Website Testing

Website Testing is a process to ensure that the site is fully functional and conducted before it goes live. It’s essential to ensure that the final product meets the requirements and specifications built for its purpose. In addition, website testing will ensure that the needs of its users are satisfied with minimal faults.

Testing for bugs that occur before launching a website is essential because it allows the developers to see if the website is working correctly. Areas of concentration in website testing should include basic functionality, security, increased user traffic (SEO), and accessibility. Website testing is crucial because you want to ensure that there aren’t any grammar and spelling errors or broken links and are viewable on all web browsers, to name a few. Hence, web developers can identify what changes need to be made and corrected before launching the website.

Why Website Testing

Though business websites can be costly to fix, it just makes sense that issues are seen before the launch. A website should be tested to allow web developers to improve the code and iron out any glitches that could occur—for example, the performance and the functionality. Also, a website encountering bugs after the launch can adversely affect the business. A good example is, Healthcare.gov, which went down after its launch. This, in turn, negatively impacted its business and ended up being far more costly to fix the website.

Testing websites, you should have a checklist of everything you need to check before launching it. An essential list of the website should include some or all of the following:

• Functionality Testing
• Usability Testing
• Database Testing
• Compatibility Testing
• Performance Testing
• Security Testing

Most websites are tested by going through the checklist. Hence proper website design steps should be taken. Remember, it’s a choice that could avoid a headache and the cost of rectifying problems down the road! In addition, website testing teams may include writers, web developers, web designers, and network administrators.

Functional Website Testing

Functional testing aims to see that all the features and operational functions are doing what they are designed to do. Doing so allows you to evaluate if your website meets the intended functional requirements. When testing for functionality, you want to try all links on the website and ensure they all work correctly and are not broken.  Also, test all submitted forms and provide that information is sent correctly.

You would test cookies, which are small files stored on user machines and used by websites to remember login sessions. Functionality testing also includes validating HTML and CSS syntax errors on a website, ensuring Search Engines correctly index your website.

Website Testing via 

Usability testing improves the website’s effectiveness by allowing users to navigate the website more easily. When it comes to usability testing, you want to cater to the users with a user-friendly way to navigate. For example, it needs to be easy for users to understand. The setup on the home page should provide enough information on its primary content. Also, there should be no spelling errors and consistency throughout the website.

Database Website Testing

When it comes to database testing, the functional requirements and specifications of the website should match the data stored on the database. The data integrity needs to be checked and maintained when data is updated, created, or deleted. Also, data should be retrieved, executed, and updated correctly from all the database queries. Errors and response times from the questions should be tweaked to optimal performance.

Compatibility of Website Testing

Compatibility testing ensures that the website created is compatible with other systems. This is important for the performance of the website. The website should be appropriately displayed within all web and mobile browsers when testing for compatibility. In addition, images and text should be shown correctly and be responsive to other functions.

Performance Website Testing

Testing a website’s performance is used to assess if the website components comply with the demand requirements. The different types of performance testing consist of load testing and stress testing, which measure response time speed. Load testing is used to evaluate how long it takes for the website to load when a heavy amount of users are on at the same time. Stress testing is used to determine how long the website can recover when it crashes due to inconveniences affecting the system database. These are critical issues because minor delays can lead to a deciding factor for users to wait or move to another website.

Security Website Testing

Security testing is an essential aspect of a website that restricts unauthorized access. For example, security is vital for e-commerce and needs to be encrypted to ensure privacy. Also, protected websites requiring login must be enforced by providing the proper credentials before allowing access to outside users. Security breach attempts and error messages should all be logged and stored in the system database.

Many websites, such as User Testing, are used to test websites. They may compensate users for doing a website test with money, coupons, or merchandise. To do a trial, the user is given a specific mission on the website. The user must navigate through the website to complete their task. Some websites will have users speak throughout the test to illustrate their thoughts. This allows the website developers to understand any problems the user is experiencing fully. Sometimes, a webcam may also be required to perform these tests.

Websites may also be tested in person. During this test, the user sits at a computer with the developers. The developers will give the user a mission as in the online testing. In addition, they watch the user try to navigate through their website and accept any comments or critiques on the website and functionality.

Website Tester Goals

Testers are usually given a series of missions to complete on a website. This can range from booking a hotel room, finding information about an organization, or emailing a manager. The mission of testing a website is meant to test the website’s functionality. Overall, the tasks must test all factors on a website. After all, all the links need to be tested, paragraphs of text need to be proofread, and images must load quickly throughout the test.

Website Testing via Outsourcing

Some companies specialize in correcting and testing website problems thoroughly. They plan out a testing project and complete it with an entire team. This is an excellent option for testing websites because most companies will guarantee success with the testing project. Also, a guarantee can eliminate the risks of not testing a website properly.

Many risks can occur from not testing a website thoroughly. More importantly, testing should occur throughout the development process. If testing is only conducted at the end of the project, one error could require that the whole project is redone. According to the website professionals at iBeta,

If you use the waterfall approach and leave the testing until the end of the project, you may find that a significant problem could cause you to redesign the entire project. For example, if there is a problem with a company’s website, the customers are bound to think that their other products might have bugs or errors.

• Technical Support

If too much technical support is needed, it will raise costs for maintaining your website and reputation. It is best to test your website thoroughly before it is launched, as it is easier and less costly to edit and make changes to a website before the release. After a project is released, the cost for changes and fixes doubles per bug. A bad website can also ruin your reputation as a web developer. You won’t be hired again! Also, depending on your product, you may get sued for a bad website. Your website should be able to handle the amount of traffic it gets. Or your customers won’t be able to access it when they need it and will not wait for the loading times. After all, website testing is essential because it will save you money.

• Browser Testing

Websites may also need to be tested on different browsers. A website must be tested on other browsers if launched on one browser. A website’s main browsers must be tested, including chrome, Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Microsoft Edge.

• Testing on Devices

Mobile websites must also be tested on different types of phones and tablets. A website must be specially formatted to work as a mobile website if it is meant to be used on a mobile device. Mobile websites often have the most errors and bugs. This means that mobile websites need to be tested the most thoroughly. Mobile websites are more complicated and need to be formatted for iOS and Android devices.

Finally, website testing is paramount for any project. Websites should be tested from a functional as well as a user standpoint.