Home Heatmaps Heatmaps and Filters in Crowd: A Simple Guide

Heatmaps and Filters in Crowd: A Simple Guide

Last updated on May 27, 2025

Making Heatmaps Work for You with Filters

Filters are like magic glasses that let you see how different groups of visitors interact with your website. Instead of seeing everyone's behavior mixed together, you can focus on specific visitor types to uncover insights.

Why Use Filters with Your Heatmaps?

Without filters, you're looking at everyone's behavior all mixed together. With filters, you can:

  • See if new visitors get confused by your website

  • Check if mobile users struggle with certain buttons

  • Find out if people from social media behave differently than those from Google

  • Focus on the visitors who matter most to your business

Easy-to-Use Filters in Crowd

Crowd organizes its powerful filters into four main categories:

1. Traffic Filters

See differences based on where visitors came from and what they intended to do:

  • Traffic sources (Google search, paid ads, social media)

  • Intent (what visitors were trying to accomplish)

  • Campaign data

  • Landing pages

Real-world use: Visitors from Instagram might behave differently than those from Google. This filter helps you create better landing pages for each traffic source.

2. Sessions Filters

Filter based on visitor information and session details:

  • User ID

  • New/Returning visitors

  • Country

  • Region

  • City

  • Session duration

Real-world use: New visitors don't know your site layout yet. The New/Returning filter helps you spot where first-time visitors might get lost or confused.

3. Behavior Filters

Understand how visitors interact with your site:

  • Moved cursor

  • Clicked element

  • Entered text

  • Selected text

  • Rage clicks

  • Error clicks

  • First clicks

  • Dead clicks

  • Excessive scrolling

  • U-turn (leaving a page quickly)

  • Page scroll depth

Real-world use: Rage clicks (when someone clicks rapidly in the same spot) often indicate user frustration. This filter helps you find and fix problematic elements on your site.

4. Technology Filters

See how different devices and technologies affect user experience:

  • Device type (desktop, tablet, mobile)

  • Browser (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge)

  • Operating system

  • Screen size

Real-world use: If your mobile sales are lower than desktop, use the device filter to see if mobile users are missing important buttons or content.

Practical Ways to Use Filtered Heatmaps

Here are simple, real world ways to improve your website using filtered heatmaps:

Find Conversion Problems

  1. Use the Sessions filters to compare new vs. returning visitors

  2. Look for differences in where they click and how far they scroll

  3. Make changes to help new visitors navigate like experienced ones

Spot User Frustration

  1. Use the Behavior filters to find rage clicks and error clicks

  2. These patterns show where users are getting stuck or confused

  3. Fix these problem areas to improve user satisfaction and conversion rates

Fix Mobile Experience

  1. Use the Technology filters to show only mobile users

  2. Look for areas where mobile users struggle (like tiny buttons or text that's hard to read)

  3. Make mobile specific improvements to these elements

Understand Different Traffic Sources

  1. Use the Traffic filters to compare visitors from different sources (like Google vs. Facebook)

  2. See what content each audience engages with most

  3. Create custom landing pages optimized for each traffic source

Identify Regional Differences

  1. Use the Sessions filters to compare visitors from different countries

  2. Look for differences in behavior patterns based on location

  3. Consider creating region specific content or features

Track Before & After Changes

  1. Create heatmaps before making website changes

  2. Make your updates

  3. Create new heatmaps and compare the before/after results

  4. See if visitor behavior improves in the ways you intended

How to Apply Filters in Crowd: Step by Step

  1. Log in to your Crowd dashboard

  2. Go to Insights → Heatmaps

  3. Select or enter the page Url you want to analyze

  4. Click the "Filters" button (shown as a funnel icon at the top of the page)

  5. Choose a category: Traffic, Sessions, Behavior, or Technology

  6. Select specific filter criteria from the Properties column

  7. Set your filter conditions and values

  8. Click "View Heatmap" to update the heatmap with your filter

Tips for Getting the Most from Filters

  • Start broad, then narrow down: First look at all users, then apply filters to investigate specific patterns

  • Compare similar time periods: When comparing segments, use the same date range

  • Check sample size: Make sure you have enough data in each filtered segment (at least 500-1000 pageviews)

  • Look for big differences: Small variations might be random, but big differences are worth investigating

  • Take notes: Keep track of what filters revealed interesting insights

  • Test your theories: If filters reveal a potential issue, confirm it by watching actual user sessions with Crowd's session recording feature

Powerful Filter Combinations to Try

These filter combinations often reveal useful insights:

  • New/Returning visitors (Sessions) + Device type (Technology): See how first time mobile users experience your site differently from regular desktop users

  • Traffic source (Traffic) + Clicked element (Behavior): Check if visitors from different sources click on different elements

  • Country (Sessions) + Rage clicks (Behavior): Understand if users from specific regions struggle with certain page elements

  • Intent (Traffic) + Page scroll depth (Behavior): See if visitors with different intentions scroll through your content differently

Getting Help from Crowd's AI Chat

Crowd's AI Chat is one of its most powerful features. Not sure what your heatmap data means? Just ask Crowds AI Chat

Simply click on the chat icon and ask questions like:

  • "What do these heatmap patterns mean?"

  • "How can I improve my conversion rate based on this data?"

  • "What filter should I use to understand mobile bounce rates?"

The AI will analyze your data and give you personalized recommendations.

Remember, the ultimate goal of using Crowd's heatmaps and filters is to improve your business by creating a website that visitors love to use.