SeeVolution’s Web Traffic Heatmaps Help Big Sites Make Design Decisions

Instead of combing through analytics to make decisions about website design, for about a year SeeVolution users have been able to view free real-time heat maps of traffic with the startup’s beta product.

SeeVolution has announced it is ending its beta and instating a freemium model with features equipped to handle bigger sites.

The free version of the product — that more than 2,500 sites use — will still be available. It creates a transparent overlay on a site that shows where traffic is coming from, basic analytics, a heat map of where people have moved their mouses or clicked, and a visualization of how far they’ve scrolled down the page.

Site owners can see how many people clicked on each of the site’s thumbnails, for instance. If one isn’t getting as much attention as all the others, maybe it’s best to swap out that photo. Likewise, if people consistently stop scrolling down the page when they hit a certain item, maybe it’s best to move that item elsewhere.

All sorts of sites, including city government websites, small blogs and adult sites, are using the product to make these sorts of decisions. But the free beta version only accommodates five domain names, up to 200 daily unique visitors and a seven-day history.

Now sites can opt to pay $14 to $199 per month to add more domain pages, keep track of more users and view site history for up to a year. Price for the premium versions varies based on number of domains and unique visitors.

Angel-funded SeeVolution is trying to develop a new niche in analytics that departs from advanced real-time tools like Chartbeat and deep analytics programs like Google’s.

“It’s not meant to replace Google Analytics,” CEO Edo Cohen says. “There’s really a need for simple analytics. It’s almost what Tumblr did for blogging.”