Businesses and website owners use a number of tracking software tools to view how users behave on their website. Some of the most common ways to monitor user activity include:
Tools like Google Analytics and Search Console
Click tracking (recording which elements on a page users click)
Scroll tracking (recording where users scroll on a page)
Viewing session recordings of users as they use a site
We’ll go over these tracking methods in detail below and show you how to use them effectively.
How to track users with Google Analytics
![How to Track User Activity on Your Website [Steps, Tools, Examples] (1)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw== "How to Track User Activity on Your Website [Steps, Tools, Examples] (1)")
GA4 dashboard
Google Analytics (GA) is the most popular traditional web analytics tool, used by 74% of web analysis professionals. If you already work with GA, you can skip to the next section. If not, here’s a quick overview of the set-up process:
1. Create and configure your Google Analytics account
Google Analytics is free and easy to set up
In 2020, Google launched a new version of Google Analytics called GA4 (this version replaced the older Universal Analytics version in July 2023).
Here’s how to set up GA4.
And here’s how to switch from Universal Analytics to GA4.
2. Add GA tracking code to your pages
GA4 tracking code
Paste the global site tag into the <head> section of every page, or add it with Google Tag Manager.
3. View reports
Realtime website traffic overview in GA4
Google Analytics will generate reports as soon as you get some traffic to your site.
Start with the Realtime report (Reporting > Realtime) to view live website traffic data and verify that GA is set up correctly.
How to track user activity with behavior analytics
Behavior analyticsis the process oftracking and analyzing quantitative and qualitative user datato identify how people interact with your website or product, and why.
Behavior analytics tools give context to the insights you get from GA by allowing you to track user behavior on the page directly. Using them together gives you a clearer understanding of how users experience a page so you can fix issues, optimize UX, and improve conversion rates.
Setting up a SaaS behavior analytics tool is just like GA: sign up, add a tracking code, and view reports. Here’s how to get started with the two most popular behavior analytics tools: heatmaps and session recordings.
Track where users click, move, and scroll with heatmaps
A Hotjar scroll map (left) and click map (right)
The easiest way totrack and visualize where users click, move, and scrollis to useheatmaps.
Website heatmaps are visual representations of the most popular (red) and unpopular (blue) elements on a page, giving you an at-a-glance understanding of what people look at and ignore, which helps you identify patterns and optimize for increased engagement.
There are three main types of heatmap:
Scroll heatmaps show how far down the page users scroll, and the average fold position
Click heatmaps show where website visitors click (and tap on mobile)
Move heatmaps show how users move their mouse as they browse
Other heatmaps go beyond just the basics: Hotjar rage click maps, for example, track repeat clicks and help you visualize points of user friction on a page. They’re a great tool to track functionality issues because they quickly expose non-clickable or broken elements that frustrate users.
Hotjar rage click maps reveal user frustration
When you’re ready to start tracking, here’s how to set up a free heatmap on a website or single-page application (SPA) in just a few minutes:
1. Sign up for Hotjar
Hotjar (hi 👋) is an easy-to-use behavior analytics software used on over 1 million websites worldwide. Our free heatmap tool, Heatmaps, requires virtually no setup and will give you immediate insights from the moment you install your tracking code.
Signing up for Hotjar takes only a few clicks
Sign up for Hotjarwith your Google account or email address. There’s a free forever basic plan to get you started.
2. Add the Hotjar tracking code to your website
Simply copy and paste your Hotjar tracking code or install it directly on a platform
You can add the Hotjar tracking code via Google Tag Manager by pasting the JavaScript snippet into the <head> of every page you want to track, or by using the official Hotjar plugin on your WordPress site or online platform.
3. Create a new heatmap
Once you’re in the Hotjar dashboard, select “Heatmaps” from the left column, then click the “New heatmap” button.
Enter the URL of the page you want to track, then select the type of heatmap you want to set up.
Your selection will take you back to the Hotjar dashboard where you can edit the heatmap. Don’t forget to name it something descriptive (e.g. “product landing page”).
See how users behave with session recordings
An example Hotjar session recording showing user behavior during a session
Heatmaps are great for showing you the overall user experience on any single page, but you’ll get richer qualitative insight by looking at how individual users experience your site across several pages. And for that, you’ll needsession recordings.
Session recordings (also known as session replays) arerenderings of real user actionsas they browse a website. Recordings show mouse movement, clicks, taps, and scrolling across multiple web pages on desktop and mobile.
Session recordings provide valuable user tracking data
Here’s how to view session recordings on your site with the Hotjar Recordings tool in a couple of steps. If you’re not already a Hotjar customer, sign up now (free forever pricing plan available) and add the tracking code to your site.
1. Activate Recordings on your site
After verifying that session capture is enabled by clicking on the traffic coverage widget in the top-right corner of the dashboard, select “Recordings” in the left column.
Once Hotjar detects traffic on your site, new recordings will appear automatically on your Recordings List page (the free plan will give you recordings from a sample of 35 user sessions per day).
2. Start filtering
After one easy step, you're now tracking user session activity. Next, try playing around with the filter feature to narrow down the list of recordings to the ones most valuable to your user activity tracking goal.
Hotjar session recording filters
You can filter by criteria like geographic region, separate returning users from new users, or even single out rage clicks you spotted on a heatmap.
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