A Comprehensive Guide to Website Testing: Everything You Need to Know

A Comprehensive Guide to Website Testing: Everything You Need to Know

October 22, 2024

Website testing is a crucial process that decides whether a website is fit to go live. This involves a series a process where the testers check the website functions. They ensure the website has all the elements to provide a smooth user experience, in terms of security, performance and usability.

Today we will discuss the various elements of website testing, the types of testing, techniques & tools, and of course, and the right way to do it.

So, let’s start with the basics.

What is Website Testing?

Website testing is a step-by-step process where you evaluate a website, as well as identify potential issues and resolve them before its launch. That means you have to check everything- including its performance, security, usability and compatibility with different browsers, devices and operating systems. In this process, you need to check all elements of website. This includes:
  • Links
  • Forms
  • Loading speed
  • Responsiveness
  • Security testing to discover
  • and fix potential
  • vulnerabilities
Overall, the purpose of this process is for developers to ensure the site is as functioning as intended and meets the demand of the business.

Why Perform Continuous Website Testing?

Now, website testing is a not a one-time task. This is because a website grows as the business grows. As a result, you may have to add new features, content, and even revamp the designs. This can lead to potential issues and may not go well with the user experience. This is why continuous testing is a must. It ensures, all the problems are detected at an early stage and resolved, before it create any negative experience among end users.

Not only that, upgrades/updates are continuously being done of devices. Meaning, if Google Chrome made any changes in the website, it can also affect how a website loads and look in the browser. Similarly, if a company launches a new smartphone with a bigger size screen, this can also affects the visual and responsiveness of the website. Since responsive websites are the future, check this out for more information.

Other important aspects is the security of the website. Testers has to continuously test to check and fix any potential vulnerabilities and threats.

The Importance of Website Testing

Outstanding User Experience: A great user-experience is the primary goal of a website developer and the website owner. That means a website should be developed in a way that a user can easily access any information, interacts with it properly, and access functionalities with feeling frustrated.

Incredible Performance: A delay of a single second can make a user leave your website and go to your competitor. That’s why a website should load and work faster. A change in load speed can be affected by a surge of traffic or even vary on devices. Proper testing ensures a site load faster and performance excellently in all conditions.

Fortified Security: Cyber threats is not a new thing. In fact, it is getting stronger as hackers are constantly finding new ways to steal your data. That’s why security is of utmost important for a website owner as you are responsible for the protection of your users’ data. A secured website establish trusts among users and prevent you from financial or legal troubles.

Better Ranking in Search Engines: It goes without saying that search engines like Google favors website gives better user-experience. This means you website is likely to rank higher if it loads faster, have better responsiveness, works flawlessly in mobile devices, and doesn’t have any broken links.

Types of Website Testing

There are various types of website testing performed with each testing having its own specific goals:

Functional Testing: This test ensures that certain website features like links, forms, and navigation is working as it should.

Compatibility Testing: This testing is done to make sue a website works perfectly across all devices, browsers, and operating systems as well as screen size of the device.

Performance Testing: Testers use this testing to confirm that the website performs ideally in all conditions. For example- if there is a sudden surge of traffic, then they make sure it doesn’t make the site crash. This testing ensures the website

Usability Testing: This testing is conducted to check if a user can easily navigate the website, and easily interact with the features. Some of test elements include testing the site’s interface for content structure, design, and overall user experience.

Security Testing: It is done to detect any vulnerabilities of a website. Whether it has a probability of falling for cyber threats like SQL injections, data breaches, or cross-site scripting (XSS).

Benefits of Website Testing

Improved User Satisfaction: Testing ensures a seamless user experience, reducing bounce rates.

Higher Conversion Rates: A functional and smooth website encourages users to stay longer, potentially increasing conversions.

Reduced Downtime: Continuous testing helps identify and resolve issues quickly, minimizing downtime.

Enhanced Security: Testing ensures the website is safe from cyber-attacks, protecting user data and business credibility.

Step-by-Step Process to Perform Website Testing

Step1: Set the Goals

You must start with stating your goals, which should be a clearly set according to the business’s goal and changing behavior of users. For example, is the site working fine in terms of functionality, but only need improvement in user experience? In this case, you need to go for Usability Testing.

Or

Maybe you have added mobile responsiveness to a site, and wants to check how well it fairs in a mobile device. For that you need to go for compatibility testing.

The type/s of testing to choose depends on your business’s need and sometimes you may have to pair up more than one testing types.

Step 2: Create Test Cases

Now it’s time to create test cases for each part you are planning to cover. This includes covering functionalities, navigation, links, etc. Each test cases must include a test case ID, description, test case ID, description, preconditions, steps, expected result, and actual result.

Here is an example of Functionality Test Case:

Test Case ID: FUNC-001
Scenario: Verify that the user registration functionality works properly.

Preconditions:

  • The user should have access to the registration page.
  • The user should have valid and invalid test data.

Test Steps:

  1. Navigate to the registration page.
  2. Enter valid information for all required fields (name, email, password, etc.).
  3. Click the ‘Register’ button.
  4. Check for success message or email verification prompt.
  5. Repeat the test with missing or invalid data (e.g., blank email, weak password).

Expected Result:

  • When valid data is entered, registration should succeed, and the user should be prompted to verify the email.
  • When invalid or missing data is entered, the system should display appropriate error messages without proceeding.

Actual Result: (To be filled after test execution)

Step 3: Use Testing Tools

If you want to speed up the testing process and get more accurate results, you can try automated testing tools such as Selenium, TestComplete, and BrowserStack. These tools are also helpful in performing tests such as functional testing, cross-browser testing, and regression testing.

Step 4: Manual Testing

Automated testing has its perks, but you should never forget about manual testing. Tools cannot see the way humans do. That’s why when it comes to user experience and design, nothing can beat the creative eyes of a person.

With manual testing, you can tests in a real-world scenario and figure out usability issues that automated tools may overlook.

Step 5: Compatibility Testing

The next step is to perform the compatibility testing, ensuring the website runs well and provide a consistent experience to users in every devices, browsers, screen size and Operation Systems.

Step 6: Performance Testing

Performance testing assesses how the website behaves under different load conditions, such as heavy traffic or complex processes. Tools like JMeter can simulate various scenarios to test how quickly pages load, how well the site handles multiple users, and whether it meets performance standards during peak times.

How Does Website Testing Compare to Desktop Application Testing?

Website testing focuses on the performance of a site in a browser environment, testing compatibility across different devices and operating systems. In contrast, desktop application testing is limited to a particular OS and device type. Website testing requires handling varying screen sizes, browsers, and internet speeds, whereas desktop applications usually have fewer environmental variables.

Web Application Testing Techniques

  • Cross-Browser Testing: Ensures the web app performs well across different browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc.).
  • Load Testing: Verifies how the application behaves under high traffic or heavy load conditions.
  • Accessibility Testing: Checks if the web application is usable by individuals with disabilities.
  • Security Testing: Identifies vulnerabilities like cross-site scripting (XSS) or SQL injection attacks.

Web Application Functional Testing Checklist

  • Test all forms for proper functionality.
  • Verify database integrity by submitting data and retrieving it.
  • Check links, buttons, and user interactions.
  • Test page redirections.
  • Validate email notifications and forms.

What is Web Cookie Testing?

Web cookie testing ensures cookies are created, stored, and deleted properly. It involves verifying that cookies track user data correctly, ensuring compliance with privacy laws and providing a secure browsing experience.

Website Testing Life Cycle

The life cycle of website testing includes:
  • Requirement Analysis: Understand the website’s goals and objectives.
  • Test Planning: Create a plan detailing what will be tested and how.
  • Test Case Development: Write test cases covering all possible scenarios.
  • Environment Setup: Set up the testing environment, including browsers and devices.
  • Test Execution: Perform the tests.
  • Bug Reporting: Report and prioritize any issues found.
  • Re-testing: Once bugs are fixed, re-test to confirm resolution.
  • Test Closure: Final testing after development is complete.

What Browsers, Versions, and Operating Systems Are Included?

Website testing should cover major browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, and Internet Explorer. It’s also essential to test across different versions of these browsers and operating systems like Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android.

How to Do Performance Testing for Web Applications?

Performance testing involves:

  • Load Testing: Simulating traffic to check how the website performs under stress.
  • Stress Testing: Pushing the website beyond its limits to identify its breaking point.
  • Scalability Testing: Ensuring the site can scale to handle growing traffic.
  • Use tools like Apache JMeter, LoadRunner, or NeoLoad for performance testing.

Points to Consider While Testing a Website

  • Page Load Speed: Ensure pages load quickly, ideally under 3 seconds.
  • Mobile Compatibility: Test the site’s responsiveness on various screen sizes.
  • Security: Ensure proper encryption of sensitive data.
  • Error Handling: Verify how the website handles errors or incorrect inputs.

Sample Test Scenarios for Testing a Web Application

  1. Verify that all fields on a form accept valid inputs and reject invalid data.
  2. Check the functionality of page navigation and links.
  3. Test file uploads, downloads, and form submissions.
  4. Ensure email validation and notifications are working as expected.

UI and Content Testing of the ‘Request Duplicate Statement’ Page

  • Ensure the layout is user-friendly and all fields are clearly labeled.
  • Verify that the content is accurate and concise.
  • Test for proper field validation and error messages for incorrect input.

Automated Web Application Testing

Automated testing involves using scripts and tools to automate the testing process. Popular tools include Selenium, TestComplete, and QTP. These tools help in testing large web applications quickly and efficiently.

Website Testing Tools

There are several tools available for website testing:

  • Selenium: Widely used for automated testing.
  • BrowserStack: Used for cross-browser testing.
  • JMeter: Popular for performance testing.
  • TestComplete: For functional and regression testing.

The Future of End-to-End Testing for Web Applications

As websites become more complex, end-to-end testing will play an increasingly important role. Emerging technologies like AI and machine learning are expected to drive the automation of testing processes, making testing faster, more efficient, and capable of handling complex scenarios.