How to See Heatmap on Google Analytics

Want to see a heatmap of your website in Google Analytics? The short answer is, you can't. Google Analytics 4 doesn't have a native, built-in heatmap feature that visually shows where users are clicking. However, this article will show you how to get similar insights using GA4 reports and how to easily integrate dedicated tools for true heatmapping.

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So, Why Doesn't Google Analytics Have a Heatmap?

Google Analytics is primarily a quantitative analytics tool, designed to answer "how many?" questions. It excels at measuring metrics like the number of users visiting a page, the channels they came from, the events they triggered, and whether they converted. It tells you what happened and how often.

Heatmap tools, on the other hand, are qualitative, designed to answer "where?" and "why?" questions about user behavior on a specific page. They create visual overlays on your site to show:

• Click Maps: Where users actually click, whether it's on a link, image, or even empty space.
• Scroll Maps: How far down a page your users are scrolling on average.
• Move Maps: Where users move their mouse cursor - a good indicator of user attention.

Longtime users might remember the Page Analytics Chrome extension or the original In-Page Analytics report from Universal Analytics, which provided a simple click overlay. Unfortunately, these features were discontinued and have no direct equivalent in GA4.

Without a true heatmap, you might be missing critical context. You can see in GA4 that a page has a high bounce rate, but a heatmap could show you it’s because users are clicking on a non-interactive image, getting frustrated, and leaving.

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Using GA4 Reports as a "Makeshift" Heatmap

While you can't get a true visual heatmap in GA4, you can create reports that answer a core heatmap question: "What are my users clicking on?" This data exists within GA4, you just have to know where to find it. The best way is by building a custom report in the 'Explore' section.

Step-by-Step: Create a "Click Report" in Explorations

The Explorations report builder is one of the most powerful features in GA4. Here's how to use it to see what links your users are clicking on, page by page.

1. Go to the Explore Section: Start by clicking on "Explore" in the left-hand navigation within your GA4 property.
2. Create a New Exploration: Select "Blank" or "Free form" from the template gallery to build a new report from scratch.
3. Name Your Exploration: Give your report a clear title like "Website Click Analysis."
4. Import Dimensions: In the 'Variables' column to the left, click the '+' sign next to 'Dimensions'. You'll need to search for and import the following:

• Page path and screen class: This shows the URL of the page where the click happened.
• Link text: This captures the text of the link that was clicked (e.g., "Learn More," "Buy Now").
• Event name: This is necessary to filter only for click events.

1. Import Metrics: Next, click the '+' sign next to 'Metrics' in the same column. Search for and import:

• Event count: This tallies the number of times each event (in this case, a click) occurred.
• Total users: This shows how many unique users performed the action.

1. Build the Report Canvas: Now it's time to assemble your report in the 'Tab Settings' column.

• Drag 'Page path and screen class' from 'Dimensions' to the 'Rows' section.
• Drag 'Link text' from 'Dimensions' and drop it under 'Page path' in the 'Rows' section. This will nest the link data under each page.
• Drag 'Event count' and 'Total users' from 'Metrics' over to the 'Values' section.

1. Filter for Clicks: Finally, at the bottom of the 'Tab Settings' column, find the 'Filters' section. Drag 'Event name' here and configure the filter to "exactly matches" the event name 'click'.

You now have a detailed table report that acts as a text-based heatmap. You can see each page on your site, followed by a list of all the tracked links on that page and how many times they were clicked. Sorting by 'Event count' will immediately show you the most popular interactive elements on any given page.

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The Best Solution: Integrate a Dedicated Heatmap Tool

The GA4 workaround is helpful for understanding what text links get attention, but it's not visual, doesn't capture clicks on non-link elements, and offers no insight into scroll depth or user attention. For this, you need a dedicated tool.

Integrating a third-party heatmap platform is surprisingly simple and unlocks powerful new insights. Popular choices include:

• Microsoft Clarity: A completely free tool from Microsoft that offers heatmaps, session recordings, and clarity on engagement metrics. It's an incredible value.
• Hotjar: A market leader famous for its user-friendly interface for heatmaps, feedback polls, and user surveys.
• Crazy Egg: A veteran player in the space offering clickmaps, scrollmaps, and confetti reports to segment clicks by source or other parameters.

How to Set Up a Heatmap Tool

The process is generally the same across all platforms and can be done in minutes:

1. Sign up for an account. Many, like Microsoft Clarity, are completely free to start.
2. Get your tracking code. The tool will provide a small JavaScript snippet.
3. Install the code. The easiest way is to use Google Tag Manager (GTM). Simply create a new 'Custom HTML' tag, paste the snippet, and set the trigger to fire on 'All Pages'. If you don't use GTM, you can add the code directly to the <head> section of your website’s HTML.

Once the code is installed, the tool will automatically start collecting data and generating visual heatmaps for you to analyze.

Connecting Heatmaps to GA4

The real power comes from connecting your heatmap tool directly with Google Analytics. Platforms like Microsoft Clarity and Hotjar offer native integrations that bridge the gap between quantitative and qualitative data.

For example, integrating Clarity with GA4 pushes a custom dimension called "Clarity Playback URL" into GA4. This means when you’re deep in a GA4 report and notice a user journey with an unusually high drop-off rate, you can now find the Clarity session URL right in the same report. One click takes you to a full recording of that user’s session, showing you exactly where they got stuck or confused.

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Turning Heatmap Data into Actionable Insights

Once you have your heatmaps, don't just look at the pretty colors. Use the data to make measurable improvements to your site.

• Identify broken elements and false bottoms: Do users click on an image expecting a link? Is all the important information so far down the page that no one sees it? Heatmaps and scroll maps make these issues obvious.
• Optimize CTA placement: A click map might reveal that users are ignoring your main call-to-action button but are frequently clicking on a secondary navigation item. This might prompt you to test a new CTA color, copy, or position.
• Understand user focus: Move maps show where users hover their mouse, which is closely correlated with eye-tracking. Use this to ensure your most important messaging is placed in high-attention areas.
• Validate design decisions: Before a big website redesign, run heatmaps to understand what users currently value. After the launch, use new heatmaps to confirm if your changes are improving user engagement as intended.

Final Thoughts

While Google Analytics 4 is a powerful tool, it doesn't give you a true, visual heatmap out of the box. You can build exploratory reports to understand click behavior on your pages, but for visual context on where users scroll and click, integrating a dedicated third-party tool is your best bet.

Tools like ours make this entire analytics process even simpler. With Graphed, we remove the friction of having to hop between different platforms for answers. Once you connect your data sources like Google Analytics, you can stop manually building reports and just ask questions in plain English. Instead of finding a session URL and then digging for it in Clarity, you can just ask, "Show me a dashboard of user engagement on my sales page and list the top drop-off points." Our platform automates the analysis and brings all those insights together for you in seconds.