You can also change the device type by clicking on the icons in the bottom left corner of the screenshot.

Click Save to store your heatmap with applied filters in the Saved heatmaps list to revisit later.

This feature requires Write-level permissions. Your applied filters will be saved with your heatmap, enabling you to revisit the same heatmap and compare it against other heatmaps.

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