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Recording Traffic with HotJar
October 23, 2019

Recording Traffic with HotJar

Mark Linkhorst | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Hotjar

We implemented HotJar into our website with a recent revision to our BigCommerce template moving from a free template to a paid version to increase traffic. 420EDC is basically a one man show, we have help from some other folks for SEO & photography content. HotJar allows us to record the traffic on our website which is what I primarily use the application primarily. There are other features Heatmaps, funnels & forms which I have not had a chance to implement or research as the recordings really show what is going on. This literally takes the guesswork out of traffic. It allows for visuals of problems customers experience in searches with bad URLs and shows what the website looks like across whatever platform/device the customer is using from their perspective. Numbers don't come through, so your customers' credit card information is secure from 3rd parties.
  • Records traffic
  • Generates heatmaps from traffic
  • Allows forms to be implemented into the website for marketing research
  • I use the paid plus plan as we don't have enough traffic for the bigger upgrade just yet. I had some confusion as to how many videos would be recorded and HotJar was quick to provide details that were still a little vague. They could come up with some better terminology to prevent this type of confusion and with a better description of the plans offered and what they really provide.
  • I used the Basic Plan which was free until it maxed out. I was under the impression I would have to pay for the business plan which is $99 per month. The Plus Plan is almost hidden which is $49 and the perfect fit for my needs currently. Make this easier to find.
  • Auto playback on recordings should stop after 5 or 10 recordings just to make sure someone is still watching. Distractions happen so it would be nice to have a better way of watching 5 or 10 recordings in an auto-mode.
  • We can fix broken URLs that customers come in and visit our site. As a cannabis-related company, there isn't much better of a service to have as SEO is everything for us as we can't market like traditional businesses can on the internet. This is a positive for us without a doubt.
  • Seeing what our traffic is doing allows us to implement and fix issues sooner than later.
  • HotJar will show up for savvy internet surfers that track 3rd party apps on websites, so be sure to list it in your Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions etc.
The ability to see what your traffic is doing is key for us. You can find dead URLs and fix them easily. You can see what your customer is seeing first hand and you can edit your website should see you where a customer has become confused or where you have a typo or error that needs to be corrected to make the traffic move as expected. You can watch the replays in .5x speed, 1x speed, 2x speed or 4x speed so you can slow down when you need to or speed up through the longer recordings. Gaps can also be skipped which I recommend checking the box on.

We don't record traffic under 30 seconds which is a nice feature of HotJar as there isn't much to learn from customers dropping by and off that fast. So this is a scenario we recommend new users set up on the basic plan so you aren't wasting your recordings on drive-by traffic.