Last night, errm early morning more like, while browsing some affiliate marketing forums - I saw an interesting post by one member about a “free” website heatmap script.
I have wanted to put a monitoring script like this in my high traffic sites so I could analyze why, inspite of the many unique visits and pageviews everyday, the sales of my offers on the site/s have very weak convertions. Now, with the Clickheat heatmap script I will have a clearer analysis of what my
visitors are doing with those virtual properties (I hope).
And the best thing is, the script is free!! Nothing beats free in the online world, right? Something to include here: Your hosting has to be a PHP server, it wouldn’t work on a Microsoft ASP server.
There is another visual heatmap like this on the market available from CrazyEgg.com but will only allow you to track 4 pages of your site for the free version. If you want to use the script more, then you will have to subscribe with them starting at $9 per month.
Go here and download the Clickheat Heatmap script.
The only thing that’s lacking with it is that the creator of Clickheat (LabsMedia.com) doesn’t have a detailed install of the script. For webmasters like me who have done several installation of different software scripts, it is easy to figure it out.
However, those who are new in the webmastering game, might feel frustrated if somewhere along the installation, they can’t figure out what to do next. So, I thought that since I will install the script anyway, why not document the installation procedure here? So, read on for the step by step installation of Clickheat HeatMap:
1. First off, download and save the script ZIP file in your Desktop (save it there so it’s easier to find). You may choose to download it in other compression forms (.bz2 and .gz) but I’m guessing most of us already have the unzip utility for compressed files.
2. Unzip the file and then find the /clickheat folder.
3. Using an FTP software, upload the /clickheat folder to the root of the site you intend to analyze - for example inside the /public-html folder of yourdomain.com
4. Since everyone who would download the script will have the folder as /clickheat by default, it would be better for your site’s security if you rename the /clickheat folder into something that lurkers will not be able to figure out - something like /heatseeker for example.
5. After uploading the complete clickheat folder to your site, CHMOD the following folders for full permission (777 most usually) using your FTP software - /cache, /config and /logs folders.
6. In your favorite browser, type in http://www.yourdomain.com/clickheat/index.php or whatever you named the clickheat folder in the address bar to access the installation interface (i.e. www.yourdomain.com/heatseeker/index.php).
7. If both preliminary requirement checks out, you may click next (Next step: configuration) and go to the next config screen. (Click image to enlarge)
8. At the next config screen just fill-in administrator identifier (login name) and input your password twice and then click the Check Configuration button. Save and remember this data which will be used for logging in the administration panel later. (Click image to enlarge)
9. You will be taken next to a configuration checklist like the image below. If everything checks-out, you may go ahead and click the Save Configuration button to take you to the administration login panel. (Click image to enlarge)
10. In the admin panel, fill-in the blanks with the administrator identifier you just did on step 8.(Click image to enlarge)
11. You will be taken to the admin panel after. At this point, your heatmap script is not yet working on your site. You will have to click on the Javascript tab so you can get the script needed to be installed in the website page that you wanted to analyze. See image below (Click image to enlarge):
12. Copy the resulting Javascript in the box and then install this in the index file of the site you plan on monitoring. Install it before the body tag. If you are installing it in a Wordpress blog, you may insert the script at footer.php file before the body tag.
13. To check if you installed it correctly, open a browser window, and type in: http://www.yourdomain.com/index.html?debugclickheat (in wordpress: http://www.yourdomain.com/index.php?debugclickheat) then press enter which will take you to your site which shows a Clickheat notice to the left of the screen.
14. Go to the admin panel again, http://www.yourdomain.com/clickheat/index.php. No heat clicks will show initially on the Clickheat admin page but as soon as your visitors arrive at your site and began clicking, it would register and will show on the Clickheat admin panel.
I hope this would help those who would want to install Clickheat Heatmap in their site but otherwise have no idea how to go about the installation procedure. Leave a message here at the comment section if you have any questions and I will try to answer all your queries.
