User Experience: 8 tips for improving your site

"User experience" is a fancy phrase for a simple idea: how easy and pleasant your website is to use. Can a visitor tell what your business does in a few seconds? Can they find what they came for without hunting? Does the page load before they give up? Is there always an obvious next step, instead of a dead end? Every one of those small moments either nudges a customer toward calling you or nudges them toward the back button.

We reviewed 100 small business websites on how easy and pleasant they are to use, and the headline is encouraging. Across all the user experience checks we ran, about 25% failed. The typical site passed about 76% of the checks that applied to it, and the average score sat right around 80%. Best of all, 41% of the sites were flawless, with nothing to fix at all, and only 19% of sites failed three or more checks.

So this is an area where small businesses are split right down the middle. Plenty of sites are doing great, while the rest have real friction that is quietly costing them customers. The good news is that almost everything in this article is fixable without a developer and without an ad budget. These are small repairs to the moments where a ready customer slips away. Let us walk through what we found, why each thing matters to your bottom line, and exactly how to fix it.

How we measured this

We reviewed 100 small business websites against a set of user experience tests. User experience is simply how it feels to use your site: how fast it loads, how clearly it points you to the right next step, and how gracefully it handles the moments when something goes wrong.

A few things to keep in mind so the numbers make sense:

• Each percentage counts only the sites where that check actually applied, not always all 100. Some checks do not fit every business. A "loading sign" check only matters on sites with slow parts like an embedded map, and an error message check only matters on sites that have a form a visitor can fill in and get wrong. Where the group is smaller, we say so directly.
• A "clean sweep" means every site where the check applied passed it. Those are wins, and we will call them out.
• The examples are the auditor's real notes, with the businesses kept anonymous.

Speed: do people wait, or do they leave?

This first group is about waiting. A page that drags, a spinner that never stops, a map that just throws an error: each one asks the visitor to be patient, and patience is exactly what an online visitor does not have.

Your site feels fast and responsive

38% of the sites this applied to failed this check. This is about whether your page loads quickly and reacts right away when someone scrolls, taps, or clicks. A slow site is usually a heavy site: too many huge images crammed in at the top, so the visitor's phone has to pull down an enormous load before anything feels ready.

The auditor's notes show what "slow" looks like in practice. One homepage carried around 25 full-resolution slideshow photos, far bigger than they needed to be, which made the page heavy and slow to load. On another site, the top of the page showed a loading spinner sitting right over the headline, with the main image only half painted in. The visitor's first impression was a half-built page still spinning.

Why it matters: People decide whether to stay on a website in a couple of seconds, and a slow load eats those seconds before you have said a word. Every extra moment of waiting sends more visitors to the back button, and the ones who leave are often the most valuable: the ready-to-buy customer on a phone with a so-so signal who simply will not wait. A slow site also feels less professional, which chips away at trust just when someone is deciding whether to spend money with you.

How to fix it: Start with your images, because they are almost always the cause. You rarely need a photo that is thousands of pixels wide, so shrink big images before you upload them. Many website builders have a one-click "optimize" or "compress images" setting, and free online tools can make a photo's file size smaller without you being able to see the difference. A site built with Frontpage handles this for you, compressing and resizing every photo automatically so a heavy image never reaches the visitor in the first place. Next, thin out the top of your homepage. A giant slideshow of many photos is heavy and rarely earns its keep, so cut it down to a few strong ones. Finally, open your own site on your phone, on a normal connection, and watch it load. If you have to wait, your customers are waiting too.

A loading sign shows for slow parts of the page

26% of the sites this applied to failed this check. This one only applied to the sites with slow parts, like an embedded map, a video, or content pulled in from another service. A "loading sign" is simply something that tells the visitor more is on its way: a spinner, a "loading..." message, or a placeholder where the content will appear. Without one, a slow part of the page just sits there blank, and the visitor cannot tell whether it is loading or broken.

The auditor's notes capture both ways this goes wrong. On one site, an embedded map showed no loading sign at all and simply failed with a cold error message ("Oops! Something went wrong. This page didn't load the map correctly"). On another, the page was scattered with stuck spinners, in the top section, beside a video, and lower down, showing content that never finished loading. Both leave the visitor staring at something that looks broken.

Why it matters: When part of your page is blank or shows a cold error, visitors assume it is broken, not slow. If that broken-looking piece is your map, a customer trying to find you gives up. If it is your booking widget or your menu, you have lost them at the exact moment they were trying to act. A simple "loading" sign buys you a few seconds of patience and tells the visitor the site is worth the short wait.

How to fix it: First, make sure the slow parts of your site actually load. A map error like that one usually means the map is set up wrong or a key has expired, so test every embedded map, video, and widget yourself and fix or replace any that throw an error. Second, where something genuinely takes a moment, make sure a loading sign shows in the meantime. Most modern builders and embed tools do this for you, so if yours does not, ask whoever set up the embed to turn on a loading sign or switch to a tool that shows one.

One clear page, one obvious next step

This is the heart of user experience, and the group where the most customers quietly slip away. A great page shows the visitor the right thing immediately and always offers an obvious next step. When a page tries to do everything at once, buries the good stuff, or dead-ends with nowhere to go, the visitor gets confused. And a confused visitor does not call. They leave.

Each page has one clear goal, not five

23% of sites failed this check. Your homepage, and really every important page, should have one main thing it wants the visitor to do: call you, book a table, see the menu, request a quote. When a page tries to push five things at once, it ends up pushing nothing, and the visitor cannot tell what matters.

The auditor's notes show the chaos this creates. One homepage showed only a "403 Forbidden" error where real content should be, sitting on top of a sprawling store menu with no clear starting point. Another site fired two competing pop-ups the moment it loaded, one about online reservations and another about catering, on top of a navigation bar stuffed with seven different sections. The visitor is hit with several demands at once and given no obvious place to start.

Why it matters: A visitor who cannot tell what to do does nothing. When two pop-ups fight for attention and the menu offers eight competing paths, you have handed the customer a puzzle instead of a path, and people do not solve puzzles to give you money. Picking one clear goal per page does not lose you the other options. It tells the visitor where to start, and a visitor who knows where to start is far more likely to follow through.

How to fix it: For each important page, decide the single most valuable thing you want a visitor to do, then make that the loudest thing on the page: a clear headline that says what you offer, and one obvious button for the main action ("Book a table," "Get a quote," "Call now"). Keep your other offers available, but quieter, lower down or in the menu, rather than all shouting at once. Get rid of the competing pop-ups: one gentle pop-up at most, never two on load. And if your menu has grown into a long list of every page you own, trim it so the paths that win you business sit at the top. Tell Frontpage the one action a page should drive and it builds the page around that goal, with your offer up top and a single obvious button.

Your important content is not buried too far down

32% of sites failed this check, the most common problem we found. This is about what greets a visitor in the first screen, before they scroll at all (often called "above the fold," like the top half of a folded newspaper). The things that win you customers, what you offer, a special, a clear button, should be right there, not buried under big empty space or a slow-loading banner.

The auditor's notes show how badly this can go. On one site, the homepage failed to show any real content at all. The screenshot showed only a "403 Forbidden" message, so no products, offers, or buttons were visible to the visitor. On another, a very large empty white band sat in the middle of the page, pushing the "SPECIALS" and "REVIEWS" sections far down. In both cases, a visitor's first glance shows them nothing useful.

Why it matters: Most visitors never scroll far, and many never scroll at all. They glance at the first screen, decide in a second or two whether your site is worth their time, and act on that snap judgment. If that first screen is empty space, an error, or a giant logo with no substance, you have spent your one good impression on nothing. Putting your offer and a clear next step up top means more visitors understand what you do and act on it.

How to fix it: Open your homepage on a phone and look at only what you can see before scrolling. In that first screen, a visitor should be able to tell what you do, why you are worth choosing, and how to take the next step. If the top is a huge image or empty band with no words, add a short headline and a button right there, and move your most important content (your main offer, a current special, your "Call" or "Book" button) up into that first screen. Shrink oversized banners that push everything down, and fix any error pages like that "403 Forbidden" message, because a visitor who sees an error sees no content at all.

You point readers to a next step after key pages

23% of sites failed this check. This is about what happens when a visitor finishes reading an important page. A good page does not just stop. It points the reader onward: "Now see our menu," "Book your table," "Get directions." When a key page just ends, the visitor who was interested enough to read it is left with nowhere obvious to go.

The auditor's notes show how often interest goes to waste here. On one site, the About page ended on a customer quote with no suggested next step, no link to view menus, reserve, or order, so the page dead-ended into the footer. On another, the About page ended after a closing line and a photo grid with no next step, no link to buy, repair, or get directions. In both cases, a visitor who just finished learning about the business is given nothing to do next.

Why it matters: A visitor who reads all the way through your About page or a service page is one of your warmest leads. They are interested. They are leaning in. That is the worst possible moment to leave them hanging. If the page simply ends, that warm visitor cools off and clicks away, and the sale you were one small nudge from making never happens.

How to fix it: Look at your most-read pages (About, your main service pages, any popular blog post) and ask what you would want a reader to do right after finishing. Then add a clear link or button to exactly that, at the bottom of the page: after your About page, point people to your menu, booking page, or contact form; after a service page, offer a quote or a call. It takes one link per page, and it turns a dead stop into a doorway.

No dead-end pages: there is always a way forward

13% of sites failed this check. This is the more serious version of the last one. A "dead end" is a page that traps the visitor with no way forward at all: no menu, no links, no button, sometimes not even any real content. The last check was about a page that ends without a suggestion; this one is about a page that leaves the visitor genuinely stuck.

The auditor's notes show how stark these can be. On one site, several pages were dead ends: the homepage showed a "403 Forbidden" error, and the About address landed on a "404" page, both of them bare error pages with no links and nowhere to go. On another, the menu page was effectively a dead end. Its only content was "We are updating our menu" and "Please stay tuned," with no actual menu, leaving a visitor who came to see the food with nothing.

Why it matters: A dead end is the most expensive kind of page, because it stops a motivated customer cold. Someone who navigates to your menu wants to see your menu. If they hit "we are updating, stay tuned" or a bare error, they do not wait around. They go to a competitor whose menu loads. A dead end also makes the business look unreliable, as if nobody is minding the site.

How to fix it: First, hunt down the broken pages. Click through every page in your menu, try the addresses you have shared in ads or on social media, and fix or replace any page that shows a "403," a "404," or a bare error instead of real content. Second, never leave a page with "coming soon" as its only content: if your menu is not ready, put up a basic version now and polish it later, because an empty menu page is worse than a plain one. Third, make sure every page has your normal menu and footer so the visitor always has a way onward, even if they landed somewhere unexpected.

When things go wrong, and finding what you need

The last group covers two moments that quietly shape how a visitor feels about you: what happens when they make a mistake on a form, and how they find things on a site with lots of content. Handle these well and the visitor feels looked after.

Your error messages are helpful and clear

53% of the sites with a form failed this check. This one only applied to the sites that have a form a visitor can fill out and get wrong, and more than half of them showed a useless error. An error message is what your form says when something goes wrong as someone tries to submit it. A helpful one tells the visitor exactly what failed and how to fix it. A useless one just says, in effect, "nope," and leaves them guessing.

The auditor quoted the exact problem from these sites. On one, the form error was generic and unhelpful: "Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form." It did not tell the visitor what failed or how to fix it. On another, the only feedback was that same "Oops! Something went wrong," which gave the visitor no idea what to do (which field to fix, whether to try again, or who to contact instead). The visitor filled out your form, hit send, and got a shrug.

Why it matters: A contact or booking form is often the single most valuable thing on your site, because it is where an interested visitor reaches out to you. When that form fails with a vague "something went wrong," the customer does not know whether to fix a field, try again, or give up, so most give up. You never see the lead and never learn it happened. A clear error message rescues that customer at the finish line.

How to fix it: First, make your error messages specific. Instead of "Something went wrong," your form should say what to do: "Please enter a valid email address," or "Please add your phone number so we can call you back." Most form builders let you write the message for each field, so set those up in plain language. Second, always give a backup: if the form genuinely fails, the message should offer another way to reach you, such as "Sorry, that did not send. Please call or email us directly." Third, test your own form, filling it out wrong on purpose and then right, and make sure both the error and the success message are clear. A form you have never tested is a form you cannot trust. Or skip the wiring altogether: forms built with Frontpage check each field, show a clear message when something is missing, and still capture the lead, so a ready customer never slips away at the finish line.

A search box if your site has lots of content

None of the sites this applied to failed: a clean sweep. This check only applied to the sites with enough content (a large menu, many products, lots of pages) that a search box genuinely helps, and every single one of them had a working search feature in place. So take the win.

Why it matters: On a big site, search is how an impatient visitor finds the exact thing they want without clicking through menu after menu. Someone who already knows they want a specific dish, product, or service can type it and go straight there, which keeps them moving toward a purchase instead of getting lost. If your site is small, just a handful of pages, you very likely do not need a search box at all, and that is perfectly fine.

How to fix it: Nothing to fix for the sites in this group, and that is the point. If your site grows into a large menu, a big product list, or many pages down the road, most website builders let you switch on a search box in settings or with a simple add-on. Place it where people expect it, usually the top right, and make sure it actually returns results.

What to fix first

If you only have an afternoon, work down this list. It is ordered by how common each problem was, so you tackle the things most likely to be costing you customers first.

1. Get your important content out of the basement. This was the most common gap, failing on 32% of sites. Make sure what you offer and a clear next step show up in the first screen, before anyone scrolls.
2. Speed up your site. This failed on 38% of the sites it applied to. Resize big images, thin out heavy slideshows, and make sure the top of your page is not still spinning when visitors arrive.
3. Give each page one clear goal. This failed on 23% of sites. Decide the main action for each page, make it the loudest thing there, and stop competing pop-ups from fighting for attention.
4. Add a next step at the end of key pages. This failed on 23% of sites. Point readers of your About and service pages straight to your menu, booking, or contact.
5. Fix dead ends. This failed on 13% of sites. Repair broken pages, replace "coming soon" placeholders with real content, and keep your menu on every page.
6. Make your form errors helpful. This failed on 53% of the sites with a form. Tell visitors exactly what to fix, and always offer a backup way to reach you.
7. Add loading signs to slow parts. This failed on 26% of the sites with slow parts. Make sure maps, videos, and widgets load and show a "loading" sign while they do.

Search did not make the list because it was a clean sweep: none of the sites with lots of content failed it. One less thing to worry about.

Why this is worth your time

Here is the heartening part. User experience is already a strength for a lot of small business websites. 41% of sites were flawless, with nothing to fix at all, and the typical site passed about 76% of the checks that applied to it. If you are in that flawless group, keep it that way as your site grows. If you are not, the gaps are usually a handful of small things, not a broken site.

And that is exactly why these fixes pay off so well. A slow homepage, a buried offer, a page that dead-ends, a form that fails with a shrug: each one is a small leak where a ready customer slips away unnoticed. None of them need a developer, none need an ad budget, and most can be handled in a single sitting with the tools your website builder already gives you. Patch those leaks and you keep the customers your site is already attracting, the ones interested enough to show up and click.

Remember the visitor we started with, the confused one who just leaves. Every fix here is really about that person: making sure they can see what you offer, find what they want, and always know the next step, so that instead of quietly leaving, they call, book, or buy. Spend the afternoon. Walk your site like a customer, fix the few gaps, and let your website do its real job: making it easy and pleasant for people to choose you.

Based on a close look at 100 small business websites. Every number comes from those results, and the businesses are kept anonymous.