Website UX audit: where visitors hesitate and why

What is a UX audit and when does it make sense

A UX audit is a heuristic evaluation: an evaluator goes through the site as a visitor would and compares what they see with established usability principles. A commonly used set is Jakob Nielsen’s 10 usability heuristics from Nielsen Norman Group (NN/g), last revised in January 2024.

The heuristics are general and work well for sorting findings. According to the NN/g overview, they include, for example:

• Visibility of system status: the site shows what is happening (the item is in the basket, the form was sent).
• Error prevention: a form does not accept nonsense and asks before a risky action.
• Recognition rather than recall: options are in view, so visitors do not have to remember them.
• Clear error messages that say how to fix the problem.

An audit makes sense when a live site with traffic brings fewer enquiries or orders than you would expect. It also helps before a redesign, so you know what to keep, and after a larger change you want checked with fresh eyes.

What a UX audit cannot replace

According to NN/g, a heuristic evaluation finds likely issues without testing with participants, so it helps stretch a limited research budget, but it has limits. NN/g states plainly that heuristic evaluation cannot replace user research. It complements it by pointing to what is worth testing with real people.

NN/g also recommends three to five independent evaluators, because any single person is likely to miss something. An older article by Nielsen from 1994 reports that, averaged over six of his projects, single evaluators found only about 35% of usability problems. A UX audit from webrocks is carried out by one person, so treat the result as a list of the most visible problems, not a complete inventory.

A UX audit is also not a WCAG accessibility audit, an SEO audit or a performance measurement. Technical speed and Core Web Vitals are covered by a separate website speed audit.

Who it suits and who it does not

It suits you if:

• you run an online shop on Shoptet, WooCommerce or another platform and want to know where customers get stuck,
• you have a business website or a landing page that brings visitors from ads, but few of them get in touch,
• you are planning changes and need a list of priorities.

It does not suit you if the site has no finished pages yet, or if you need statistically reliable answers. Those require user testing or A/B tests on sufficient traffic.

How the UX audit works

1. Brief and scope. First, it is clarified what the site should do (sell, collect enquiries) and what to review: the whole site, or just the basket and checkout or another section.
2. Data, if available. Access to GA4 or other analytics helps to find the pages where people leave. It is not a requirement.
3. Desktop and mobile walkthrough of the visitor’s main tasks: find a product or service, compare, add to basket, fill in a form.
4. Write-up and ranking. Each finding gets a screenshot with the spot marked, a description and a recommendation. Findings are then ranked by impact and effort.
5. Handover. You go through the findings and ask about anything unclear.

Mobile is reviewed separately because the layout changes: the menu hides, filters move into a panel, the keyboard covers half the screen and a sticky bar can hide a button.

What you get

• A list of findings from desktop and mobile, grouped by page or step (product listing, product detail, basket, checkout).
• Annotated screenshots showing the exact spot of each finding.
• Recommendations: what to change and why it helps the visitor.
• Ranking by impact and effort, so you know where to start. High-impact, low-effort changes go to the top.

Basket and checkout: where online shops lose customers

According to the Baymard Institute overview, the average cart abandonment rate is 70.22%. That is an average of 50 third-party studies, not a figure for your shop or a promise of how much anything will improve.

Baymard also lists why US shoppers abandon checkout (excluding those who were just browsing). Reasons related to cost and the checkout itself include:

• high extra costs such as shipping and fees (40%),
• being forced to create an account (18%),
• a long or complicated checkout (17%),
• website errors or crashes (17%),
• not being able to see the total cost up front (12%).

An audit can check many of these: when the customer learns the shipping cost, whether they can buy without an account and how the form behaves on mobile.

What to watch out for

• A list without priorities does not help. Fifty findings in no order end up in a drawer.
• An audit is not an opinion on looks. A good finding describes where a visitor gets stuck and why.
• Do not fix everything at once. Change ten things together and you will not know which one helped.
• Plan who will make the changes. On Shoptet, custom CSS and JavaScript can be added through HTML codes in the admin, and on WordPress with WooCommerce through a child theme without editing the original theme’s code. Many changes therefore do not touch the backend, but some need settings in the admin or the platform’s developer.

Accessibility: WCAG 2.2 and the Czech law for online shops

The technical standard for web accessibility is WCAG 2.2 from the W3C, with the current edition dated 12 December 2024. For online shops in the Czech Republic, Act No. 424/2023 Coll. (the Czech implementation of the European Accessibility Act) has applied since 28 June 2025. Under sections 2 and 19 of the Act, it covers e-commerce services provided to consumers and is supervised by the Czech Trade Inspection Authority.

Microenterprises are exempt, defined by Commission Regulation (EU) No 651/2014 as fewer than 10 people and annual turnover or balance sheet total up to EUR 2 million, both conditions together. Whether the law applies to your business is a question for a lawyer.

A UX audit notices obvious barriers, such as hard-to-read text or form fields without a clear label. It is not a WCAG accessibility audit or a confirmation of legal compliance.

How much a UX audit costs

A website or online shop audit is priced per brief. The price depends mainly on scope:

• The whole site or just a section. Auditing only the basket and checkout is smaller than a walkthrough of the entire shop.
• Number of page types and scenarios. A site with five page templates is different work from a shop with filters, variants and several delivery options.
• Speed and Core Web Vitals. The price list includes them as a possible part of the audit if you want them assessed alongside UX.

Any fixes to the findings are agreed separately. The indicative hourly rate in the price list is from 500 CZK/hr. Describe your site and what you expect through the contact form and you will receive a proposed scope.

Frequently asked questions

What does a UX audit include?

A desktop and mobile walkthrough and a list of findings with annotated screenshots and recommendations ranked by impact and effort, for the whole site or just one section.

How long does the audit take?

It depends on scope: page types, scenarios and whether speed is assessed too. The timeline is agreed with the brief.

What is needed from you?

The site address, its goal and, if available, access to GA4 or other data, which helps but is not required. If part of the site is behind a login, a test account is useful.

Can a shop on Shoptet or WooCommerce be audited?

Yes. The audit is done from the outside, the way a visitor sees the site, so it works on any platform. webrocks can then often make the changes with CSS and JavaScript, see Shoptet customisation and WooCommerce customisation.

Who fixes the findings?

By agreement: you, your developer or webrocks. For shop changes made with CSS and JavaScript, you get a live preview via a link before they go live.