What is Session Recording?
Session recording is a simple way to watch how your visitors interact with your website. It includes both heat mapping and video recordings of their sessions. While it sounds very NSA creepy it’s really not. The point is to help your visitors get the most out of your website and to learn where they’re getting hung up, or help solve communication issues. Because the reality is, you don’t know what you don’t know about your visitors; and understanding their mindset can help them enjoy their experience, and you increase your conversion rate.
Are you Being Recorded Right Now?
Yep, as you read this your mouse clicks, the pages you visit, and how you interact is being recorded by an application called Inspectlet. We love this tool, it’s helped us understand you our readers and visitors to better serve your needs and get you information quickly. We’ve changed our website considerably over the last six months from the info we learn on Inspectlet.
What Kind of Features Should Your Session Recording Software Have?
#1 Filtering
We couple our session recording software with our Marketing Automation software so we know our visitors by IP address. Being able to sort videos by IP, specific pages, new vs. returning, and by the time they’re on the website allows us to sift through the bouncers and tire kickers to relevant visitors who are interested in what we do. Now we can look at our best visitors and see where we might get them the content they want, faster.
#2 Eye-Tracking Heatmaps
You’re probably wondering if we’re tracking your eyes right now, short answer – NO. This isn’t using your camera, but chances are as you’re reading this you’re using your cursor as you go. Don’t feel bad, most people do, and that’s how we get a better idea of where your eyes are.
#3 Click Heatmaps
Have you ever clicked on something thinking it’s a button or link but it’s not? Well, there’s one sure-fire way to fix this issue, see where people are clicking. Cut down on user frustrations and give them what they want, even if you didn’t know they’d want it. Click heatmaps solve UX problems like this by using real data not guesses.
#4 Scroll Heatmaps
As a web design agency we hear so often, “our visitors won’t scroll below the fold, so we need to put everything in that area.” Now there’s an accurate way of finding out exactly how far your visitors will go down a page.
Should Your Company Use It?
The question isn’t really should your company be using it, it’s more, which one should you be using. Obviously we have our opinion, ours is based primarily on the cost/features ratio. But there are others out there that do a great job. Feel free to check out companies like Lucky Orange or Crazyegg.
However, some companies, such as medical may not be able to use this technology because of HIPPA compliances, you’ll have to speak with your IT, legal, and the companies themselves on how information is stored and whether this is an option for you.
If you have any questions on session recording, Inspectlet, or how we use it to make our websites and our client’s websites better, feel free to reach out and discover what you didn’t know about your visitors.