Your Guide to Google Analytics Heat Map

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This post was updated on February 21, 2025.

Although Google Analytics has a heat mapping tool, the search platform stopped updating it and deprecated the feature in 2017. That’s why you may find the add-on is dysfunctional even if you set it up correctly. In fact, the Google Analytics Heat Map extension doesn’t work with GA4, which is a bummer if you want to quickly visualize your stats without using a third-party alternative.

This guide dives into everything you should understand about the Google Analytics website heat map, from heat mapping history to downloading the tool and setting it up. Also, we’ll discuss the benefits of using a heat map and the top three alternatives for the Google Analytics Heat Map if it doesn’t work for you.

History of Heat Maps

Let’s begin by discussing what a heat map is, as well as a bit of the history behind it. Heat maps originated as 2D displays of data shown in a data matrix. The larger values were represented in dark colors, such as black and gray, and the smaller values were represented as lighter pixels, fading out to white.

Ideas of a matrix that uses shading from light to dark to display values date back to the 1870s. By the 1950s, scientists could display results similarly with a more sophisticated “cluster analysis” by illustrating similar data close together in columns.

By the 1970s, the idea of bringing the process of data clustering into something more visually akin to the shading map of the past was born. Thus, something like our modern heat map was created. It was trademarked in the early 1990s by software designer Cormac Kinney and was initially used to illustrate financial data.

With the passing of time and the extraordinary expansion of the web, heat maps can now illustrate almost any kind of data.

Bringing this innovative technology to Google Analytics users (GA), the search platform launched the Page Analytics Chrome extension to replace the “Site Overlay” feature in 2016.

Despite simplifying data access, especially for novice users who didn’t know how to navigate the GA dashboard, this extension had several shortcomings, ultimately leading to its deprecation in Q3 2017. Chief among them were the following :

• In-Page Analytics report deprecation in Q1 2017
• Its limited functionality mostly leaned towards click data and denoted percentages for different page elements, while third-party alternatives had more advanced heat maps that provided diverse details extending beyond clicks, such as scroll and mouse movement maps.

What Is the Purpose of a Heatmap?

Web heat maps display which areas of a web page visitors scan most frequently. As you probably already know, this is useful knowledge for anyone diving into their website analytics with Google or any other analytics tool.

Though the heat map isn’t actually based on heat, it does visually mimic tests that show heat or activity in the body. It’s like a CT scan for your web page. Rather than using actual heat from the human body to determine where a viewer crawled your website, heat maps use algorithms that can make a very sophisticated guess of where viewers are lingering.

Some examples of the types of information you can see with your heat map are:

• Links and tabs below the fold that aren’t being clicked
• Information that is being scrolled over
• Icons that are rarely clicked because they don’t look clickable
• General information that isn’t useful and is being ignored by visitors
• Understanding when users are visiting and the best times to publish
• Discovering the best times to organically promote content or products
• Data to build PPC strategies
• Pinpointing the best areas for CTAs and sign-up forms
• Identifying and addressing broken page elements and other bugs
• Analyzing split test results

This data helps you to create more content that your clients, users, and viewers will love. In the end, it will bolster your web presence.

Where Should You Use a Heat Map?

Access Google Analytics and search for low-performing areas, such as low-converting pages or high bounce rates.

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Generate heat maps for such pages to pinpoint potential roadblocks impacting the customer journey, such as under-viewed CTAs below the fold or excessive clicks on broken links.

Do the same for top-performing pages to identify what makes them successful so you can replicate the formula on mid and underperforming pages.

How to Download and Use the Google Analytics Heat Map

Google allows you to view this tool using an add-on in Google Chrome called Page Analytics (by Google).

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To use the add-on, you must previously have installed Chrome and then install the add-on.

It’s easy to access the heat map anytime in the Page Analytics add-on. You can even bookmark it to the top of Chrome to view changes in your heat map anytime.

Here are a few easy steps to download and use the Google Analytics Heat Map plugin: 

1. Install Chrome.
2. Download Page Analytics add-on by Google.
3. Pin for easy access to the heat map.
4. Create a Google Analytics account and access your website’s Analytics code if you’ve yet to do so.
5. Launch your website.
6. Click the Page Insights icon from your extensions and hit the refresh button.

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1. Enjoy your heat map visuals whenever you need them.

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Alternatives for Google Analytics Heat Map

Since the Page Analytics extension doesn’t support many Google Analytics users, especially if you’re on GA4, and because more advanced heat maps with in-depth information and statistics are available, most website owners and marketers rely on third-party alternatives for heat mapping visuals.

Some of the best alternatives for the Google Analytics heat map that integrate with GA are:

• Hotjar: A versatile tool that offers click, scroll, and mouse movement maps.
• CrazyEgg: A scroll mapping tool that also features an advanced click map dubbed Confetti reports. This proprietary click map allows you to segment users based on source, country, browser, device, time of day, etc., to establish elements each segment loves.
• Mouseflow: A worthwhile alternative to Page Analytics with the same heat maps as Hotjar, with two extra ones (attention and geographical maps). Attention maps allow you to see your most attention-grabbing page elements and otherwise. Geographical maps indicate regions attracting the least and most traffic, which helps you identify which countries to prioritize while marketing.
• Microsoft Clarity: An overarching solution that features five types of heat maps (click, scroll, area, conversion, and attention maps). Area maps provide the total clicks for selected areas while conversion maps allow you to see the most to least sought products on your e-commerce site. Clarity’s offers a comprehensive suite of click maps that let you see total clicks or identify different aspects like rage, error, dead, first, and last clicks.

Need Help With Heat Maps and Other Google Analytics Tools?

Getting eyes on your Google Analytics heat map not only helps you expand your repertoire in analytics tools and SEO auditing, but it can also give you invaluable knowledge on how to optimize your site. There’s more to optimization than keywords and links. It’s essential to use tools to lay out your site logically and ensure it’s aesthetically pleasing and in a way that visitors understand what is and isn’t crucial.

You also want to ensure that everything clickable or interactive looks that way. When trying to drive users to specific links or pages, you want the design to look and feel visually intuitive.

All of these aspects of your site can be improved by using Page Analytics by Google or third-party alternatives like Microsoft Clarity, Hotjar, Crazy Egg, and MouseFlow if the former doesn’t work or you find it unsatisfactory. 

Get started today! If you have questions about diving deeper into your site’s analytics, contact us at Vizion Interactive. We have a wide range of services and the knowledge to help.