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What is Website Testing?

Website testing is a test for owners of websites, making sure that their site functions properly and that it is user friendly stand at the top of the priority list.

It is important that pages, graphics, text, etc. load correctly and quickly because this means a higher user retention rate and usually guarantees more website visits. This is where website testing comes into play.

Web testing is a form of software testing that focuses mainly on web applications. The applications are tested for bugs in the code or any other issues related to its function. Testing a website completely before it goes live to the public helps address errors and issues that may not have been known about if not tested completely or at all.

There are numerous issues that can occur on a simple web application if it is not coded properly. These issues could include:

The security of the web app.
Website basic functionality.
Its handicap accessibility testing.
Website ability to adapt to the hundreds of device screens (laptop, desktop, tablet, cellphone, etc) and operating systems.
Its ability to handle a large amount of user traffic– the amount of user traffic the website can handle is tested during load testing.

One aspect that is very important when looking at website testing is performance testing, and this is done using a web application performance tool (WAPT).

A WAPT is a tool used to test the performance, load, and stress of websites, web servers, and most other web related software. This tool can simulate virtual users and assign them a certain URL to repeat a certain number of times; this checks for bottlenecks and performance downfalls in the website.

Browser, operating system, and windows application (optional) are testing by WAPT. The cool thing about this website test method is that the web application performance tool lets the user determine how the virtual users interact with their website.

Read more about WAPT on our guide to Accessibility testing – Part 2

On the security side of things, web security testing is a must to keep the website’s users safe and the website invulnerable to hackers.

Monetary costs depend on how you choose to perform the site test. It is also important to remember that web testing is quite a tedious process filled with tight deadlines.

There are also additional aspects that need to be tested on a website and web application, a few levels of them are:

Functionality – Test all links (outgoing, internal, anchor) to ensure they are not broken. Also test cookies and HTML to ensure search engines can successfully crawl the site and you do not need to log in with every visit. Read more about it in our article – Functional testing and basic steps to apply.
Usability – This usually tests navigation and content. All menus, buttons, images, and etc. are tested to ensure the best experience using the web app as possible.
Interface – application, web, and database are tested here. Both the web and database servers must be up and running and able to handle all application requests.
Compatibility – it is important that the web application displays in the correct format across all devices. Various operating systems render things like buttons, text fields, menus, and etc. differently, so checking for compatibility is important to make sure the web application is universal.