Question for you: How many prospective clients or customers landed on your website this week, spent 10 seconds looking around, and then clicked away because they couldn’t quickly figure out what you do or how to get in touch?

It’s a bit of a trick question. The harsh reality is that you’ll probably never know the exact number. But after years of designing and auditing websites, I can tell you this: if you user experience isn’t the foundation, you’re likely losing more business than you realize.

What User Experience Means for Your Business

User Experience (UX) isn’t about making things “look pretty”, although that certainly helps. It’s about creating a clear, frictionless path from visitor curiosity to conversion.

Think about one of the last websites you visited that just worked. I’m willing to be you didn’t notice the UX because it was seamless. It was invisible. You found what you needed, got your questions answered, maybe made a purchase—all without thinking about it. That’s great UX.

Not-so-great UX, on the other hand, doesn’t just cause friction and frustrate visitors. Poor UX can actively send visitors—potential buyers—to your competition.

The difference between sites that generate consistent leads and those that just sit there eating up resources often comes down to seemingly small UX details: a confusing navigation menu, a form that requires too many fields to be filled in, or content that’s difficult or impossible to scan on a mobile device. Each UX detail like these can cost you potential clients.

The (Hidden) Cost of Poor UX

Before I get into what makes UX work, let’s talk about what happens when it doesn’t. Poor user experience creates a cascade of problems that can negatively impact your bottom line:

Immediate Site Abandonment: Studies show that users form opinions about websites within 50 milliseconds (UserGuiding). If your website feels unprofessional, confusing, or difficult to use in this first moments, visitors are gone before they even see your services.

Mobile Frustration: With mobile traffic now accounting for over 50% of web visits, a site that doesn’t work well on phones is basically telling half of your potential customers to go elsewhere.

Form Abandonment: Poorly designed or overly complex forms can have abandonment rates as high as 81% (WPForms). Translated to plain English, for every 10 people who start to fill out your form, 8 might give up before hitting submit.

Search Engine Penalties: Google uses user experience signals as one of their many ranking factors. Bad UX doesn’t just lose visitors, it can hurt your search visibility too.

Reputation & Brand Perception Damage: When your website is difficult or frustrating to use, visitors will make a correlation that working with you will be equally difficult. Or they may think you’re not paying attention to details. First impressions online can easily become lasting impressions.

Additional Workload: A site with bad UX can prevent a user from accomplishing something important, which can be particularly important in certain sectors. As a result, many people will turn to picking up the phone or emailing you instead, creating additional work you or your staff may not have bandwidth for.

7 Elements That Make or Break UX

In my comprehensive 8 Pillars of High-Performing Websites checklist, I break down User Experience into seven critical components. Below is a taste of what each involves:

1. Navigation Structure (aka your website’s GPS)

Your website’s navigation is like a GPS. When it works well, people get to their destination without much trouble. When it’s broken, they get lost and leave.

I’ve seen navigation menus with links like “Our Philosophy”, “Our Approach”, and “Our Solutions”. Sure, it sounds professional, but visitors can’t always tell the difference between them. Clear will always beat clever.

The complete checklist includes specific guidelines for creating navigation that actually guides, including hierarchy principles, mobile considerations, and testing methods.

2. Clear Content (aka making information scannable)

Here’s a little fact about the way people use the web: they don’t read websites they read books. They scan. They skim. They scroll. They’re looking for specific information and if they can’t find it quickly, they’re gone.

Scannable content requires more than just short paragraphs. It needs a strong heading structure, meaningful subheadings, and content organized around how people actually consume information online.

3. Mobile Responsiveness (aka meeting your users where they are)

If your website isn’t mobile-friendly in 2025, first of all, what?! And second, you’re telling half of your potential clients to go elsewhere.

But responsive design isn’t just about making things smaller—sometimes it’s about rethinking the entire experience for different contexts. (And no, this doesn’t mean a whole separate mobile-only website. We’re in 2025, not 2005.) Mobile users have different goals, shorter attention spans, and different interaction patterns than desktop users.

4. Visual Hierarchy (aka guiding eyes where they need to go)

Visual hierarchy is a little like being a tour guide. You gently guide people where to look and in what order. Done well, visually hierarchy will guide site visitors naturally toward the actions you want them to take.

This involves strategic use of size, color, contrast, white space, and positioning. It’s equal parts art and science and goes far beyond just making important things bigger.

5. Call-to-Action Effectiveness (aka the conversion moment)

Your website’s calls-to-actin (CTAs) are where interest becomes action. They’re the link (pun intended) between someone caring about what you do and actually taking the next step.

Effective CTAs involve a little bit of psychology, strategic positioning, good design, and compelling messaging. The difference between “Submit” and “Get Your Free Analysis” can make all the difference.

6. Perceived Performance (aka why the feeling of speed matters)

Here’s a little truth that is a bit counterintuitive: how fast your website feels is often more important than how fast it actually is. People will start forming opinions about your site’s speed within milliseconds—not seconds—of clicking.

7. Form Design (aka removing friction from conversion)

Web forms are often the final hurdle between a visitor and a conversion, regardless if it’s a contact form or a checkout form. Unfortunately, they’re also where many websites make things way too difficult by asking for too much, too soon, and often in confusing ways.

The psychology of form completion involves field ordering, visual design, error handling, and progressive disclosure. Small changes in form design can dramatically impact completion rates.

The UX Audit: What to Look For

Wondering how your website stacks up? Here are some quick diagnostic questions:

Navigation Test: Can a first-time visitor find your main service offerings within two or three clicks at most? Can they figure out how to contact you without scrolling?

Mobile Test: Get your phone right now and try to navigate your own website. Is everything easily readable? Are buttons large enough to accurately tap? Does the experience feel smooth?

Clarity Test: Enlist the help of someone unfamiliar with your business or at least unfamiliar with your website. Show them your homepage for 10 seconds. Can they explain what you do and who you serve?

Speed Test: How does your site feel when it’s loading? Do elements jump around? Does it feel responsive when you click on links and buttons?

The quick tests can reveal obvious issues, but a truly comprehensive UX evaluation requires a systematic approach. That’s why I created my 8 Pillars checklist—it ensures nothing gets missed.

The 5-Second Test That Reveals Everything

Want to quickly test your website’s UX? Try this: show your homepage to someone who’s never seen your website for exactly 5 seconds, then ask:

What does this company do?
Who do they serve?
What would you do next if you were interested?

If they can’t answer those questions clearly, your UX needs work. If they can answer them but they seem uncertain or confused, your UX needs refinement.

This little test, while not perfect, reveals whether your visual hierarchy, messaging, and calls-to-action are working together effectively. The complete checklist includes detailed tips on how to fix each of these issues when the test reveals problems.

Why UX Matters More Than Ever

These days your website often makes the first impression with potential clients. When UX is smooth and intuitive, it’s out of the way, and however silly it may seem, visitors will subconsciously assume that working with you will be equally professional and hassle-free.

But when UX is clunky, confusing, or worse, frustrating, it raises doubts about your competence, even if your actual services are excellent and you’re super professional. Fair or not, people will judge your professional capabilities based on how your website works.

This is especially true for professional services businesses where trust and competence are critical primary buying factors. Your website’s experience becomes a preview of the client experience.

The Business Impact of Getting UX Right

When User Experience is optimized, the positive impact on business can be substantial:

Increased time on site as visitors can easily find what they’re looking for;
Higher conversion rates from clear paths to action;
Better search engine rankings from improved user engagement signals;
Reduced bounce rates as visitors stick around longer;
Enhanced brand perception from professional, smooth interactions;
More qualified leads as the experience pre-qualifies serious prospects.

But here’s the thing: UX is just the first pillar. A truly high-performing website also needs to be accessible, technically optimized, search-friendly, secure, conversion-focused, content-strategic, and measurable.

The Complete Picture Beyond UX

User Experience provides the foundation, but it’s only one piece of the puzzle. The other seven pillars play crucial roles in creating a website that consistently generates business.

Many business owners and website managers focus on just one or two areas (usually design and SEO) and wonder why their site isn’t performing. The reality is that all eight pillars need to work together for optimal results.

Get the Complete Framework

If you’re curious about how your website stacks up across all eight pillars—and get a clear action plan for improvement—download my complete 8 Pillars of High-Performing Websites checklist. Completely free!

The checklist includes detailed breakdowns of each element, testing methods, actionable steps you can immediately, and the framework for prioritizing improvements. It takes the guesswork out of website optimization by providing a systematic approach to evaluating and improving every aspect of your site’s performance.

In the next couple of weeks, I’ll dive into the second pillar: Accessibility. You might think this isn’t very relevant or only affects a small percentage of your audience, but accessibility improvements benefit everyone and significantly impact your search rankings too.

Ready to know where your website stands? We offer a comprehensive website audit that evaluates all eight pillars and provides a clear roadmap for improvement. Learn more about our website audit service.

How User Experience Design Increases Website Conversion Rates