My New Review of Crazy Egg

 

I did a preliminary review not long ago of Crazy Egg and wasn’t very happy with the signup process among other things and wrote a post about it.(be sure to read the comments).  I did get a response from Hiten Shah in comments and was quite happy that they were concerned enough to have a conversation about the problems I was having and getting through them.

I have been using the service for a couple of weeks now and will share what I think of the service now.

Once you get through the sign up process, the setup is fairly easy.  Name your project, copy and paste some code and that’s pretty much it.

They tell you to place the code before the /body part of your main (index) template which does work to test the content/body of your posts.  In the conversation that took place in the comments, Ben suggested putting it in the footer of the template.

Once I installed the code there, I got the full page including the Head, Body, Sidebar and Footer.  That way I can track everything that is happening on the page.

Now for the Good Part…

 

 

The First Screen you get is the Overlay.

In this screen (sorry it’s not a better pic) you can see what links are clicked on your page.  They range from Blue (fewest) to Green, then Yellow to Red (most) clicks on any particular link.  On the free version you get a colored dot indicating the click.  In the paid version you get that and a corresponding bar with the percent of clicks.

This is good for a quick view of where people are going in the Navigation of your page and any Outclicks on Ads or Referral links you may have.  It shows what is getting the most attention.

 

 

The Second Screen is the List.

This is where you get the numbers.  It gives you the Element (link), Type (A, img), Clicks (amount), and Percent (of the total).  This puts the colored dots into a perspective of how many people are going where.  I find this useful for keeping track of what seems to be working for me.

 

 

The Third Screen is the Heat Map.

This is my favorite screen.  It not only shows the links that are clicked, but ANYTHING that is clicked.  Like the Overlay, it is color coded for the number of clicks, cold to hot.  But it also shows where people think there should be a link.  As an example, there were quite a few people that seemed to be looking for more information in my Random Photos, as well as the pics I use in the posts themselves. Maybe, I should put related links under photos and the like, to see what happens.

 

My Recommendation:

Overall, I really like the usefulness of this service.  Although it will never replace using StatCounter or SiteMeter for tracking statictics, it could be a fine addition to any stats package you use.  It’s Very Good for Testing New Layouts or Designs and to see what your visitors are doing and looking at on your page.

 

Suggestions for the writers:

1.  Allow blocking of user clicks.  I click on a lot of links I use to test them and make sure they work.

2.  Write clearer instructions for the installation and use of the service.  Maybe explain the color coding on the Dashboard.

3.  Allow more than coverage of the front page, it can be useful to follow what happens when something leaves the front page.

4.  Hiten, be sure to keep your hands on approach, your service will only get better and better.

 

Have you tried Crazy Egg?  What did you think of the Service?

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