Every day people are spending more time on the internet. All famous brands, goods, services, communication with friends, online courses, work, and healthcare have moved online and do not require a physical presence. The website ecosystem is enormous, and it keeps growing steadily. According to recent ratings, there were 238 million websites in 2009, 969 million in 2014 and more than 1 800 million online in 2020 globally. With such a level of competition, launching a successful site seems challenging.
Almost precisely, the primary goal of every website owner is happy visitors, meaning the site works perfectly. This is why you need testers who check your website for flaws, including poor user experiences. The next question is how to test a website the right way? Here's a list of the essential testing techniques that will help you win a myriad of customers online.
Website functionality testing
One of the most important aspects of a website QA testing service is functionality. Each page of your site must work adequately, regardless of the operating system or the device a visitor uses. Functional tests also show whether all site functions follow the established requirements. The functionality testing, in particular, includes links testing, website forms testing, cookies testing and HTML/CSS checking.
Usability testing as well
Is it convenient for users to interact with your website? You can learn that through usability testing quickly. These tests help to verify the efficiency of every attribute on the site the visitors use, such as menus, navigation bars, images, videos, text content, buttons, forms, links, and so on. Usability testing reveals whether the website pages, buttons, and fields are easy to use, whether there are any errors, and whether your content is well-structured, informative and logically linked.
Do not forget about UI testing.
UI tests show whether the graphical user interface contains the required functionalities and meets all specifications. With UI tests, you also check design elements such as layout, colours, fonts, font sizes, text fields, formatting, buttons, lists, symbols, links, and the associated content. While performing the UI tests, it is necessary to test the website on different types of devices and screen resolutions and check the accuracy of UI elements on localized versions. UI test processes can include automated website testing and manual website testing procedures.
Compatibility testing is a must.
With the help of compatibility tests, you can ensure that your website works well on every operating system (Linux, iOS/Mac OS, Windows, Android, etc.), every browser (Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Internet Explorer, etc.) and every database (MySql, Oracle, DB2, etc.). Compatibility tests also help measure the mobile-friendliness of your website. This includes (but is not limited to) such criteria as simple navigation, fast loading time, convenient buttons, the right image size, readable content, easy-to-find contact forms, etc.
Performance testing
The term "performance testing" is basically used to summarize any software test that verifies the site's responsiveness, scalability, stability, reliability, and speed under different circumstances. There are several types of performance tests, including stress tests (to check how the site works beyond the limits of its expected workload), load tests (how the site works when the workload increases), stability tests (to check the ability of the site to work well over a long period), volume tests (to check the site behaviour when the data volume increases), load speed testing, concurrency tests (to identify what happens when multiple visitors are active on your website).
Keep all data secure with security testing.
The security of your site counts for a lot. If third parties get access to your data, it may lead to site failures, sales losses and, what is even more critical - to the loss of trust. To prevent such scenarios, security tests are performed (in particular, penetration and vulnerability testing). Those tests are aimed at ensuring that: access to the data by an unauthorized individual is impossible, the inactive sessions are killed, SSL security functions well, the captcha works correctly, restricted files cannot be downloaded without permission, and no one can log into your site with the wrong username or password.
Beta testing in a natural environment
Before the big launch, it is always better to test any website in a real-world environment. With real users involved, beta testing helps you get valuable insights, eliminate bugs and improve your website significantly. Accordingly, any losses that the site incurs at this stage of testing will not become critical.
