What is Website UX?

You might have heard that UX Analysis is important for any website but have no idea what website UX analysis is or how to get started. You’re in the right place. This article tell you everything you need to know about website UX analysis, and SEO Design Chicago can help answer all your questions about website UX analysis. 

Website UX Analysis

Before you can understand website UX analysis, you’ll need to know everything about website UX, including what it is and the benefits of having a good website UX. 

Definition of Website UX

Website UX is the user experience of a website. You want to ensure that visitors to your website have the easiest and best possible experience. You can do this by utilizing the help of professional web developers.

What Are the Benefits of a Good Website UX?

A great user experience for your website means happier customers, more visitors to your site, and ultimately, more revenue and sales for you. Even if you are attracting visitors to your website with excellent SEO or paid ads, it won’t matter if they get frustrated as soon as they arrive there by a slowly loading website or lack of the information they’re looking for. 

How UX Impacts Your Bottom Line

Poor UX design directly impacts conversion rates and can significantly affect your business revenue. Studies show that 88% of online consumers are less likely to return to a site after a bad user experience. Additionally, each dollar invested in UX brings $100 in return, resulting in a ROI of 9,900%. Investing in quality UX design isn’t just about creating a pretty interface—it’s about creating business value through increased conversions, customer retention, and brand loyalty.

What Constitutes Good Web UX Design?

There is sometimes a misconception that the most important element of a website is its design. While website design is certainly important, the user experience is paramount to having a successful website. You can have the most beautiful website out there, but if it’s not user-friendly, it won’t matter. 

Here are some tips to make sure your web design will give users a good experience: 

Create a Sitemap

To start out creating an excellent UX design, first design an XML sitemap. This will be how your website flows for users and makes sure they can get from one page to another easily and in a way that makes sense. 

Make Your Website Easy to Navigate

Your website’s navigation is one of the most important pieces to a good overall user experience. Make sure you have a menu bar that lays out general web pages for users like “Home,” “About,” “Services,” “Products,” “Blog,” and “Contact Us.” 

Keep Important Information Above the Fold

There are certain pieces of information visitors to your website should find when they open up your homepage without having to scroll or go looking for them (which is what we mean by above the fold.) These include contact information, your logo, links to your social media pages, the menu bar, and an image that directly relates to your brand or business. 

Eliminate Dead Ends

It may sound obvious, but make sure every menu item leads to a new web page full of engaging content and make sure to eliminate any dead ends on your website. 

Give Your Visitors Exit Signs

Pretend your website is a parking garage and make sure that on every web page, there is an option to “go back.” This makes sure if they end up somewhere they don’t want to be on your website, they’ll go to another page on your website, not to another website altogether. To the same end, make sure any links to other websites open in a new tab. 

Remember That Content Matters, Too

Make sure to pick a font that is easy to read and keep it large enough for your grandmother to find without having to look around for her cheaters (or even worse, a different website altogether.) Then, make sure all the content on your website is clear, concise and easy to understand. Have a few friends you trust read through the text for your site and give you feedback. If it’s too heavy in industry slang they don’t understand, it’s time for a rewrite. And if you need assistance creating content for your website, we can help! 

Additionally, consider the principles of UX writing – the practice of crafting text specifically for user interfaces. Good UX writing uses clear, concise language that guides users through interactions with your website. This includes everything from button labels and form instructions to error messages and tooltips. Effective UX writing reduces confusion, builds trust, and helps users accomplish their goals more efficiently.

Optimize for Mobile Users

With over half of all web traffic coming from mobile devices, ensuring your website is fully responsive is essential for good UX. Mobile optimization goes beyond just having a responsive design – it means considering touch interactions, simplified navigation for smaller screens, and ensuring that all functions work seamlessly across devices. Test your website on various mobile devices and screen sizes to ensure a consistent experience for all users.

Prioritize Accessibility

Making your website accessible to users with disabilities isn’t just good practice—it’s increasingly becoming a legal requirement in many regions. Implement proper heading structures, add alt text to images, ensure sufficient color contrast, and make your site navigable via keyboard. This not only improves UX for users with disabilities but often enhances the experience for all users.

Apply UX Psychology Principles

Understanding how users think and behave is crucial for effective UX design. Incorporate principles like Hick’s Law (the time it takes to make a decision increases with the number of options), the F-pattern reading behavior (users typically scan web pages in an F-shaped pattern), and the principle of cognitive load (minimize the mental effort required to use your site). By designing with these psychological principles in mind, you can create intuitive experiences that feel natural to users.

Build Trust Through Security

Security is an often-overlooked aspect of user experience. Users need to feel safe when visiting your website, especially if they’re sharing personal information or making purchases. Display security badges prominently, use HTTPS, implement clear privacy policies, and ensure that forms and checkout processes feel secure. A site that feels unsafe will drive users away regardless of how well-designed other aspects might be.

Tips To Help Measure Your Website’s UX

Here are some tips from the experts at SEO Design Chicago to help you analyze your website’s UX: 

Check your website’s loading speed

One of the easiest ways to frustrate and lose visitors to your website is by having a slow to load site. Internet users have high expectations these days for loading speeds, whether they’re looking at your site on desktop or mobile. (Loading speed can also affect your website’s SEO ranking, so make it speedy!) 

If you’re not sure your website speed is fast enough, you can use Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool. It will tell you which of your web pages are slow and what it is that’s causing the delay. For example, sometimes images are too large and slow down your site. A simple trick is to compress your images and boom, your loading speed will, well, speed up. 

Track the amount of time users spend filling out forms

Hopefully, your website has forms for users to fill out to help them get in touch with you, provide feedback, get a quote for your services, etc. However, visitors are starting to fill out the forms and then abandoning them, or taking way too long for them to fill out, they’ll be unhappy. Luckily, there’s a tool for that. You can use Hotjar, which is a conversion optimization (CRO) tool that can analyze how visitors interact with the form on your website. 

Watch how users navigate and interact with your site

It’s always a good idea to see how users are navigating and interacting with your website. One way to do so is by using heatmaps. Crazy Egg is a tool similar to Hotjar that you can use to see where people are engaging with a particular page. 

Collect feedback from users – and use it to improve

A good idea for a form on your website is to ask for feedback from visitors – and then actually incorporate that feedback into fixes for your website. You can also ask other employees of your company, for example like customer service representatives who directly interact with customers, if they have heard any feedback regarding the website. 

Pay attention to what customers are asking you

If customers are reaching out to your company on a regular basis via phone, email and social media and asking questions about your business that should be easily answered by looking at your website, that could be a sign that the information is buried too deeply on your website and is too hard to find. That means it’s time to move that information to the forefront of your website and repeat it throughout. Make the most important information for your customers as easily accessible as possible on your website. 

One way to do this is by adding an “FAQ” page to your website with answers to all the commonly asked questions regarding your company and your industry in general. (This will not only improve your website’s UX, but it will also boost your ranking with search engines!) 

Keep tabs on how many users complete checkout

If you’re selling products on your website, make sure that customers that visit your site are actually completing checkout on the items they’re looking at by using the Google Analytics Behavior Analysis Report. You can use this tool to track the number of users that made it from one step in the buying process to the next, and see at which steps potential customers are abandoning their items. This can signal that there might be issues that need to be addressed at a particular point in the buying process. 

Conduct Usability Testing

One of the best ways to test the user experience of your website is very simple: to test it with actual humans! At the end of the day, website visitors are just humans. You can test your website yourself – for example, if you run an ecommerce site, choose a few items, add them to your cart, and then go through the entire checkout process and see if you encounter any issues. 

Or, use friends, family members of employees to test the website for you and report any problems they might see that you don’t. You could also recruit a small group of customers to report any issues they have directly to you while using the site. 

Utilize advanced analytics tools

Implement A/B testing

Conduct competitive UX analysis

Best Web UX Agencies

Though we have laid out the steps for you to conduct your own website UX analysis, your best bet will be to hire the professionals of a web UX agency to help you check the usability of your site and fix any issues for you. 

If you’re wondering why you’re attracting visitors but not converting them into customers, or if you are aware that your website has issues with user experience but you’re not able to fix them on your own, that’s where a web UX agency comes in. 

The best web UX agencies will help you come up with the ideal web UX design for your website, help you build it, and then help you analyze your website’s UX on a regular basis. 

Frequently Asked Questions About Website UX Analysis

What is the difference between website UX and UI design?

While often mentioned together, UX (User Experience) and UI (User Interface) represent different aspects of website design. UX design focuses on the overall feel of the experience and how users interact with your site—it’s about creating intuitive navigation paths, logical information architecture, and seamless interactions that help users achieve their goals efficiently. UI design, on the other hand, concerns the visual elements users interact with—including buttons, icons, spacing, typography, color schemes, and responsive layouts.

Think of UI as the “look” and UX as the “feel.” A website might have beautiful UI with attractive visuals but poor UX if users get lost or frustrated trying to complete basic tasks. Conversely, a site with excellent UX might have simple UI that doesn’t win design awards but effortlessly guides users through their journey. The best websites integrate both: aesthetically pleasing visual elements that complement a thoughtfully designed user journey. At SEO Design Chicago, we ensure both aspects work together harmoniously to create websites that are both beautiful and functional.

How often should I conduct a UX analysis on my website?

Website UX analysis should be an ongoing process rather than a one-time event, with the frequency depending on your business type, website complexity, and available resources. At minimum, conduct a comprehensive UX analysis annually to identify major issues and opportunities for improvement. However, implement more frequent checks for specific aspects of your site: monthly review of key performance metrics (bounce rates, time on page, conversion rates), quarterly heatmap analysis to track user behavior changes, and immediate testing after any significant website updates or redesigns.

E-commerce sites or websites in highly competitive industries should consider more frequent analysis—potentially quarterly comprehensive reviews. Additionally, set up continuous monitoring through tools like Google Analytics to flag sudden changes in user behavior that might indicate UX problems. After major industry shifts or algorithm updates that affect user expectations, conduct targeted analyses focused on potentially impacted areas. Remember that UX analysis becomes most valuable when treated as an iterative process where insights lead to improvements, which are then measured and refined further.

What are the most important metrics to track in a UX analysis?

When conducting a UX analysis, focus on metrics that reveal how users actually interact with your site rather than vanity metrics alone. Key behavioral metrics include bounce rate (particularly for landing pages), average session duration, pages per session, and user flow paths through your site. For task completion, track conversion rates for primary and secondary goals, form completion rates, cart abandonment rates (for e-commerce), and the number of support inquiries related to website usage. Speed metrics matter significantly—monitor page load time, time to interactive, and first contentful paint across different devices and connection speeds.

User satisfaction can be measured through Net Promoter Score (NPS), customer satisfaction (CSAT) surveys, and usability testing success rates. For content effectiveness, analyze scroll depth, time spent on page, and heat maps showing where users click and focus their attention. Mobile-specific metrics include mobile vs. desktop performance comparison and mobile-specific interaction success rates. At SEO Design Chicago, we help clients identify the most relevant metrics for their specific business goals and implement comprehensive tracking systems that translate data into actionable insights.

How does website accessibility affect UX, and why is it important?

Website accessibility and UX are deeply interconnected—an inaccessible website inherently offers poor user experience to a significant portion of your audience. Approximately 15% of the global population lives with some form of disability that may affect how they interact with websites, making accessibility both an ethical consideration and a business imperative.

Accessibility improvements typically enhance UX for all users—proper heading structures and organized content benefit everyone, not just screen reader users. Clear color contrast helps users with visual impairments but also improves readability in bright sunlight or on poor displays. Keyboard navigation assists users with motor disabilities while also helping power users who prefer keyboard shortcuts. From a business perspective, accessible websites reach larger audiences, demonstrate social responsibility, minimize legal risks (as accessibility lawsuits increase yearly), and often perform better in search rankings since many accessibility practices align with SEO best practices.

Key accessibility considerations include proper semantic HTML structure, descriptive alt text for images, keyboard navigability, sufficient color contrast, responsive design, and ensuring forms and interactive elements are accessible to assistive technologies. At SEO Design Chicago, we integrate accessibility testing into all our UX analyses to ensure websites serve the broadest possible audience effectively.

What are some common UX problems that hurt conversion rates?

Several common UX issues consistently emerge as conversion killers across websites. Complex or lengthy checkout processes cause significant abandonment—each additional step in checkout can reduce conversions by 10%. Unclear or hidden pricing, including surprise fees revealed late in the process, erodes trust and increases abandonment rates.

Slow page loading creates substantial losses—conversion rates drop approximately 4.42% with each additional second of load time. Poor mobile experiences are particularly damaging as mobile traffic continues to grow; forms not optimized for touch interfaces or content requiring horizontal scrolling frustrate mobile users. Unclear or weak calls-to-action fail to guide users toward conversion actions, while cluttered page designs with competing elements create decision paralysis.

Navigation issues that make finding information difficult, intrusive pop-ups that interrupt the user journey, and lack of social proof (reviews, testimonials) that builds confidence are also significant conversion barriers. Missing or hard-to-find contact information raises trust concerns, especially for higher-value conversions requiring customer assurance. At SEO Design Chicago, our UX analysis specifically targets these conversion-killing issues, prioritizing improvements that directly impact revenue and lead generation based on their potential ROI.

How do I conduct effective user testing as part of my UX analysis?

Effective user testing provides invaluable insights that analytics alone cannot capture, revealing exactly how real users interact with your website.

Start by clearly defining your testing objectives—identify specific questions or hypotheses you want to answer rather than conducting generic testing. Recruit test participants who closely match your target audience demographics and experience levels; 5-7 users per distinct user group will typically reveal most major usability issues. Create realistic scenarios and tasks that reflect actual user goals rather than directing users step-by-step.

For example, ask “Find and purchase a blue sweater in size medium” instead of “Click on the clothing category, then sweaters, then…” Use a mix of moderated tests (where you observe and interact with users in real-time) and unmoderated remote testing (which scales more easily and captures users in their natural environment). Collect both quantitative data (success rates, time on task) and qualitative feedback (think-aloud comments, post-test interviews).

Record sessions for later analysis and team sharing, as video evidence of user struggles is particularly compelling for stakeholders. Prioritize findings based on severity and frequency, distinguishing between minor annoyances and critical barriers. At SEO Design Chicago, we help clients implement structured user testing programs that yield actionable insights while working within practical budget and time constraints.

How can I improve my website’s UX on a limited budget?

Improving website UX doesn’t always require expensive redesigns or specialized tools. Start with a heuristic evaluation—a systematic assessment of your website against established UX principles and best practices—which can identify many issues without special software.

Use free tools like Google Analytics to identify high-bounce-rate pages or abandonment points, Google’s PageSpeed Insights for performance issues, and Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test for responsive design problems. Conduct guerrilla usability testing with 5-6 friends, family members, or colleagues who aren’t familiar with your website—observe them completing basic tasks and note where they struggle.

Implement a free heatmap tool like Microsoft Clarity to visualize user interactions on key pages. Create a priority matrix categorizing UX issues by impact (high/low) and effort required (high/low), then focus first on high-impact, low-effort improvements. Simple fixes like improving button visibility, clarifying navigation labels, restructuring content for scannability, and removing unnecessary form fields often yield significant improvements with minimal investment.

Consider a phased approach to improvements rather than a complete overhaul, addressing the most critical user journeys first. At SEO Design Chicago, we help clients develop strategic UX improvement plans that maximize impact while working within their available resources, ensuring that even modest budgets generate meaningful UX enhancements.

How does site speed impact UX, and how can I improve it?

Site speed is a fundamental component of user experience with direct impact on engagement, conversions, and search rankings. Nearly 70% of consumers admit that page speed influences their willingness to buy from an online retailer, and most users abandon sites that take longer than 3 seconds to load. Slow-loading sites frustrate users, create the impression of unprofessionalism, and directly impact your bottom line—Amazon calculated that a one-second delay in page load time would cost them $1.6 billion in sales annually. To improve site speed, start by compressing and optimizing all images using tools like TinyPNG or by implementing next-gen formats like WebP.

Minimize HTTP requests by consolidating CSS and JavaScript files and eliminating unnecessary plugins or widgets. Implement browser caching to store website resources locally on visitors’ devices after their first visit. Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to serve content from servers geographically closer to your users. Consider implementing lazy loading for images and videos so they only load when scrolled into view. Upgrade to faster hosting if your current provider is limiting performance, particularly during traffic spikes. For advanced optimization, reduce server response time, minify code by removing unnecessary characters, and implement critical CSS to prioritize above-the-fold content rendering.

At SEO Design Chicago, our performance optimization process identifies the specific speed bottlenecks affecting your site and creates a prioritized remediation plan based on potential impact.

Contact SEO Design Chicago

If you need help with website UX analysis, creating a web UX design, or any other issues relating to your website, contact SEO Design Chicago today.