A conversion audit is a systematic review of a website aimed at finding the points where visitors leave without performing the desired action. It combines four sources: analytical data on the steps of the process and on differences between segments, session recordings and behaviour maps, an expert heuristic review against known usability principles, and feedback from actual customers. The output should not be a list of dozens of minor points, but a list of findings ranked by expected benefit, with a proposed solution and an estimate of effort for each. The audit has the greatest value for websites with sufficient traffic and existing conversions – for a new website without data, it is replaced by usability testing on a small sample of people. The output should be usable as a work plan, not as a presentation that ends up in the archive once delivered.
See also: Prioritisation of changes, Usability testing, Content audit.
