A UX audit is a structured review of your website to find the things that make it harder to use than it should be. UX stands for user experience, which simply means how easy and pleasant it is for someone to do what they came to do, whether that is finding a phone number, booking a service or buying a product.

A good website UX audit combines expert review, real data and, ideally, watching real people use the site. The result is a prioritised list of problems and fixes, not a vague opinion that the site “feels dated”. Below we explain what goes into one, how to run it yourself for a small business site, and a checklist you can work through.

A UX audit finds where visitors get stuck

Most small business websites lose people at predictable points: a confusing menu, a slow page on mobile, a form that asks for too much, or a checkout that springs delivery costs at the last step. A UX audit looks for those friction points systematically so you can fix them in order of impact.

It is worth running one when:

• Traffic is fine but enquiries or sales are not.
• You are planning a redesign and want to know what to keep and what to change.
• You have added features and pages over the years and the site has become cluttered.
• Customers mention they struggled to find something or gave up and phoned instead.

A UX audit is different from an SEO audit, which focuses on how search engines find and rank your pages, and from a pure accessibility audit, although a thorough UX audit includes accessibility checks. The three overlap, and the fixes often help all of them at once.

Set goals before you look at a single page

An audit without goals turns into a list of personal preferences. Start by writing down:

• What the site is for. For example, enquiries for a service business, bookings for a venue or online sales for a shop.
• Your key tasks. The three to five things visitors most need to do, such as find prices, check opening times, request a quote or buy.
• Who the visitors are. New customers, returning customers, trade buyers or job seekers each want different things.
• How success is measured. Form submissions, calls, bookings, sales or sign ups.

Everything you find in the audit should be judged against those tasks and goals.

Review the site against usability heuristics

A heuristic review is where someone experienced works through the site against a set of established principles. The most widely used are Jakob Nielsen’s 10 usability heuristics, first published in 1994 and still the standard reference. In plain terms, they ask:

1. Visibility of system status. Does the site tell people what is happening, such as “added to basket” or “message sent”?
2. Match with the real world. Does it use the customer’s language rather than internal jargon?
3. User control and freedom. Can people easily go back, undo or change their mind?
4. Consistency and standards. Do buttons, links and layouts behave the same way everywhere, and the way people expect from other sites?
5. Error prevention. Does the design stop mistakes before they happen?
6. Recognition rather than recall. Are options visible, rather than relying on people remembering things from earlier pages?
7. Flexibility and efficiency. Can returning visitors get things done quickly, for example with saved details or search?
8. Aesthetic and minimalist design. Is every element earning its place, or is clutter hiding the important bits?
9. Help users recover from errors. Are error messages clear and do they explain how to fix the problem?
10. Help and documentation. Are FAQs, delivery information and contact details easy to find?

Work through each key task on the site and note every point where a heuristic is broken. Rate each issue by how badly it affects the task, from cosmetic to blocking.

Related reading: UX and SEO: How Great User Experience Boosts Your Rankings

Use analytics and heatmaps to see what people actually do

Expert review tells you what might be a problem. Data tells you where problems are costing you.

Analytics

In Google Analytics 4, look at:

• Landing pages with high traffic but low engagement.
• Pages where people leave the site most often.
• Drop off between steps in your enquiry or checkout journey (set up a funnel exploration if you have not already).
• Differences between mobile and desktop. If mobile visitors convert far less, the mobile experience is usually the reason.
• Site search terms, which show what people looked for and could not find in the menu.

Google Search Console adds the search queries that bring people in, which shows what visitors expect to find when they land.

Heatmaps and session recordings

Heatmap tools show where people click, tap and how far they scroll. Session recordings let you watch anonymised visits. Microsoft Clarity offers both and was free at the time of writing, and there are paid tools with more features. Look for:

• Clicks on things that are not links, such as images or headings people expect to be clickable.
• Rage clicks, where someone clicks the same spot repeatedly out of frustration.
• Important content or calls to action that most visitors never scroll down to.
• Form fields where people hesitate, go back or give up.

These tools set cookies and record behaviour, so make sure they are covered by your cookie consent setup and privacy notice.

Watch real people use your site

Nothing beats watching someone try to use your website. You do not need a lab. Ask a handful of people who match your customers (not staff or close friends who know the business) to complete your key tasks while thinking aloud. You can do this in person or over a video call with screen sharing.

• Give them tasks, not instructions. “Find out how much a boiler service costs” rather than “click Services, then Pricing”.
• Do not help or explain. The moments where they get stuck are the findings.
• Note where they hesitate, what they say and whether they complete the task.

Usability specialists have long argued that testing with around five people per round reveals most of the major problems, and that several small rounds are better than one large one. Even two or three sessions usually uncover issues nobody inside the business had noticed.

Check accessibility, mobile and forms

Accessibility

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 at level AA are the recognised benchmark. Quick checks anyone can do:

• Navigate the whole site using only the Tab and Enter keys. Can you see where you are and reach everything?
• Check text contrast against its background with a free contrast checker.
• Make sure images have meaningful alt text and form fields have visible labels.
• Zoom the browser to 200% and check nothing breaks or overlaps.
• Run an automated checker, remembering these catch only some issues.

Mobile

Test on real phones rather than a narrowed desktop browser. Check tap targets are large enough, menus open and close easily, phone numbers are tappable, and nothing pops up and covers the content you came for. Run PageSpeed Insights on key pages, as slow pages on mobile data lose visitors.

Forms and checkout

• Ask only for what you need. Every extra field is a reason to give up.
• Use the right keyboard on mobile (number pad for phone numbers, email keyboard for email addresses).
• Show clear, specific error messages next to the field, not a generic message at the top.
• Offer guest checkout on shops and show delivery costs early.
• Confirm clearly when a form has been sent and what happens next.

Turn findings into a prioritised plan

An audit is only useful if it leads to changes. Put every finding in a simple spreadsheet with the page, the problem, the evidence (heuristic, data or user testing), the suggested fix and a rating for impact and effort. Then fix the high impact, low effort issues first. Typical quick wins include clearer button wording, removing unnecessary form fields, fixing broken links and compressing heavy images.

Measure the same metrics before and after each change so you know what worked, and repeat a lighter audit every six to twelve months or before any website redesign.

Website UX audit checklist

• Goals, key tasks and success measures written down
• Each key task tested against the 10 usability heuristics
• Navigation labels use customer language
• Contact details and calls to action visible on every page
• GA4 reviewed for weak landing pages, exits and funnel drop off
• Mobile and desktop conversion compared
• Site search terms reviewed
• Heatmaps and recordings reviewed for dead clicks and rage clicks
• At least three real users tested on key tasks
• Keyboard navigation, contrast, alt text and zoom checked
• Tested on real iPhone and Android devices
• Page speed checked on key templates
• Forms trimmed, labelled and tested with errors
• Checkout tested end to end, including delivery costs and guest checkout
• Findings prioritised by impact and effort

Frequently asked questions

What is a UX audit?

It is a review of a website’s usability, using expert principles, analytics and user testing, to find what stops visitors completing key tasks and recommend fixes in priority order.

How long does a UX audit take?

For a small business site, a focused audit can take a few days. Larger sites with many templates, or audits including several rounds of user testing, take longer.

Can I do a UX audit myself?

Yes, you can cover a lot with the checklist above. The hardest part is seeing your own site through a stranger’s eyes, which is why outside reviewers and real user testing are so valuable.

Does UX affect SEO?

Indirectly, yes. Pages that load quickly, work well on mobile and answer the visitor’s question tend to perform better, and Google’s Core Web Vitals measure parts of the experience directly.

Get a fresh pair of eyes on your website

If your site gets visitors but not enough enquiries or sales, our web team can review it, find the friction and fix it, with search performance in mind too. See our website design service and SEO service, or get in touch to talk about your site.