How many visitors does a heatmap need?
Short answer
Wait for at least a full week and a few hundred visits on the device you're reading, and longer for small sections. The surest sign is stability: if another day of data doesn't change the pattern, it's ready. Read phone and desktop apart, since each needs its own traffic.
A real heatmap, read step by step
The heatmap below only counts a site with 20+ phone taps, and only shows a figure that 20+ sites back. Only 58 of about 130 sites collected 1,000 phone taps in two weeks.
- 1
35% of taps land on the first screen
- 2
51% land in the top quarter of the page
- 3
Only 30% land in the middle half
- 4
19% land at the end, where scrollers look for the offer
Two weeks of phone visits on about 130 live Replo sites: over 800,000 taps and over 850,000 page views. Each site counts once, no figure rests on fewer than 20 sites, and no store is shown.
How to tell a heatmap is ready in five steps
Wait a full week
Weekday and weekend shoppers behave differently. A week also smooths out one big email or ad day.
Count visits per device
A page with 1,000 visits that are 90% phone has too little desktop data to read desktop.
Check the main sections have taps
A section with a handful of taps can swing on one visitor. Read only the parts with real numbers.
Compare this week with last
If the hot spots and the scroll drop sit in the same places, the pattern is real.
Reset after a big change
A new layout needs its own heatmap. Read each published version on its own rather than blended.
How long to wait, by traffic
| Your page gets | Read it after | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Under 50 visits a day | Two to four weeks | Small sections need time to collect taps |
| 50 to 300 visits a day | One to two weeks | A full week covers every weekday |
| Over 300 visits a day | One week | Shorter skips weekend shoppers |
| A sale or launch spike | After it ends, read apart | Sale traffic behaves differently |
| A new page version | Its own week, from publish | Old heat blurs into the new layout |
See your own heatmap
Every page Replo publishes collects clicks, scroll and revenue per element, with nothing to install. Open a page, pick the last 7, 30 or 90 days, and click any element to see what it led to.
Frequently asked questions
- How many visits does a heatmap need?
- A few hundred on the device you're reading give a readable picture of a page; a thousand or more make smaller sections reliable. Low-traffic pages need longer to collect enough.
- How long should a heatmap run?
- At least a full week, so weekdays and weekends both count. Stop when another day of data no longer moves the hot spots or the scroll drop.
- Can I read a heatmap for a page with little traffic?
- Yes, for the big picture: where people stop and whether the main button gets taps. Don't read small sections until they have enough taps, and pool a few weeks if you need to.
- Do I need to reset my heatmap after changing a page?
- Yes, or read each version apart. On pages Replo publishes, each publish gets its own view, so the old heat doesn't blur into the new layout. See how Replo heatmaps work.
More heatmap guides
All heatmap guidesHeatmaps
Read a heatmap
Six steps, worked through on a real heatmap from about 130 sites.
Heatmaps
Use a scroll map
Find where visitors stop, and what to move above it.
Heatmaps
Use a click map
See what gets tapped, from buttons to plain text.
Heatmaps
Track clicks on your site
Count clicks on every element, and the sales that follow.
