Snapshots for Historical Heatmaps

Overview

To generate a page’s historical heatmap, VWO relies on snapshots. A snapshot is a saved record of your webpage's structure (its HTML code) from a specific point in time. VWO requires a saved version of the page on which it displays the heatmap data.

Think of it like this:

• The snapshot is the historical canvas. It is how your page looked in the past.
• The heatmap is the paint. It is the click data from that same time period.

VWO combines the two, allowing you to see exactly where users clicked on an older version of your page. Without a snapshot, there is no past version to display heatmap data on.

Types of Snapshots

VWO supports two methods for snapshot creation - automatic generation by the system and manual saving by the user.

• Saved Snapshots: These are snapshots that you generate manually from a specific session recording. This gives you precise control over which page version you want to save. For more information, see how to save snapshots manually.
• VWO Snapshots: VWO automatically generates one snapshot per day for pages where session recordings are enabled, capturing the latest version from that day. If you need to preserve the state of a page before a specific mid-day deployment, you must manually save a snapshot from a recording that occurred before that deployment.

This article further explains how you can save a snapshot manually, convert a VWO-generated snapshot into a saved snapshot, and view all your saved snapshots.

Save Snapshots Manually

1. Log in to your VWO account and navigate to Insights > Session Recordings.
2. Find a recording for the page you want to capture. Use the available filters, such as Date Filter, Visited Page URL, Device Type, or Visitor Type (New/Returning Visitor), to quickly find the recording you are looking for.
3. Once you have found the recording, click . The recording opens in a new browser tab. You can pause the recording at a specific timestamp and generate a snapshot or capture a snapshot during playback. Click the Save Snapshot icon in the bottom right control bar to generate a snapshot.
   
4. In the Save Snapshot dialog that appears, enter a descriptive name for your snapshot. For example, Homepage - Pre-Holiday Banner and click Save.
   
   This snapshot will now be available for generating historical heatmaps under Insights > Heatmaps.

Convert VWO-Generated Snapshots into Saved Snapshots

Sometimes, you will discover a valuable past version of a web page that was automatically captured by VWO (marked with the source VWO). Since you cannot rename or directly manage these, you should convert them into a Saved snapshot to preserve them. To convert a VWO snapshot into a saved snapshot:

1. In the list of snapshots, find the snapshot where the Source is listed as VWO.
2. Click next to this snapshot and click Save Snapshot. A dialog box will appear, prompting you to enter a name.

3. Give this snapshot a descriptive name that you will remember (for example, Homepage - 30 Sep - VWO Capture) and click Save. The snapshot's source will immediately update in the list from VWO to Saved. Now that it is a Saved snapshot, clicking will give you the Rename and Delete options, just like for any other manually saved snapshot. You can now manage it from the View Saved Snapshots panel as well.

   Tip: If you know a significant website change is coming, go into a session recording and manually save a snapshot right before the change is deployed. Give it a clear name for easy reference later.

View Your Saved Snapshots

To view all your saved snapshots, go to Insights > Heatmaps > View Saved Snapshots.

This opens a panel listing all your saved snapshots. It lists all the saved snapshots for all URLs added to your VWO account.

From here, you can:

• Search for a specific snapshot by name or URL.
• Sort the list by the date on which the snapshot was saved or the corresponding session was recorded.
• View the heatmap for the snapshot.
• Compare the snapshot with another past (or live) version.
• Preview, Rename, or Delete a snapshot by clicking next to it.
• Select multiple snapshots using the checkboxes and bulk-delete them.

Need more help?

For further assistance or more information, contact VWO Support.