A website audit should find what's missing – not only what's broken

“I didn’t expect this,” a client told me after receiving my website audit. “I expected you to tell me what was broken. Instead, you told me what was missing altogether.”

It happens quite a lot, actually.

Most website audits focus on what IS on the website. They assess whether the UX is good or bad and suggest ways to improve it.

I start by taking a step back and asking:

❓ Who are the ideal visitors?
❓ What are they struggling with?
❓ How can we help them solve it?
❓ What exactly do we want them to do next?
❓ What happens before and after they visit the website?

More often than not, a website doesn’t clearly answer the questions its ideal visitors actually have:

– What is it?
– Is it for me?
– How will it help me?
– What should I do next?

This is the heavy lifting that makes a website a working tool. It comes way before buttons, forms, and other UX issues.

✦ If the answers to these questions aren’t in place, moving buttons around won’t help.

But once they are clear, the UX and user-flow fixes are much easier to make.

And yes, I’ll tell you which buttons to move too. But first, I’ll tell you what’s missing and how to fix it.