The Linux Page

What is that "hjVerifyInstall" parameter appearing in my Analytics?

Row of jars with hot peppers in olive oil and delicious herbs.

As I have been looking around for various tools to help me determine what is happening whenever I have a reader on my blog, I found this tool which offers quite a few features for free which is called: HotJar.

One step in the process of using HotJar is to download a small JavaScript and add it to your website header. This script includes your website identification and allows for tracking your customers and see what they are doing on your website. Pretty nice to get a better idea of what's happening.

The hit with the "hjVerifyInstall" parameter happens whenever you click the button to verify that you properly installed their JavaScript. Notice the "hj" introducer which stands for HotJar.

I tested that feature on several of my website to see what people would do and I found out that they were doing similar things as I would do. So it did not teach me that much outside of the fact that it proved what I was thinking would happen. That being said, I thought it was interesting to see and confirm that I was doing it right.

In in all, though, I think it is an incredible tool. If you have landing pages, it's certainly a must have. It includes support for hotmaps and recordings which can give you a really good idea of what people do/look at/read/get ready to click. With a blog, though, it's not as important, I think. That being said, it's still exciting to see how much of your articles get read. At times it feels like people come by and don't read your content. That's not the case at all. Most of the time, they read quite a bit. This tool will give you such insight.