From heatmap to change: how to use Clarity to optimise a website
A heatmap is not a to-do list. The value is in the loop: watch how a page is used, change the thing people struggle with, watch again. This is how we run that loop on the websites we build, and how to run it yourself.
The loop
Four steps, repeated.
Optimisation is not a project with an end date. It is the same short loop, run on one page at a time, for as long as the page matters.
- 01
Pick one page and one job
Start with the page that carries the most weight: the service page with the enquiry form, or the landing page the ads point at. Name the one thing a visitor should do there.
- 02
Read the evidence in order
Scroll map first: did people reach the thing? Click map second: did they press what you wanted, or something that does nothing? Then the Insights tab for rage clicks, dead clicks and quick backs on that page. Only then watch recordings, filtered to the visitors who did not convert.
- 03
Change one thing
Move the form higher, cut the paragraph nobody reads past, make the dead element a real link, fix the error. One change at a time, so the next heatmap can be read against the last.
- 04
Wait for enough visits, then compare
A pattern needs volume. Compare the new heatmap with the old after a few hundred visits, not a few dozen, and keep the before screenshot so the comparison is honest.
What to look for
The five signals that usually pay.
Clarity reports many things. These are the ones that most often turn into a change worth making on a service website.
Rage clicks
Repeated fast clicks on one spot. Something looks clickable and is not, or it is slow to respond. Either make it work or make it look like what it is.
Dead clicks
Clicks with no effect: an image visitors expect to open, a heading they expect to be a link, a card that is not one. Each is a place where the page promised something it did not deliver.
Scroll drop-off
The line where the scroll map goes cold. Everything below it is invisible to most visitors. If the form or the proof sits under that line, move it, or shorten what is above it.
Quick backs
Visitors who land and leave within seconds, usually from an ad or a search result. The page did not match what the link promised. Fix the headline before anything else.
Form abandonment
Recordings where a visitor starts the form and stops. A field that asks too much too early, an error message that does not explain itself, a submit button that fails on a phone. The cheapest fixes on the whole site usually live here.
A/B testing
When a split test is worth running, and when it is not.
An A/B test answers a specific question with two versions and enough traffic to tell them apart. Below a few thousand visits a month, most tests never reach an answer, and the evidence from Clarity plus one deliberate change is the better use of the time.
- Worth testing: a headline or an offer on a paid landing page with steady traffic, where the difference is measured in money.
- Not worth testing: a fix for something Clarity already shows is broken. Just fix it, and watch the next heatmap.
- The A/B version of the 3 Hour Landing Page exists for the first case: a second version with a different headline, offer or layout, served on a split, priced separately.
- Clarity does not run the split. It records both versions, so you can see how each is used, not only which one won.
How we run it
Installed before launch, useful after it.
On every website we build, Clarity is installed and checked before the site goes live, in a project you own. What happens next depends on the package. A studio build includes a review of the first weeks inside the 30 days after launch: we look at the pages that matter, show you what the recordings say and agree the first change. The 3 hour and 24 hour packages hand you a working Clarity project, and this page is the guide. When a change is bigger than a tweak, you know where we are.
FAQ
Questions people ask about this
How do I read a Microsoft Clarity heatmap?
Start with the scroll map, which shows the percentage of visitors who reached each point on the page; the colour fades where people stop. Then the click map, which shows where visitors pressed, including on things that are not links. Read them together: a call to action that sits below the scroll line is not being ignored, it is not being seen. Filter by device before drawing a conclusion, because phone and desktop maps rarely agree.
What are rage clicks and dead clicks in Microsoft Clarity?
A rage click is several fast clicks in the same spot, a sign of frustration with something that looks interactive but does not respond, or responds too slowly. A dead click is a click that changes nothing on the page: an image, a heading or a card the visitor expected to open. Clarity counts both per page and links each to its recordings, so you can watch what the visitor was trying to do.
How much traffic do I need before Clarity is useful?
A few hundred visits to a page is enough to read a scroll map and spot repeated friction. A few dozen gives you individual recordings, which are still worth watching on a new site, but not patterns. A/B testing needs far more: usually thousands of visits a month to a single page before two versions can be told apart with any confidence.
Can Microsoft Clarity run A/B tests?
No. Clarity records behaviour; it does not serve different versions of a page. A split needs a testing tool or a build that serves two versions, which is what the A/B add-on to the 3 Hour Landing Page is. Clarity then records both versions, so you see how each one is used rather than only which one converted more.
How often should I check Clarity?
Weekly for the first month after a launch or a significant change, when behaviour is easiest to read and the fixes are cheapest. After that, once a month, and again after every change you make, so each change has a before and an after.
Can Clarity's Copilot tell me what to change?
It can tell you what it saw. Clarity's AI summarises a set of recordings or a heatmap in plain language, which is a fast way to find where to look. Treat it as a starting point: confirm the pattern in the recordings, then decide the change yourself, one at a time.
Start your brief
Start your brief
Tell us what you're launching and what it needs to do. We reply within one business day with a fixed price and the first available Monday.
- Websites from $15,000 ex GST, fixed. The exact figure comes with the reply.
- A reply within one business day, from Michael, not a form robot.
- A thirty-minute call to hear what the site has to do.
- A fixed-price scope, sent as a web page with a version number.
- Kick-off on the next available Monday, held for you. We take four studio builds a month.