Crazy Egg, the highly anticipated click tracking service from ACS, launched today. With Crazy Egg, users install a code on their website to track every click a visitor makes on links, forms, advertisements, and flash documents. Results can be displayed in either an overlay or heatmap form giving the user a visual on click activity around the website. This kind of data is very useful for website owners as it can help them learn how their visitors navigate their website and how they can improve and optimize its usability.
Before we get started, let me explain how Crazy Egg works. Crazy Egg can be setup on any website, whether it be a static or dynamic site (blogs included), and is to be used as a tool to test your websites click activity. When setting up a site, you set a length of time for your test session and Crazy Egg will then provide you with a code to insert in your sites body. The next time someone visits your site and clicks on a link, input to a form, advertisment, or flash document, Crazy Egg will record its position. You then can view the click reports during and after the testing session.
The first page you will see when logging in is the Dashboard (Note: numbers blurred in the above screenshot are from a master Crazy Egg test account and are not all in relation to my site). This is where you get an overview of all your pages that you are watching with Crazy Egg. It is also where you go to add a page to your account for testing. Each page listed provides you with details on when the page was last tested, how many tests you have ran, and its current status (actively running or not). Selecting a page from the list will make a new area slide down providing you with a screenshot of the site and basic statistics including number of visits and clicks during the testing duration. To get to the more detailed reports showing the overlay and heatmap, click on the “View Results” button of any page listed.
Viewing a pages report will bring you to a new section of Crazy Egg with a toolbar at the top and your site right below. At default, the overlay reporting method will be shown and if clicks have already been recorded, you will see colored markers around the site. These markers point out where the clicks have been made and will be colored based on the percentage of clicks (blue for low percentage, red for high percentage). Selecting a marker will border the clicked object and pop open a little percentage bar showing the amount of clicks made on that object. You can also open all markers at once by selecting the gear icon on the toolbar and clicking, “open all.”
The next reporting method is, List. Selecting the list button on the toolbar will have a box slide down that will show a table listing all objects that have been clicked. Sorted by the amount of clicks, each row will show the element clicked, what type of element it is (a, strong, span, etc.), the amount of clicks, and the percentage of clicks. Viewing results in the list format makes it very easy for you to quickly grab the names of the most clicked elements, or least clicked, and makes for a quick overview, which at times is easier to view then markers around the site.
The last method, and my favorite method, for viewing results is using the heatmap option. Heatmaps are commonly seen in usability tests and eye tracking tests where the site is overlayed with a grey layer showing high concentrated areas in bright colors ranging from blue to red. Crazy Egg decided to use the same technique to show what elements are most clicked. Blue colored areas have a low percentage of clicks, while red colored areas have a high percentage of clicks. Using the heatmap makes it very easy for you to see what elements around your site receives the most attention and what areas of your site may need some improvement.
Now, let’s say that based on the results from the reports, you made some changes to your website and you want to start another test. This is no problem and Crazy Egg makes this very easy for you. Head over to the Dashboard and select your page. You will see a link below the page name that says, “test a new version.” Clicking this will bring you to a form where you can enter the amount of time you want your new test to run and click save. You will then be directed back to the dashboard where you will see that your page has multiple tests. On the right, after selecting the page, you will see the most recent test on top with the older ones following below allowing you to easily view results for any test you have had under that page.
Crazy Egg offers four plans to choose from when signing up ranging from Free to $99/month. For some, the free plan is all that will be needed as it allows for tracking 5,000 visits/month with 2 pages, which I feel is plently for basic website testing. One downside with the free account is that statistics wont be shown in real-time (live reporting). On the other hand, it may get a little pricy but offering 25,000-250,000 monthly visitors and unlimited pages with live reporting.
All in all, Crazy Egg is a great product providing helpful data to any website owner. I’ve been anticipating its launch since I first learned about it on TechCrunch and Mashable back in March, and I must say, it was well worth the wait. I’m impressed with how simple Crazy Egg makes it for website owners to visualize visitor click activity. You can use Crazy Egg for testing new designs, structure changes, ad placement, page content, and more. Based on results, website owners can learn how visitors see their site and how they should improve it. I will definitely be using this for all future usability tests.
Pronet Advertising says:
Crazy Egg officially launches…
Have you ever found it hard to figure out how to improve your website? We have been having this pain for years which is why we created. We just launched Crazy Egg today. So what is Crazy Egg?…
August 21st, 2006 at 11:09 am
Austoon Daily » Crazy Egg – visualize your visitors says:
[...] Crazy Egg – visualize your visitors [...]
August 21st, 2006 at 1:06 pm
Brian, Thanks for the review of Crazy Egg. We look forward to improving things, and always welcome feedback :-)
August 21st, 2006 at 2:16 pm
Crazy Egg = Click Tracking + Heat Maps for Your Blog | blogHelper says:
[...] For more information on the service, I suggest taking a look at Solution Watch’s coverage, Mashable or TechCrunch’s early previews (which highlights another potential competitor, Map Surface) or Devlounge’s preview of the service. [...]
August 21st, 2006 at 2:24 pm
PaulStamatiou.com says:
CrazyEgg.com Finally Launches…
After nearly half a year of buzz and beta testing, Advantage Consulting Service’s creation of Crazy Egg is open to the public. If that name sounds familiar, you might have seen ACS’s name floating around when Commentful was launched as tha…
August 21st, 2006 at 4:48 pm
Dominic Jones / Investor Relations Blog :: Crazy Egg (Yawn!) :: August :: 2006 says:
[...] Well, that was a disappointment. Lots of buzz about the launch of Crazy Egg, a tool that is supposed to help you improve your website by seeing what people are clicking on. [...]
August 21st, 2006 at 5:05 pm
Weblog Tools Collection » Crazy Egg Launched says:
[...] Crazy Egg Launched: Matt had talked about CrazyEgg a few weeks ago and I have been itching to try it for some time. It looks like the service is fully launched now. It also appers that they have decided to use the WordPress.com pages as their main examples. Share and Enjoy:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]
August 21st, 2006 at 6:32 pm
David "Dsquared" Dalka - Creating Revenue and Retention says:
7 Reasons Crazy Egg Will Be Successful…
The eagerly anticipated launch of Crazy Egg (or do you say Crazyegg?) is here!
Crazy Egg allows you to “Visualize Your Visitors” and gives you a clear picture of where your visitors are clicking and allows you to enhance your site’s …
August 21st, 2006 at 6:44 pm
DENNISBULLOCK.COM » Blog Archive » Crazy Egg Has Launched says:
[...] Crazy Egg is out of private beta and has launched. Check out this review. [...]
August 21st, 2006 at 7:46 pm
Good overview – but I was not clear how it is much different say from ClickTracks or similar existing services.
The heatmap visualization is probably the best one I have seen across many web analytics services.
August 21st, 2006 at 8:00 pm
CrazyEgg Launches » Conversion Rater says:
[...] I plan on reviewing CrazyEgg in more detail in the next couple of days, in the meantime Solution Watch has a pretty good review. Related Posts: [...]
August 21st, 2006 at 11:31 pm
Japhy.at - Usability, Web 2.0 und das Leben in Wien » Archiv » CrazyEgg: Klicktracking-Tool nun offiziell gelauncht says:
[...] (via Solutionwatch.com) Technorati Tags: click tracking, CrazyEgg [...]
August 22nd, 2006 at 2:12 am
Deep Jive Interests » Recommended Reads for August 22, 2006 says:
[...] Crazy Egg Launched – Visualize Visitor Clicks Well, I have been anticipating this for a while, and finally it has arrived! Crazy Egg allows you to visualize where people are going. As most web2.0 services its a tiered system, with the basement tier offering being free. Having said that, there are (tags: cool heatmap launch web2.0 Crazyegg) [...]
August 22nd, 2006 at 2:30 am
iSpider.pl » Blog Archive » Links for 2006-08-22 says:
[...] Crazy Egg Launched – Visualize Visitor Clicks [...]
August 22nd, 2006 at 5:41 am
Hmm, CrazyEgg.com has been either down or rendering without the CSS for the whole morning so far. Maybe it’s really popular and the traffic is affecting the site.
August 22nd, 2006 at 7:30 am
Great service, for a conserned webmaster. I think the service helps a lot in understanding user behaviors.
Thank you for sharing this service with me !
August 22nd, 2006 at 9:31 am
Heatmaps are a very good idea. It will make the things very easy and its so visual. Can’t hardly wait to you it.
August 22nd, 2006 at 10:04 am
The buzz must be bring much traffic to their site – I keep getting 500 errors trying to create a new account… sounds compelling, though. I’ll check back when they have the performance resolved!
August 22nd, 2006 at 10:28 am
Crazy Egg Launched - Visualize Visitor Clicks at blackrimglasses.com says:
[...] Crazy Egg Launched – Visualize Visitor Clicks: a very cool system, but their economics are flawed for the same reason the economics of YouTube are flawed. [...]
August 22nd, 2006 at 12:23 pm
» Now You’re Talking… Click Tracking by Crazy Egg VibeTalk: When it comes to your mood, timing is everything… says:
[...] Solution Watch: Crazy Egg Launched – Visualize Visitor ClicksThis is an excellent review using the Solution Watch website [...]
August 22nd, 2006 at 1:18 pm
ENGRENAGEM - Media e Tecnologia: blog sobre jornalismo, citizen journalism, blogosfera e novas tecnologias says:
[...] Est? aqui uma an?lise completa deste Crazy Egg. 23 Agosto 2006 | [...]
August 23rd, 2006 at 8:22 am
Weblog Tools Collection: Crazy Egg Launched at SocialCode says:
[...] Crazy Egg Launched: Matt had talked about CrazyEgg a few weeks ago and I have been itching to try it. It looks like the service is fully launched now. It also appears that they have decided to use the WordPress.com pages as their main examples. [...]
August 24th, 2006 at 6:37 am
Basic Thinking Blog » Crazy Egg gestartet says:
[...] Testbericht siehe SolutionWatch [...]
August 24th, 2006 at 10:45 am
The Crazy Egg - newsmotto! says:
[...] Solutionwatch informs about the Crazy Egg : Crazy Egg, the highly anticipated click tracking service from ACS, launched today. With Crazy Egg, users install a code on their website to track every click a visitor makes on links, forms, advertisements, and flash documents. Results can be displayed in either an overlay or heatmap form giving the user a visual on click activity around the website. This kind of data is very useful for website owners as it can help them learn how their visitors navigate their website and how they can improve and optimize its usability. [...]
August 25th, 2006 at 7:38 am
Crazy Egg is a pretty good tool that I have implemented on my website. I did a 1 week review on my experience and how I have used it in comparision to Google Analytics, it’s at
http://webpodge.com/2006/09/02/field-review-of-crazy-egg/
I also plan on doing a 1 month review as well.
September 3rd, 2006 at 12:53 am
Chief of the System » CrazyEgg.com - How does it track Visitor Clicks? says:
[...] Solution Watch: Crazy Egg Launched – Visualize Visitor ClicksBloghelper: Crazy Egg = Click Tracking + Heat Maps for Your BlogDevlounge: A Sneak Preview at Crazyegg!Techcrunch: See What Your Website Visitors Are Doing With Crazy Egg [...]
September 6th, 2006 at 6:18 pm
WebRatings Team’s Blog » Blog Archive » Crazy Egg Launched - Visualize Visitor Clicks says:
[...] http://www.solutionwatch.com/493/crazy-egg-launched-visualize-visitor-clicks/ [...]
September 21st, 2006 at 3:34 pm
CrazyEgg - Tracking Visitor Clicks says:
[...] Crazy Egg Launched – Visualize Visitor Clicks I’m impressed with how simple Crazy Egg makes it for website owners to visualize visitor click activity. [...]
October 5th, 2006 at 5:53 am
BlogBot » CrazyEgg - Tracking Visitor Clicks says:
[...] Crazy Egg Launched – Visualize Visitor Clicks I’m impressed with how simple Crazy Egg makes it for website owners to visualize visitor click activity. [...]
October 7th, 2006 at 1:35 pm
hey
November 7th, 2006 at 8:41 pm
Inside the Mind of an Internet Marketer says:
Find Out Where Users Click on Your Website Using Crazy Egg…
If you haven’t heard of Crazy Egg, I suggest you take a look and sign up for a free account. Crazy Egg allows you to create tests so you can learn what visitors are doing on your web pages by……
June 20th, 2007 at 11:36 am
31?????
September 24th, 2007 at 8:17 am
However Crazy egg appears pretty good, since I use it, my google adsense revenue are decreasing, and now I receive 0$/day
If anyone is in the same case, please send me a email
thanks
February 27th, 2008 at 6:41 am
We use Crazy Egg on a lot of website to do some simple visitor tests. Lately we’re getting a lot of problems with the code not bein executed well.
When your site has a lot on javascript + flash there might be problems.
January 15th, 2009 at 3:42 pm