A 10-Minute Website UX Checklist For Marketing Heads

Start at the top of the page. Give the first screen five seconds and ask what a stranger would understand without scrolling. Can they tell what the organisation does? Can they tell who it is for? Can they see why the offer might matter to them?

A strong first screen does not need to explain everything. It needs to orient the right visitor. The headline should name the work or outcome. The supporting line should add the audience or context. The primary action should make the next step visible.

If the answer only becomes clear after a scroll, a menu click, or a paragraph of interpretation, mark this check as a fail. The first screen is carrying too little of the message.

A page can offer several ways to engage with a business, but it should not make the visitor choose between competing priorities at the first moment of interest. Look for one dominant next step: enquire, book a review, request a prospectus, see the work, or speak to the team.

Three buttons with equal visual weight are not three opportunities. They are three decisions. The page should make the preferred action obvious and let supporting actions stay secondary.

• The main action is visible without hunting through the navigation.
• The label describes what happens next, not only the mechanics of clicking.
• The action appears again when the visitor has enough context to use it.

Use the same test on mobile. If the action disappears, moves below an oversized hero, or competes with a floating element, the desktop decision has not survived the smaller screen.

Proof is where a website stops talking about itself and starts showing why the visitor should believe it. Review the page for named clients, relevant sectors, specific outcomes, implementation photographs, years of experience, or measurable results.

Adjectives are not proof. Experienced, trusted, complete, and innovative may describe an intention, but they do not reduce the visitor's risk. A named institution, a real project context, or a clear result does more work.

For a deeper view of how visibility and useful content support the website, read our SEO and digital visibility perspective.

Choose one realistic enquiry route and count the actions. Start on the page a prospect would receive from a search result, campaign, email, or referral. How many clicks does it take to reach a useful contact step?

Two clicks is a useful working target for a straightforward enquiry. Four clicks is a signal to investigate. The number is not a universal law, but every extra step should earn its place. If the visitor has to return to the menu, find a buried service page, interpret a vague button, and then complete a long form, interest has too many chances to disappear.

Open the page on a phone, not only in a resized desktop browser. Read the headline. Find the primary action. Check the proof. Try the enquiry route. Then ask whether the sequence still makes sense when the page becomes a vertical stack.

• The headline and first action appear before the visitor has to navigate around the page.
• Images and diagrams support the message without pushing the useful content too far down.
• Buttons and form fields are comfortable to use with a thumb.
• The page does not rely on hover, tiny text, or a desktop-only interaction.

A mobile page does not need to be a smaller copy of the desktop page. It needs to preserve the decision. Clarity, proof, and route still have to arrive in the right order.

We run this exact checklist on our own work. It is the same structure behind Park's College's 200+ page site, still generating admissions enquiries seven years after launch.

That is the practical standard for a website: not whether it looked complete when it launched, but whether it continues to help people make a decision years later.

If two or more items fail, that is the priority list for your next website conversation, not the redesign brief. See how Exposure approaches Digital Growth Solutions as part of a working brand system.

A redesign may eventually be the right answer. Start by knowing which decision the redesign has to improve.