A UX audit checklist helps you find the exact points where visitors get confused, stuck or give up on your website. For a small business site, work through it in order: set goals and key journeys, review them against usability heuristics, check analytics and session recordings, test mobile, forms and accessibility, then rank fixes by impact.
You don’t need a research lab. Google Analytics 4 and Microsoft Clarity are free, and the remaining checks need only a phone, a laptop and a spreadsheet.
Each step below is a checklist table with what to check and how to test it. Copy the rows into a spreadsheet, add columns for pass or fail, severity and owner, and you have a UX audit template you can reuse every quarter.
Key takeaways
- Start every UX audit with the site’s goals and three to five key journeys, such as requesting a quote or calling from a phone.
- Review each journey against Nielsen’s 10 usability heuristics, then confirm problems in GA4 and session recordings before fixing them.
- Microsoft Clarity is free and flags rage clicks, dead clicks and quick backs, but visitors from the UK, EEA and Switzerland need a consent signal.
- Check accessibility against WCAG 2.2 AA: 4.5:1 text contrast, visible keyboard focus and targets of at least 24 by 24 CSS pixels.
- Rate every issue for severity and effort, and fix severe, quick problems on your main conversion journeys first.
What is a website UX audit, and when should you run one?
A website UX audit is a structured review of how easily visitors find what they need and take the action you want, such as calling, booking or requesting a quote. Run one when leads drop, before a redesign, a few weeks after a launch, and at least once a year.
It differs from an SEO audit, which asks whether Google can find and rank your pages. A UX audit follows real journeys and looks for friction. For a list of common errors, read 15 website design mistakes that cost leads; this guide is the method for finding your own. If you’d rather hand it over, our UX design team runs the same process.
Step 1: Set goals and map your key journeys
Write down what the site is for and the three to five journeys that matter most, then audit those journeys instead of every page. A plumber’s site might have four: call from a phone, request a quote, check the service area and send a WhatsApp message.
| Journey | Typical entry page | Success action | How to measure it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Call from a phone | Google Business Profile or a service page | Tap on the phone number | A click-to-call key event in GA4 |
| Request a quote | A service page reached from search | Quote form submitted | A form submission key event |
| Check the service area | Home page or a location page | Visitor finds their town, then contacts you | Clicks from area pages to contact |
| Message on WhatsApp | Any page | WhatsApp button tapped | An outbound click key event |
If those actions aren’t tracked as key events yet, set that up first; our GA4 guide for beginners walks through it. Note the mobile and desktop split in GA4 as well, and audit on the device most of your visitors use.
Step 2: Review each journey against Nielsen’s 10 heuristics
Walk each journey yourself and note every point of hesitation, using Jakob Nielsen’s 10 usability heuristics as your checklist. Nielsen published them in 1994, Nielsen Norman Group updated the heuristics article in 2024, and they remain a common basis for expert reviews.
| Heuristic | What to check on your site |
|---|---|
| 1. Visibility of system status | Forms confirm they’ve been sent; buttons show when they’re working; the menu shows the current page |
| 2. Match between the system and the real world | Services use customers’ words (“boiler repair”, not “thermal solutions”) |
| 3. User control and freedom | Pop-ups close easily; going back doesn’t wipe form entries |
| 4. Consistency and standards | Buttons and links look and behave the same everywhere; the logo links home |
| 5. Error prevention | Phone and date fields accept common formats; required fields are marked upfront |
| 6. Recognition rather than recall | Prices, service areas and next steps are on the page, not buried in PDFs |
| 7. Flexibility and efficiency of use | Returning visitors can jump straight to booking, contact or login |
| 8. Aesthetic and minimalist design | Each page has one main message and one main call to action |
| 9. Help users recognize, diagnose and recover from errors | Error messages sit next to the field and say how to fix the problem |
| 10. Help and documentation | FAQs, contact options and opening hours are easy to reach from every page |
Content clarity checks
Show your home page for five seconds to someone who doesn’t know the business, then ask what you do, where, and what they’d click next. If they can’t answer, fix the words before the design.
- The main headline says what you do and where, in plain words.
- Prices, a starting price or an explanation of how pricing works sit where customers look for them.
- Proof sits next to the decision: reviews, photos of real work, accreditations.
- Each core service has its own page rather than a line in a long list.
- Phone number, address and hours match your Google Business Profile.
Step 3: What do GA4 and session recordings reveal?
Analytics shows where visitors drop off; session recordings and heatmaps show why. Use GA4 to find the problem pages, then watch recordings of those pages before you change anything.
| Signal | Where to find it | What it may mean |
|---|---|---|
| Low engagement rate on a landing page | GA4 Landing page report | The page doesn’t match what the ad or search result promised |
| Many exits at one step of a journey | GA4 Explorations: Exits by page path | A form, a price or a missing detail stops people |
| Plenty of traffic, few key events | GA4 Pages and screens report with key events | The call to action is weak or hard to find |
| Rage clicks | Microsoft Clarity | Something looks clickable but isn’t, or responds too slowly |
| Dead clicks | Microsoft Clarity | Visitors expect text or an image to be a link |
| Quick backs | Microsoft Clarity | The page didn’t deliver what the link promised |
| Excessive scrolling | Microsoft Clarity | Visitors are hunting for information |
| Scroll depth | Clarity heatmaps | The call to action sits below where most visitors stop |
In GA4, an engaged session lasts longer than 10 seconds, has a key event or has at least two page views. Engagement rate is the share of sessions that were engaged, and bounce rate is its inverse. Many reports don’t show engagement rate by default, so add it through Customize report, which needs the Editor or Administrator role.
Watch out
Microsoft Clarity is free with no traffic limits, but from October 31, 2025 it enforces consent signals for visitors in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, according to its consent API documentation. Without consent, Clarity can’t stitch pages into one session, so full journey replays are lost. Connect it to your cookie banner, and mask fields that hold personal data.
Step 4: Check mobile usability and forms
Test every key journey on a real phone, then confirm with Lighthouse in Chrome DevTools and PageSpeed Insights. Google retired its standalone Mobile-Friendly Test, so real devices and Lighthouse are now the practical tools.
Mobile UX audit checklist
| Check | How to test | Pass looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Tap targets | Tap every button and link with your thumb | At least 24 by 24 CSS pixels, or well spaced |
| Sticky headers and chat widgets | Scroll and fill in a form | They never cover the field or button in use |
| Click-to-call and WhatsApp | Tap them on a real phone | They open the dialer or chat with the right number |
| Text and zoom | Read without zooming, then pinch-zoom | Body text is readable and zoom isn’t blocked |
| Pop-ups | Load a page fresh from search | Nothing blocks the content on arrival |
| Speed | PageSpeed Insights field data | LCP 2.5 s or less, INP 200 ms or less, CLS 0.1 or less at the 75th percentile |
Form checklist
| Check | Pass looks like |
|---|---|
| Number of fields | Only what you need to reply; optional fields are marked |
| Labels | Visible labels above fields, not placeholder text alone |
| Mobile keyboards | Phone and email fields use type=”tel” and type=”email”, so the right keyboard appears |
| Autofill | Name, email, phone and address fields use autocomplete attributes |
| Errors | Messages appear next to the field, in words, and entries are kept |
| Confirmation | A thank-you message says what happens next and when |
| Delivery | Test submissions reach the inbox, not spam, and fire a key event |
| Redundant entry | Visitors aren’t asked twice for details they’ve already given |
Step 5: Run accessibility quick checks against WCAG 2.2
Check the site against WCAG 2.2 level AA, which W3C published as a Recommendation in October 2023, rather than the older 2.1. A short manual pass plus a free automated scan finds many common barriers.
| Check | WCAG 2.2 criterion | How to test |
|---|---|---|
| Text contrast | 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum): 4.5:1, or 3:1 for large text | WebAIM Contrast Checker or Lighthouse |
| Keyboard use | 2.1.1 Keyboard | Tab through menus, forms and pop-ups without a mouse |
| Focus visible and not hidden | 2.4.7 Focus Visible; 2.4.11 Focus Not Obscured (Minimum) | Check sticky bars never cover the focused item |
| Images | 1.1.1 Non-text Content | Informative images have alt text; decorative ones have empty alt |
| Headings and links | 1.3.1 Info and Relationships; 2.4.4 Link Purpose | Logical headings; link text makes sense on its own |
| Zoom and reflow | 1.4.4 Resize Text; 1.4.10 Reflow | Zoom to 200% and 400%: no cut-off text or sideways scrolling |
| Target size | 2.5.8 Target Size (Minimum): 24 by 24 CSS pixels | Check small icons, close buttons and footer links |
| Consistent help | 3.2.6 Consistent Help | Contact details or chat sit in the same place on every page |
| Video | 1.2.2 Captions (Prerecorded) | Videos with speech have captions |
Use WAVE from WebAIM or the Lighthouse accessibility audit for the automated pass, then do the manual checks yourself. Automated tools can’t judge whether alt text is meaningful or whether a keyboard user can actually finish your form.
Step 6: Prioritize fixes and fill in your UX audit template
Rate each issue for severity and effort, then fix severe, quick problems on your key journeys first. Nielsen Norman Group’s 0 to 4 severity scale, which weighs how often a problem occurs, how hard it is to overcome and whether it keeps recurring, keeps ratings consistent.
| Rating | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 4: catastrophe | Stops the journey; fix now | The quote form fails on iPhone |
| 3: major | Many visitors struggle; high priority | The phone number is only in the mobile footer |
| 2: minor | Slows people down; low priority | A vague error message on one field |
| 1: cosmetic | Fix if time allows | Inconsistent button styles |
| 0: not a problem | No action | A reviewer’s personal preference |
Copy this UX audit template
| Journey | Page and device | Issue and evidence | Heuristic or WCAG | Severity | Effort | Fix and owner |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Request a quote | Quote page, mobile | Chat widget covers the submit button; recordings show repeated taps | 3. User control; 2.4.11 | 4 | Small | Move the widget; developer |
| Call from a phone | Home page, mobile | Phone number only in the footer | 6. Recognition rather than recall | 3 | Small | Tap-to-call button in the header; developer |
Re-test after each fix and compare that journey’s key events in GA4 over the following weeks. Once the site is easy to use, raising the share of visitors who get in touch is a separate job, covered in our guide to increasing your website conversion rate. If the list is long and structural, a rebuild may be cheaper; the website development process shows where UX research fits.
How TechZone can help
TechZone’s UI/UX team runs UX audits for small business and lead-generation websites using the steps above: journey mapping, a heuristic review, GA4 and Microsoft Clarity analysis, and mobile, form and WCAG 2.2 checks. You get a prioritized issue list with severity, effort and a recommended fix for each item, and we can make the fixes on WordPress, Shopify or custom sites. See our UI/UX design services, or book a free 30-minute consultation to go through your site.
Frequently asked questions
How long does a UX audit take?
A UX audit’s length depends on the number of key journeys, pages and devices, and on whether you need to wait for behavior data. A focused audit of three to five journeys on a small business website usually takes days rather than weeks. If Microsoft Clarity isn’t installed yet, allow time for it to collect recordings from real visitors before reviewing them.
What is the difference between a UX audit and usability testing?
A UX audit is an expert review of a website against heuristics, accessibility standards and analytics data. Usability testing means watching real people from your audience try to complete tasks, such as booking an appointment, while thinking aloud. A UX audit is faster and cheaper, while usability testing uncovers problems experts miss, so many teams audit first and test the biggest findings.
Can I do a UX audit on my own website?
A business owner can run a useful UX audit on their own website with free tools and this checklist. The main risk is familiarity: you already know where everything is, so you miss what confuses newcomers. Ask a friend or customer who hasn’t used the site to try the key journeys while you watch, and let the analytics settle disagreements.
What tools do I need for a UX audit?
A basic UX audit needs only free tools: Google Analytics 4 for traffic and key events, Microsoft Clarity for recordings and heatmaps, PageSpeed Insights and Lighthouse for speed and mobile checks, WAVE and the WebAIM Contrast Checker for accessibility, and a spreadsheet for the audit template. A real phone matters as much as any tool.
What is the difference between UX and UI design?
UX design covers how a website works for the visitor: its structure, journeys, content and how easily people complete tasks. UI design is the visual and interactive layer: layout, buttons, colors, typography and states such as hover and error. A UX audit looks at both wherever the interface makes a task harder, such as low-contrast buttons or confusing form fields.
Sources and further reading
- 10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design – Nielsen Norman Group
- Severity Ratings for Usability Problems – Nielsen Norman Group
- [GA4] Engagement rate and bounce rate – Analytics Help
- Frequently asked questions – Microsoft Clarity documentation (Microsoft Learn)
- What's New in WCAG 2.2 – W3C Web Accessibility Initiative
- Web Vitals – web.dev
