The (Very) Unofficial Crazy Egg FAQs

October 9, 2006

I got tired of waiting for Crazy Egg to have FAQs so I just wrote them myself. I put them together based on the many questions Hiten Shah from Crazy Egg has tirelessly answered for me, as well as my own perceptions. No one from Crazy Egg has seen this or blessed this, and any mistakes are mine (mine, mine, all mine.)

Q: How is Crazy Egg different from other overlays?
A: Other overlays show you where people click on links. Crazy Egg shows you where people click, even if they are clicking on a picture that doesn’t have a link associated with it. This is very helpful because it tells you where visitors expect to be able to click — where you should have links . Also, some overlays give the same amount of “credit” to two links on a page that go to the same place, and Crazy Egg only counts a click where it happened. Finally, Crazy Egg has not one but three different kinds of overlay reports.

Q: What are the differences between the three reports that Crazy Egg provides?
A: The Overlay (#1) displays your test page with buttons next to the places where people click. When the buttons are close to dark blue, you have few clicks, and when they are at the other end of the rainbow — the reddest — you are getting the most clicks. You can click on any Crazy Egg Overlay button to see how many actual clicks came to that spot. Alternatively, you can use the Flower Marker (the tab next to Overlay) to show you all the results associated with all the buttons. The List (#2) is just that — a list of the different kinds of clicks you get and how many of each there are. And the Heatmap (#3) shows you exactly where on a page people clicked (did they click in the middle of the picture? At the end of the link?) so you can see if links need to be longer or easier to reach.

Q: Can you describe the List better and explain what “Type” means?
A: Even though your most common type will probably be “A,” you won’t see B or C or D — when you see A on the list, it stands for an “a tag” like a href. (A link.) Drop down boxes usually have type Select. Free form large boxes usually have type Text Area, and free form one-line text areas have type Input. IMG is an image.

Q: Why does my dashboard say, 1324 views, 649 clicks, 589 shown? Why can’t Crazy Egg show all the clicks?
A: This means that there are clicks on the page that Crazy Egg is not identifying in the overlay. Many times it has to do with Flash elements, ads and even elements that are not on the page anymore. Javascript dropdown menus often have this problem.

Q: If someone clicks into a field and then enters a name with five characters and then hits the tab or enter button, how many clicks does Crazy Egg count — one, five, six or seven?
A: It is supposed to count that as only one click.

Q: What does it mean when Crazy Egg says that they can archive up to a certain number of snapshots?
A: The snapshots are pictures of a test when the test is finished, since Crazy Egg archives the way the test looked right when it ends.

Q: I thought that I knew how long I needed to run my test, but there weren’t enough visits so the data isn’t interesting enough yet. Can I extend the length of my test without starting a completely new test?
A: No, you can’t. Sorry. (Wouldn’t it be great if everyone’s FAQs were written this way, they actually answered a question like this without marketing doublespeak?)

Q: I can put the Crazy Egg code on four pages at no charge, right? And Crazy Egg will archive four tests at no charge, right? So does that mean that after I have ended one of my four free tests, I can start a fifth test, but I lose the archived snapshot of one of my first four tests? Or does that mean that my fifth test will not allow me to archive the final snapshot? Or does that mean that I am done with my free stuff and now I have to pay?
A: Wow, what a great question.

Q: I noticed that the code Crazy Egg gives me is always the same for my site, no matter which page it is on. Why can’t I add the code to an include file and let it run on every page? I would be happy to pay.
A: True, true. Read the editorial part of this post.

Robbin Steif
LunaMetrics

p.s. If you haven’t tried Crazy Egg, you are missing out on a great analytic tool.