Website testing is something that every website owner needs to carry out. Website testing can help a developer to identify bugs, vulnerabilities and any issues which might negatively affect the website. This should ensure that the user has a smooth experience and help you to achieve the targets from your website, whether this is acquiring new business, raising awareness, selling products or simply sharing information. There are all sorts of issues that can arise with a website, and these can be hard to spot when you have spent so long working on it.
With this in mind, here is what website testing should involve so that you can deliver high-quality, secure and bug-free websites.
- Functionality
Functionality testing involves checking that all of the links in the website work, testing forms for submitting or gathering information from the user, making sure that the cookies are working as expected and validating your HTML/CSS so that search engines can crawl the website easily.
- Usability
Usability testing is typically carried out by an outsider, such as a tester, friend or a focus group, and will assess the human-computer interactions. It will involve checking that the navigation of the website works and is easy to use, as well as proofreading the content for grammatical or spelling errors and checking images and any alt text.
- Interface
Interface testing will involve checking the compatibility of the server with hardware, software, network and the database. Interactions between the servers should be assessed to see if they are executed well and that any errors are handled in the correct manner.
- Compatibility
In a time where people browse the web on a number of different browsers and devices, it is important that you check to see that the website works properly on all browsers and devices. Compatibility issues are common and can quickly deter a visitor, so this needs to be a priority area. Testing websites for compatibility can be challenging, which is why it is always best to enlist the services of a specialist.
- Performance Testing
Your website needs to perform to a high standard even under heavy strain. Web load testing involves seeing if the site can handle many users accessing or requesting the same page, while web stress testing will include stretching the system beyond its limits to see how well it recovers from crashes.
- Security Testing
Security testing is vital in a time where cybercrime is such a huge and ever-growing issue. Security testing might involve testing unauthorized access to secure pages, making sure prolonged user inactivity leads to killed sessions and the use of SSL certificates, and whether a message is displayed when switching from secure to non-secure.
These are the main stages that are involved with website testing. This is an essential process to go through because it will help you to identify issues, bugs and weak points so that improvements can be made. This should ensure that users have a positive experience with your website and that you can rest assured knowing that the site is fast, stable, secure and functional.
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