Frequently asked questions

Getting started

How does ClickTale work?

ClickTale captures every mouse move, click, scroll and keystroke that a visitor makes inside a webpage, and then sends this information back to the ClickTale servers in a highly compressed package. The ClickTale servers take a snapshot of the webpage as experienced by the visitor, and combines it with the visitor actions to recreate the original browsing session. When you then login to your ClickTale account you can see your visitor recordings, visual heatmaps and other behavioral reports.

Will ClickTale slow down my site

No. ClickTale has no noticeable effect on webpage load times or site performance. The ClickTale code is loaded at the end of the page, and is highly compressed. It therefore does not affect page load times at all.

How do I set up ClickTale?

Simply add a small JavaScript tracking code to the web pages you would like to record.

Does ClickTale require any special software or hardware?

ClickTale is a hosted service, so no software installation on the server or client side is needed and visitors can browse your website the same way they always have. We use a Content Delivery Network to host the tracking code, ensuring scalability and reliability.

Will ClickTale record all of my visitors?

ClickTale allows each subscriber to select the percentage of their visitors they would like to record. You can choose to record between 0 - 100% of your visitors, however you can only record up to your monthly recording limit as determined by your subscription plan.

Will ClickTale affect visitors’ browsing experience or page loading times?

Website visitors don’t notice any difference in their browsing experience since ClickTale is optimized for minimal use of CPU and bandwidth resources. In addition:

• Only about 5K of highly compressed data per recording is sent back to the ClickTale servers, which has no noticeable impact on site performance.
• The ClickTale tracking code is small and compressed, and is delivered via a Content Delivery Network that is extremely fast and reliable.
• Customers usually choose to record only a small fraction of their total traffic, and the extra load is not noticeable on the servers.
• The ClickTale code is loaded at the end of the page, and therefore does not affect page load times at all.

Can ClickTale provide heatmaps for all of my webpages?

Yes, but what heatmaps you are able to access may be restricted by your plan type. Please see the pricing page for more details.

Will the ClickTale tracking code interfere with other JavaScript code?

No, ClickTale will not interfere with any other JavaScript code. ClickTale has been used successfully in conjunction with many other analytics packages including: Google Analytics, Omniture, JQuery, Prototype, etc.

Fast Deployment

How long does it take to set up ClickTale?

ClickTale can be set up in a couple of minutes, and can start capturing visitor data immediately.

Can ClickTale record member-only areas and secure pages?

Yes. With paid plans you can record pages protected by a log-in, as well as https pages such as shopping carts.

What browsers do you support?

Please see our page about browser support.

What site architectures do you support?

ClickTale supports almost every type of architecture including, HTML, PHP, Classic ASP, ASP.NET, Ruby on Rails, JSP and many, many others. We also support various platforms such as WordPress, Magento, Joomla, Yahoo! Store, ColdFusion, and many more.

Does ClickTale work with Flash?

A few simple adjustments to your HTML code will allow ClickTale to work with Flash on a limited basis and enable the recording of mouse movements and clicks over Flash elements. We do not at the moment support dynamic Flash elements or completely Flash based sites, due to the various ways that different browsers handle Flash requests. This is something we’re working on at the moment and hope to get it fully working very soon.

I'm testing my website in an offline development environment. Can I still use ClickTale?

Yes, you can use ClickTale for offline environments and intranet sites by using the ClickTaleUploadPage API command. Development sites that have internet connectivity can run with the standard tracking code, for logins using cookies FetchFromWithCookies can be used.

Which timezones are recordings listed under?

The times displayed on your account are according to the local time of your machine. This includes times listed in project dashboards, search results, and individual recordings' playback pages.

However when searching for a visitor or a recording, or selecting a date range of recordings during generation of an aggregated account, the results depend on the server time listed for each recording, which is the time in Texas, USA(CST). This also determines which day a recording will appear under.

So for instance if a recording was made on January 1st 8 PM by a visitor in Los Angeles, it receives a timestamp of January 1st 10 PM (according to Texas time, CST), and will appear in the project dashboard listed under January 1st, but displaying your local time (for instance, January 2nd 3 PM Sydney time). It will also appear in searches for recordings on January 1st, and in aggregated reports based on recordings from January 1st.

Can ClickTale track visitors across websites?

Yes, ClickTale currently supports tracking visitors across sub-domains(such as blog.example.com, example.com and www.example.com). We do not currently support tracking visitors across 2 distinct domains (such as www.example.com and www.example2.com)

Will the way ClickTale operates interfere with my site's events?

ClickTale attaches to all events in a way that gracefully handles any other listeners that could be listening on the same events. For example we use element.addEventListener and not element.onX properties.

Privacy Assured

How will visitors’ privacy be affected?

Your visitors’ privacy is a top priority for us. That’s why we make every effort to protect your visitors’ personal information.

• ClickTale does not collect any personally identifiable information unless a visitor voluntarily and knowingly submits this type of data.
• Password fields are never recorded. During session playback asterisks are displayed instead of the input.
• Any text that a visitor enters into a form but does not submit is hidden. You can still generate Form Analytics reports on these fields, but are unable to view the text.

Can ClickTale be used to record sensitive personal or financial information?

We require that you block recording of any sensitive personal or financial information about your visitors by using the ClickTale API (please see the Terms of use, section 7, for more information on this). Breaking these Terms of Use will instantly invalidate your ClickTale subscription and revoke your access to all past, present and future recordings. You can use the ClickTaleSensitive class to censor information entered into form fields or the ClickTaleExcludeBlock method to prevent the recording of any element on your page.

Do my visitors know they are being recorded?

The recordings process itself is completely transparent to the end user. However, all ClickTale subscribers must put a disclaimer in their Privacy Policy letting their visitors know that they may be recorded. For more information please see the Terms of use.

Can ClickTale track visitors after they leave my site?

No, ClickTale can only track visitors on the specific web pages that contain your ClickTale tracking code.

Can my visitors choose not to be recorded?

Yes, we offer an opt out option for anyone who does not want to be recorded. This inserts a cookie within your visitor's browser that will prevent them from being recorded by any ClickTale customer.

How secure is my data?

Very secure. ClickTale takes several steps to ensure your data’s security.

• We restrict employees’ access to your data. ClickTale employees cannot access your data unless you provide us with your password and specific permission to access your account.
• HTTPS page data is passed to the ClickTale servers via SSL and is fully encrypted.
• Our servers are hosted at SAS/70 Type II certified data centers.
• We use firewalls to limit access to the ClickTale servers.
• We regularly apply updates to servers, OS, firewalls and all software to prevent security vulnerabilities.

Using ClickTale

Can I use ClickTale to find bugs in my website?

Yes, ClickTale provides a Most Errored Page Report to help you find which pages are generating the most JavaScript errors. In addition, ClickTale can show you when a visitor encounters an error and which line of your site code is generating the error.

How is ClickTale different from traditional web analytics?

Most traditional web analytics tell you where visitors come from and which pages they go to within your site. We tell you everything your visitors do inside those web pages using playable videos of customers’ entire browsing sessions as well as powerful visual heatmaps and behavioral reports.

Does ClickTale provide aggregated data about links and visitors?

Yes, ClickTale provides several reports based on aggregated visitor data. These reports include Heatmaps, Link Analytics, and Form Analytics among others.

I've upgraded my account - can I use the same tracking code or do I need to change it?

Please consult this page.

Bronze subscribers can use Form Analytics for standard html forms. What is considered a standard html form?

This is explained here.

Why isn’t my question listed here?

We’ve only put our most frequently asked questions on our frequently asked questions page. If you have an question that is not asked here, it may be an infrequently asked question. For infrequently asked questions, please see:

• Video Tutorials: Learn how to use each of ClickTale’s main reports to optimize your site.
• ClickTale Support Forum: Technical information about integrating and customizing ClickTale
• User Manual: Download the ClickTale user manual for instructions on integrating and using ClickTale.