I often get asked how to quickly find the worst leaks in a website conversion funnel without getting lost in dashboards or endless user interviews. Over the years I developed a lean, 90-minute audit that gives you a clear picture of where to focus next — actionable insights you can test within a week. Below I share the checklist and a practical walkthrough I use when I need fast, high-impact results.
Why a 90-minute funnel audit works
You don’t need a month of analysis to surface obvious issues. In 90 minutes you can combine quantitative signals with lightweight qualitative checks to identify the most damaging friction points. The goal is not to be exhaustive — it’s to detect the high-confidence opportunities that drive the biggest uplift for the least effort.
I treat this as a discovery sprint: quickly build a hypothesis, validate it with data, and list experiments. That keeps momentum, avoids analysis paralysis, and gives teams a prioritized to-do list they can act on immediately.
What I look for
My audit focuses on five areas that typically cause the majority of conversion loss:
90-minute checklist (timeboxed)
I split the 90 minutes into focused blocks. Set a timer and stick to the schedule — the constraint forces decisiveness.
How I run each block in practice
Quick context: I open GA4 or my analytics and jump to the acquisition report and user acquisition by channel. If paid search or social drives most traffic but conversion is poor, the intent mismatch is my first hypothesis — ads promise something the landing page doesn’t deliver.
Heuristic UX pass: I pretend I’ve never seen the brand. In about five seconds, I ask myself:
If those answers aren’t instant, the headline, subheadline, or primary CTA likely needs work. I also check microcopy around forms and buttons: ambiguous language like "Submit" or "Continue" often leaves users unsure.
Funnel analytics: I pull a funnel report that mirrors the actual user flow. Look for sudden jumps in drop-off rate (e.g., 40% drop from product page to add-to-cart). These are your hotspots. If you don’t have a funnel set up, create a temporary one for the core journey — even a basic one gives direction.
Qualitative signals: Session replays are gold. I search for pages found in the funnel hotpots and watch the first few replays. Rage clicks, scrolling back and forth, and immediate bounces reveal friction. Heatmaps show if CTAs are being ignored because they’re below the fold or visually weak.
Technical & tracking checks: Performance problems are silent conversion killers. Run Lighthouse and pay attention to First Contentful Paint and Time to Interactive, especially on mobile. Then open your console and check that tracking tags, purchase events, and form-submitted events are firing correctly. Missing events = blind spots.
Prioritization cheat-sheet (simple table)
| Issue | Impact | Effort | Quick action |
|---|---|---|---|
| Poor headline clarity | High | Low | Rewrite headline + A/B test |
| Slow mobile load | High | Medium | Optimize images, defer non-critical JS |
| Checkout form abandonment | High | Medium | Shorten form, add progress indicator |
| Analytics gaps | Medium | Low | Fix tag firing for key events |
| Confusing pricing page | Medium | Medium | Clarify features per plan, add FAQs |
Examples of quick wins I often implement
How to turn findings into quick experiments
When the 90 minutes ends, you should have one clear hypothesis per hot spot. Write each as:
Example: "If we change the homepage headline to explicitly state cost savings, then homepage-to-signup conversion will increase by 15% within two weeks." Set the success metric and a short tracking window (7–14 days). Prioritize experiments that are easy to implement and measure.
Tools I rely on
I usually run this audit before bigger redesigns or growth sprints. It gives teams confidence: instead of changing everything, you change the few things that clearly matter. Want a ready-to-use checklist PDF or a Trello board version of this workflow? I can create one tailored to your stack — tell me which analytics and replay tools you use and I’ll adapt the steps.
