A good website should explain its purpose, make the next step obvious, and stay usable while it loads. Use this practical audit to find the problems that interrupt real visitor tasks before spending time on cosmetic changes.
WEBSITE REVIEW WORKSHEET
Understand. Navigate. Act.
Review one important visitor journey from arrival to completion.
1. Choose a task worth testing
Write down what someone came to do: compare a service, view a project, book a session, or send an inquiry. Begin on the page where that visitor would arrive. A homepage review alone will miss problems on articles, service pages, and contact screens. Record the device, browser, page, and exact steps so another person can reproduce the issue.
2. Check the first screen for clarity
Ask someone unfamiliar with the business what it offers and what they would click next. If they need a spoken explanation, revise the heading and supporting text. Replace vague calls to action with a description of the result, such as “View design projects” or “Request a consultation.” Keep the most important action visually distinct without making every link look like a button.
3. Follow the mobile journey
On a real phone, open navigation, read a long heading, switch a filter, and complete the main task. Look for clipped text, sideways scrolling, overlapping sticky elements, and buttons too close together. Include empty results and long content. A layout that looks tidy with ideal sample text may fail when a customer enters a longer name or an article uses a longer title.
4. Review forms and feedback
Use persistent labels instead of relying only on placeholders. Explain required fields and expected formats before submission. Try an incomplete entry: does the message identify the field and explain how to fix it? Preserve valid input after an error. Finally, check whether success means the information was actually sent or merely prepared in another app. The button and confirmation should describe the real behavior.
5. Include a keyboard and reading check
Move through the page with Tab and Shift+Tab. Confirm that focus is visible, controls appear in a sensible order, and menus or dialogs can be closed. Read headings without surrounding paragraphs: they should describe the structure. Check that meaningful images have useful text alternatives and that links describe their destinations. These checks are a starting point, not a complete accessibility certification.
6. Interpret performance measurements correctly
Google’s Core Web Vitals cover loading, responsiveness, and visual stability. The recommended good thresholds are LCP at 2.5 seconds or less, INP at 200 milliseconds or less, and CLS at 0.1 or less. Assessment uses the 75th percentile of visits, considered separately for mobile and desktop.
A Lighthouse laboratory score is a diagnostic snapshot; it does not prove that all real visitors have a good experience. Review field data when available, then use lab diagnostics to investigate. If a site lacks enough field data, say so rather than presenting a lab result as a real-user pass.
7. Prioritize fixes by visitor impact
Start with blockers: an unusable menu, failed form, missing page, or unreadable content. Next address repeated friction, such as unclear labels and oversized images. Polish decorative details after the main journey works. For each issue, record the evidence, expected behavior, proposed change, and a simple verification step.
An example issue log
- Problem: The contact button says “Send,” but only opens an email draft.
- Impact: Visitors may believe their message has already been delivered.
- Change: Use “Open email draft” and explain that they must send it in their email app.
- Verify: Test the flow and ask a reader what happens next.
Finish with a focused retest
Repeat the original journey after each important change. Check the same failing condition, plus nearby interactions that could have been affected. Keep before-and-after notes so improvements are traceable. Avoid promising a conversion increase from a visual change alone; that requires appropriate measurement.
Reference and next step
For metric definitions and measurement guidance, see Google’s Web Vitals documentation.
Explore selected interface projects or discuss a website redesign.
