Mobile friendly ✔.  Simple language ✔ . Most usability tips are blindly obvious!

Here’s a checklist of 10 UNCOMMON tests and checks you can do at home, to help improve your website’s user experience (UX) and usability, and convert more sales! And I’ve added ways to fix the problem that won’t cost you anything!

☐ Assess “first-click” accuracy rate

• Task: Ask someone unfamiliar with your site to do a specific task (e.g., finding a product or contact information).
• Goal: Measure whether their very first click gets them closer to their goal.
• Best practice: Aim for 70%+. If users get lost, it’s time to simplify your home page and menus so key items are more prominent.
• How to fix that:
  • Focus your website home page and navigation on your sales journey. This isn’t a CV, and it isn’t about you. It’s about your book, or product, your service and the VALUE you add!
    
  • Don’t waste menu items on categories primarily for SEO (like a blog or support). Have a single menu item that goes to an overview. It nudges people who come via Google to see EVERYTHING you do.
  • Credibility matters, but most people don’t start out suspicious. They are trying to solve a problem, or buy something. Why make them doubt your skills by pushing testimonials and “proof” at them, before they are even THINKING of buying?

☐ Evaluate home page scannability

• Task: Time how long it takes for someone to identify the primary purpose of your site within 5 seconds.
• Goal: Your value proposition must be IMMEDIATELY clear.
• Best practice: Most home pages focus on the offering (what you do) and your first-step call to action (book a consultation/subscribe). Don’t forget the value of what you do is even more important!
• How to fix that:
  • Use strong headlines, clear subheadings, and call-to-action (CTA) buttons to guide users to key points of your message or offering.
  • Draw the eye with panels—especially dark panels on a light page. Use backgrounds and graphics to “chunk” your page and make it readable.
  • See our Blog for articles on identifying the refining your “1-minute marketing pitch”.

☐ Check for navigation fatigue

• Task: How many clicks or page transitions does it take to reach key content or complete tasks. How often is your site search used?
• Goal: Identify and reduce unnecessary clicks or steps. If your site search is popular and it’s a small site, that isn’t a good thing – why are people getting lost?
• Best practice: Optimize your navigation to minimize the number of clicks required to access important content.
• How to fix that:
  • Flatten your navigation structure if possible.
  • Be careful of megamenus (multi-column submenus)—they are cool but tempt people away from sales into exploring.
  • Limit the number of menu items
  • Group related content under clear, concise categories.
  • Menu labels and links must reflect the specific contents they lead to. A map is “Find us”, a phone number is “Call us”, Team background is “Our Team” not “Contacts”.  Most people know what a Blog is, but might not recognise  “Knowledgebase” even if it sounds cooler.
  • Some sites are big, and need an active search bar. Shopping site usually need filters rather than a search.
  • Don’t waste links on pages not related to your sales journey like detailed About Us or support background.  Your company’s milestones probably aren’t that interesting.
  • Despite that famous book, most customers don’t CARE about your why, they care about what your product or service will do for them. Customers are SO self-centred!

☐ Test for unexpected interaction elements

• Task: Test hover effects, swipe gestures, previous, next and mouseovers. If it has a mouseover, it should be clickable.
• Goal: Interactive elements must be intuitive.
• Best practice: Always provide clear visual cues or instructions for unconventional interactions, and offer alternative methods of interaction.
• How to fix that:
  • Hovering over a menu or image causes content to change or disappear (e.g., text or buttons vanishing or shifting because the font is white on white).
  • Hovering over an icon causes it to change colour, but it isn’t clickable?
  • Navigation menus that only appear when users perform a specific action, like hovering over a small icon or swiping.
  • Pages that scroll horizontally
  • Items that only work with a right-click or wheel scroll (many people don’t know these exist!)
  • Requiring swipe gestures for navigation on desktops (very hard to do with a mouse)
  • Label-less Icons that aren’t instinctive (a surprising number of people don’t know what a “hamburger” menu is when it’s on a desktop site.)
  • Aggressive animations like flips and 3D slides. Gentle animations, like fading in draw attention to important text or CTAs (call-to-actions) without people feeling dizzy.

☐ Examine consistency of call-to-action (CTA) buttons

• Task: Review the styling, placement, and wording of CTA buttons across the site.
• Goal: Consistency reduces customer hesitation.
• How to fix that: Use the same colour, shape, alignment, location and terminology for similar CTAs. Make primary CTAs are brighter and more obvious than secondary actions.

☐ Conduct a microcopy review

• Task: Evaluate the wording of labels, buttons, error messages, and instructions.
• Goal: Make sure that microcopy (the short messages above and below elements) are clear, concise, and user-focused.
• How to fix that: No jargon. If you have technical terms, have a clickable glossary or pop-up tags. Use friendly, reassuring language, especially in error messages.

☐ Evaluate image relevance and impact

• Task: Review all images- do they support the content and purpose.
• Purpose: Images should give context and emotional appeal, not just fill space.
• How to fix that: Use relevant images. OBVIOUSLY relevant, to all relevant demographics. Ask friends and clients which images resonate with them.

☐ Assess accessibility

• Task: Use a screen reader or keyboard navigation to interact with the site.
• Purpose: Can users who are older, younger, or have a disability still use the site effectively.
• How to fix that:
  • Forms, menus, and buttons should be accessible via keyboard and have clear focus states.
  • Consider audio and video as alternative options to long text pages.
  • Consider a table of contents to allow people to jump further down the page.

☐ Analyze your breadcrumbs

• Task: Do your breadcrumbs accurately represent the site’s structure?
• Purpose: Breadcrumbs identify where the reader is within your site, and quickly navigate up a hierarchy of pages.
• How to fix that: Breadcrumbs are critical if you have multiple levels of navigation. Breadcrumbs must reflect the site hierarchy – and in WordPress the categories aren’t built to do that (especially if a page is in multiple categories.)

☐ Test for emotional resonance

• Task: Watch reactions as others interact with the site – are they frustrated, delighted, or confused. Is the site structure based on your company structure and categorization?
• Purpose: Just because it makes sense to YOU because you know the products, services and industry, doesn’t mean a customer will be as knowledgeable or patient.
• Best practice: Aim to create positive emotional experiences through intuitive design, welcoming microcopy, and delightful interactions.