A UX audit is a structured review of a website or app to find where users struggle. It combines expert checks against usability principles with real evidence such as analytics, heatmaps and session recordings, and ends with a prioritised list of fixes.

How long does a UX audit take?

A focused audit of a small website or one key journey can take a few days. A full audit of a large product with several user types, analytics review and user testing takes longer. The scope should be agreed before work starts.

Can I do a UX audit myself?

Yes, you can run most of this checklist yourself with free tools. The limitation is that you know your product too well, so add an outside view: watch real people use it, or ask a designer to review it.

How often should a website have a UX audit?

Run one before a redesign, before a big campaign or seasonal sale, and whenever a key number drops, such as enquiries or completed checkouts. A light review once or twice a year keeps small problems from piling up.

What should a UX audit report include?

A good report lists each problem with a screenshot, where it happens, why it matters, evidence, a severity rating and a recommended fix. It should end with a prioritised plan, not just a long list.

How much does it cost to fix the problems a UX audit finds?

It depends on how many screens change. Many fixes are copy or layout tweaks. At Omebly, a redesign screens package for one website or app starts from $2,500, with a fixed written quote after a free consultation.

UX Audit Checklist: 30 Checks to Find Why Visitors Leave

If people visit your website but don’t enquire, book or buy, something on the page is getting in their way. A UX audit checklist helps you find it methodically instead of guessing or redesigning everything. Below are the 30 checks we use as a starting point when reviewing a site for our UI/UX design service, grouped by where visitors usually give up.

Quick answer: A UX audit checks a website or app against usability principles and real user behaviour to find friction. Start with your analytics to see where people drop off, then review those pages for clarity, navigation, forms, mobile usability, speed, accessibility and trust. Rate each problem by severity and fix the ones on your money pages first.

Before you start: set up the audit

An audit without a goal becomes a list of opinions. Spend an hour on setup first.

Pick the journeys that matter

Choose two or three key tasks, such as “find a service and send an enquiry”, “buy a product” or “book an appointment”. Every check below is judged against those tasks.

Gather evidence

Analytics (for example Google Analytics 4): which pages have high exits, and where does the funnel leak?
Heatmaps and session recordings: free tools such as Microsoft Clarity show rage clicks, dead clicks and how far people scroll.
Real feedback: support emails, WhatsApp questions and sales calls often reveal the same confusion again and again.

Test on real devices

Use a mid-range Android phone on mobile data, not just a fast laptop on office Wi-Fi. That is how many of your visitors see your site.

The UX audit checklist: 30 checks

First impression (checks 1 to 5)

The headline says what you do and for whom within the first screen, in plain words.
One primary action is obvious, such as “Get a quote” or “Shop now”, with no rival buttons of equal weight.
The page answers “why you?” near the top: a clear benefit, not a slogan.
Images support the message instead of decorating it. Stock photos of handshakes add nothing.
Nothing blocks the content on arrival. Pop-ups, cookie banners and chat widgets should not cover the headline on a phone.

Menu labels use your customers’ words, not internal jargon (“Services”, not “Solutions Matrix”).
The menu has a manageable number of items, with the most important first.
Visitors always know where they are: active menu states, clear page titles, breadcrumbs on deep sites.
Search works and forgives typos on sites with many products or articles.
Every page has a next step. No dead ends where the only option is the back button.

Content and readability (checks 11 to 15)

Text is scannable: short paragraphs, descriptive headings, lists where useful.
Body text is large enough to read on a phone without zooming.
Prices, timelines or “starting from” information are easy to find if visitors need them to decide.
Key questions are answered on the page, so visitors don’t leave to ask elsewhere.
Copy is consistent: the same thing has the same name everywhere.

Forms and checkout (checks 16 to 20)

Forms ask only for what you need now. Every extra field costs completions.
Labels stay visible above fields, not as placeholder text that disappears.
Errors are specific and appear next to the field, and the form keeps what the user already typed.
The right keyboard appears on mobile: numbers for phone fields, email keyboard for email.
Checkout or enquiry has no surprises: delivery charges, taxes and next steps are clear before the final tap. Our Diwali ecommerce checklist goes deeper on checkout.

Mobile, speed and accessibility (checks 21 to 25)

Tap targets are big enough and not crammed together.
Nothing scrolls sideways on a small screen.
Pages load quickly on mobile data. Check your Core Web Vitals with Google’s guidance on web.dev and fix heavy images first.
Text and buttons have enough contrast, as described in the WCAG guidelines.
The site works with a keyboard and images have meaningful alt text.

Trust and feedback (checks 26 to 30)

Contact details are easy to find: phone, WhatsApp, email and location.
Proof is real and specific: actual work samples, real reviews, clear policies. Vague claims reduce trust.
The system responds to every action: buttons show loading states, forms confirm success, carts update visibly.
Empty and error states help (“No results for ‘shose’. Did you mean shoes?”) rather than showing a blank page.
Design is consistent across pages: the same button styles, spacing and patterns, so the site feels cared for.

Many of these come from well-established usability principles. Nielsen Norman Group’s 10 usability heuristics are a useful lens for anything this list doesn’t cover.

Free tools that make the audit faster

You don’t need expensive software to run most of these checks.

Tool	What it helps you check
Google Analytics 4	Exit pages, funnel drop-off, devices and traffic sources
Microsoft Clarity	Heatmaps, scroll depth, rage clicks and session recordings
PageSpeed Insights	Load speed and Core Web Vitals on mobile and desktop
Chrome DevTools	Phone-size layouts, slow network simulation, contrast and accessibility audits
Google Search Console	The search queries that bring people in, and pages with indexing problems
Your own phone	The real experience: one hand, small screen, mobile data

A useful habit: watch ten session recordings of people who left your key page without acting. Patterns appear quickly, such as everyone scrolling past the price, tapping an image that isn’t a link, or abandoning a form at the same field. Those patterns are your strongest evidence, because they come from your own visitors rather than general advice.

How to score and prioritise what you find

A list of 40 problems with no order is hard to act on. Give each one a severity and an effort estimate.

Severity	Meaning	Example
Critical	Stops users completing the key task	Checkout button hidden behind the cookie banner on mobile
High	Many users struggle or abandon	Enquiry form loses data on error
Medium	Slows users or reduces trust	Menu labels use jargon
Low	Cosmetic or rare	Inconsistent icon styles

Then fix in this order:

Critical and high problems on money pages (pricing, product, checkout, contact).
Quick wins: low-effort fixes such as copy, labels and image compression.
Larger structural changes, such as navigation or a new checkout flow, planned as a design project.

How to report the findings

For each issue, write down:

A screenshot with the problem marked.
The page and device where it happens.
What the user is trying to do and what goes wrong.
The evidence: a recording, an analytics number from your own data, or the principle it breaks.
Severity, effort and a recommended fix.

Keep the summary to one page: the five problems that matter most and what to do first. Busy owners read that page; designers and developers use the detail.

Common UX audit mistakes

Auditing everything at once. Start with the journeys that bring revenue.
Relying only on opinion. “I don’t like this colour” is not a finding. Tie each issue to user behaviour or a known principle.
Testing only on desktop. Mobile problems are usually the most expensive ones.
Ignoring the copy. Many UX problems are words: unclear labels, vague headlines, hidden prices.
Fixing without measuring. Note your current enquiry or checkout numbers before changes, so you know if the fixes worked.
Treating the audit as a one-off. Every new page, campaign or feature can introduce friction again.

When an audit points to a redesign

Sometimes the audit shows that small fixes won’t be enough: the structure is wrong, the site can’t be made fast, or every page uses a different pattern. That is when a planned redesign makes sense, starting with user flows and wireframes rather than visuals. Our guide to the UI/UX design process explains those steps. For marketing sites specifically, see our website design service.

How Omebly can help

Omebly’s design team reviews websites and apps for businesses in India, Downtown Dubai and further afield. A UX audit from us includes a heuristic usability evaluation, mapping of where users drop off along the journey, and actionable redesign recommendations, backed by analytics and heatmap review where you have the data. If you want us to carry out the fixes, a redesign screens package for one website or app starts from $2,500, with a fixed written quote within 48 hours of a free consultation and weekly progress reviews.

See what’s included on our UI/UX design services page.

Want to know why visitors are leaving? Contact us or message us on WhatsApp for a free consultation.