Stop Guessing and Start Watching Your Customers
If you’re running a business in Brisbane—whether you’re a plumber in Coorparoo or a lawyer in the CBD—you’ve likely looked at your website traffic and felt a bit frustrated. You see the numbers go up, but the phone doesn’t ring as often as it should.
You’ve probably been told you need more 'traffic' or better 'rankings.' But here’s the truth: getting people to your website is only half the battle. If they get there and get confused, annoyed, or bored, they’ll leave in three seconds and call your competitor down the road instead.
Most business owners treat their website like a digital billboard. You put it up, hope people see it, and pray they call. But a website isn't a billboard; it’s a shopfront. If people walked into a physical shop, looked at one shelf, tripped over a rug, and walked out, you’d fix the rug immediately.
In the digital world, 'heatmaps' and 'session recordings' are how you see the rug people are tripping over. It’s basically like having a security camera in your shop that shows you exactly where people are looking, where they’re clicking, and—most importantly—where they’re getting stuck and quitting.
The Myth: "My Website Works Just Fine"
I hear this all the time from business owners. "I checked it on my computer, it looks great."
Here is the reality check: You aren't your customer. You know where the 'Contact Us' button is. You know that the big image on the homepage isn't clickable. Your customers don't.
I recently worked with a landscaping business near Chermside. They had a beautiful website with high-quality photos. They were getting plenty of visitors, but almost zero enquiries through their online form. When we actually looked at the recordings of people using the site, we saw something embarrassing: on a mobile phone, a 'Chat with us' bubble was popping up right over the 'Submit' button. People were trying to hire them, but they literally couldn't click the button to send the message.
They were wasting money on ads to send people to a site that was broken for half their users. They thought the marketing wasn't working. In reality, the 'rug' was just covering the door.
What are Heatmaps (And Why Should You Care?)
A heatmap is just a colour-coded map of your website.
Red areas are where everyone is clicking and looking. Blue areas are being ignored.
Why does this matter for your profit? Because if your phone number is in a blue area and a picture of your dog is in a red area, you’ve got a problem. You want the most important things—your services, your phone number, your 'Book Now' button—to be in the hottest spots on the page.
The "Click" Myth
People assume that if something looks like a button, people will click it. Or if it doesn't look like a button, they won't.We see this constantly: a business puts a big, bold heading on their page like "Free Quotes in Brisbane Southside." Because it’s bold and colourful, visitors think it’s a button. They click it ten times, nothing happens, they get frustrated, and they leave.
By seeing these 'rage clicks' on a heatmap, you can either make that heading a link to your quote page or change the design so it doesn't look like a button. Either way, you stop losing customers over a simple misunderstanding.
Session Recordings: The "Fly on the Wall" Strategy
If a heatmap is a summary, a session recording is the full movie. It allows you to watch a video replay of a real person navigating your site. You see their mouse move, you see how far they scroll, and you see exactly when they decide to hit the 'back' button.
This is the most eye-opening thing a small business owner can do. It’s often painful to watch. You’ll find yourself shouting at the screen: "The button is right there! Just scroll down!"
But they don't. And they won't.
Real World Example: The Confused Customer
We worked with a boutique gym. They had a 'Prices' page that was quite long. They thought they were being helpful by explaining their whole philosophy before showing the weekly cost.When we watched the recordings, we saw that 80% of people landed on the page, scrolled fast for two seconds, couldn't find a dollar sign, and left. They didn't want a philosophy lesson; they wanted to know if they could afford the membership.
By moving the price table to the top of the page, their membership enquiries jumped by 40% in a single month. No extra ad spend, no 'SEO' magic—just using your numbers to see what people actually wanted.
Three Common Lies About Website Data
1. "I need thousands of visitors to get results"
Rubbish. If you own a local smash repair shop and you get 100 visitors a week, watching just 10 or 20 of those recordings will tell you almost everything you need to know. You’ll see patterns immediately. If five people in a row struggle to find your address, you don't need a 'statistically significant sample size' to know you need to move your address to the top of the page.2. "It's too expensive to set up"
Most of the best tools for this (like Hotjar or Microsoft Clarity) have free versions that are more than enough for a small business. The cost isn't the software; it's the time to look at it and the guts to admit your website might be confusing people.3. "My 'Web Guy' already handles this"
Usually, they don't. Most web designers focus on making the site look pretty. Most SEO people focus on getting people to the site. Very few people actually look at what happens after the click. If you aren't seeing reports that show you where people are dropping off, your 'Web Guy' is only doing half the job.How to Do This Yourself (The 30-Minute Audit)
You don't need to be a tech genius. If you can use Facebook, you can use these tools. Here is how I’d recommend a Brisbane business owner start:
1. Install a tool: Get something like Microsoft Clarity (it’s free) installed on your site. It takes five minutes. 2. Wait a week: Let it gather some data from real visitors. 3. Watch 10 recordings of mobile users: Most of your customers are on their phones while waiting for a coffee or sitting on the couch. Don't worry about desktop users yet. Watch how they scroll. Do they look lost? Do they keep clicking things that aren't links? 4. Look at the 'Scroll Map': This shows you how far down the page people go. If your 'Call Now' button is at the bottom of the page, but only 20% of people scroll that far, 80% of your potential customers never even saw your phone number.
Time and Money: What's the Catch?
Let's talk straight about the investment.
Setup Cost: $0 if you do it yourself, maybe a couple of hundred bucks if you pay someone to spend an hour setting it up and explaining it to you. Time: You should spend about 30 minutes once a month looking at this. That’s it. Results: You can see results instantly. If you find a broken link or a hidden phone number and fix it today, you could get an extra phone call tomorrow.
Compare that to other marketing. If you want to tell if your marketing is making money, you usually have to wait months for SEO to kick in or spend thousands on ads. Fixing your website’s 'user experience' (how easy it is to use) is the fastest way to make more money from the visitors you already have.
The "Frustration Factor"
One thing these tools show you that Google Analytics won't is frustration*. There is a metric called 'Rage Clicks.' This is when a user clicks the same spot rapidly because they expect something to happen and it doesn't.
In Brisbane’s competitive market—whether you’re an electrician in Logan or a dentist in Indooroopilly—you cannot afford to frustrate your customers. They have ten other options in the Google search results. If your site makes them feel stupid or moves too slowly, they are gone.
I’ve seen businesses spend $5,000 a month on Google Ads while their website had a 'Rage Click' problem on the main booking button. That is literally throwing money into the Brisbane River.
What Should You Fix First?
If you start watching your recordings, you'll likely find a dozen things to fix. Don't panic. Focus on these three in order:
1. The "Help Me Now" Button: Is your phone number or booking button visible the second the page loads on a phone? If people have to hunt for it, you're losing money. 2. The Form: If you have an enquiry form, watch people try to fill it out. Do they get halfway and quit? Maybe you're asking too many questions. Do they struggle with the 'Date' picker? Simplify it. 3. The Dead Ends: Watch for people who scroll to the very bottom of a page and then just sit there before leaving. This means they were interested, but you didn't tell them what to do next. Every page needs a clear "Next Step" (e.g., "Call us now for a quote").
Stop Guessing, Start Winning
Marketing isn't a dark art. It’s mostly just observing human behaviour and making things easier for them. Most Brisbane business owners are guessing what their customers want. They’re guessing why their ads aren't turning into sales.
Stop guessing. Use heatmaps and recordings to see the truth. It might be a little bruising for your ego to see people ignore your 'About Us' section that you spent hours writing, but you’d rather have a bruised ego and a phone that’s ringing off the hook than a 'perfect' website that nobody uses.
At Local Marketing Group, we don't just care about how many people visit your site; we care about how many of them actually pay you money. If you’re tired of wondering why your website isn't performing and want someone to just find the 'rugs' and fix them for you, we can help.
Ready to turn your website into a sales machine? Contact Local Marketing Group today.