Website QA Testing Checklist

You can’t wait for the public to see the amazing design, user interface and engaging content that you have worked so hard on. People often rush to make their website live without checking the essential elements. They will eventually receive negative feedback.

We have created a website QA testing checklist to help you launch your website quickly, avoid making mistakes and keep your website informative, accessible and user-friendly.

This guide will help you understand everything that is needed to make your website live. This is called Quality Assurance website testing.

What is Website Testing?

It must be thoroughly tested before a web-based system can be made available to end-users.

Website testing checklists ensure that websites are functional, secure, and usable for real-time usage. This checklist is used to check for possible issues before the website is made live or deployed into the production environment.

Quality Assurance Website Checklist

Functionality Testing
Interface Testing
Usability Test
Performance Testing
Compatibility Testing
Security Testing
Responsive testing
Database Testing
Testing for Change
Prepare a backup plan in case of disaster

1. Website Functional Testing

First, let’s understand the purpose of functionality testing in order to identify items that need to be checked for website functionality.

What is Functionality Testing?

Functional testing ensures that every website function is in line with the requirements.

Website functionality testing is a way to see how the system works. This is done in order to verify that all website elements function properly. Functionality testing ensures that all links, forms and database connections on a web page work correctly.

A) Link Testing

This is a useful tool that can help improve your site’s SEO. Broken links in content can lead to a failure of the goal you seek, which will negatively impact your SEO.

Users expect more information when they click on external links on your site. It may be confusing or frustrating for users if the link does not work.

Internal Links This testing verifies that your internal links are correctly linked to the relevant pages of your site, such as your Home Page, Contact Us and About Us.
External Links These links take users from your website to another online platform.
Email Links It is important that users click on email links and the default email client opens with their “To” address filled in.
Broken Links Broken links can also be referred to by the term dead links. Broken links can be used to refer to all of the previously mentioned types of links. Broken links are those that have been generated by spelling errors in URLs or pages that are removed from the internet. Online tools can be used to find broken links on a site.

Checklist for Link Testing

Verify that all links are clickable.
It is important to test all internal links.
It is important to test jumping links from the same page.
To send an email to admins or to other users, test the links on web pages.
For broken links, inspect all URLs.
Verify if there are any abandoned pages.
Make sure that none of your links lead to an empty page.
You can remove pages or make them unavailable by checking the 404 page.

b) Forms Testing

Online forms are one of the most important parts of website testing. Forms can be used to contact users via the internet. The following should be reviewed:

Validation of input data: There are many field validations such as Email Id and user financial information. These validations must all be done.
You can choose to have fields that are mandatory or optional.
Is the input longer that the field’s maximum?
Does a scrollbar appear when it is required?
Do you think forms are designed to be easier to read?
Check the fields to see default values.
What are the consequences of incorrect data?
There are many options for forms that allow data to be deleted or modified.

c) Cookies Testing

Cookies are small files which are saved to the computer of users who visit your site.

Here are some things you should try:

What happens if a visitor accidentally deletes their cookies?
What happens if a visitor deletes cookies after visiting a site?
You can test a website without cookies disabled.
You can check if a website allows cookies.
Before the cookie is sent to the user’s computer, make sure it is encrypted.
Cookies with a maximum length should be checked to ensure they are still active after the limit is reached.

d) HTML/CSS Validation

HTML/CSS validation are essential for optimizing your website for search engines. To ensure that search engines can scan your site easily, test HTML and CSS.

Check for HTML syntax errors.
You should check to make sure your site has an accurate sitemap in both XML format and HTML format.
Verify that the color scheme meets standards and is easily readable.

e) Testing Error Messages

Error messages can be extremely useful in guiding visitors through both successful and unsuccessful situations on a website. End-users may be misled by poorly written error messages when they navigate through the website.

2. Interface

To be able write a checklist to test a website’s interface, we must first know its features.

What is Interface Testing?

Interface testing is another important component of website testing. Interface testing is a way to ensure that multiple servers are compatible. This allows for better interaction and error handling.

These are the primary interfaces:

Interface between a webserver and an application server
Interface between an application server & a database server

Verify that all interactions between the servers are done correctly and that errors are properly handled. The website database or web server might return an error message when it responds to a query. These error messages should be spotted by the application server and displayed to the users accurately so that they are aware of the problem.

Checklist for Interface Testing

What happens if a user interrupts the middle of a transaction?
Find out what happens if your connection to the webserver goes down.
Will plugins be used on the site?
Verify that linked documents are accessible on all platforms.
Is the system able to respond quickly if there are any issues or errors in a download?
Is the copy and past function working properly?
Is there an application recovery procedure in case the application crashes?
Can I use the site without plugins enabled?

3. Usability

It is defined as “easiness of using something”. Let’s find out what it means for website users.

What is the Usability of a Website

Web-word usability can be defined as the ease with which visitors navigate your site and achieve their goals.

Users want to find the information they need quickly and easily. Users have a low tolerance for slow and complicated sites. They only take 10 seconds to leave one site in search of one better.Page loading time and the probability of bounce by uxplanet

What is Usability Testing?

Usability Testing allows you to assess how user-friendly your site is. This ensures that users can use the website and interact with it.

This testing aims to verify that the website’s navigation can be navigated easily by visitors. If a website is confusing or difficult to use, or if content or elements are not easy to understand or read, people will leave it. Website usability is a key aspect for users. This can be done by using website visitor monitoring tools.

What are the Different Types Of Website Usability Testing?

There are many web usability methods that measure website performance. However, these are the most popular:

Heatmaps (click-tracking) enable you to track users clicks on the screen.

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A/B Testing compares two versions of the same website.
Surveys allow you to quickly and easily get feedback from your visitors about the usability of your site.
Paper prototyping allows developers to save time and money by testing websites during the development phase.
To track visitors’ eye movements as they navigate the site, you can use eye-tracking devices.

Useability Test Checklist

The accessibility, identity and navigation sections of the usability website testing checklist are divided into three parts: content, accessibility, identity, navigation, as well as content. When testing your website for usability, consider the following:

Accessibility

The site loading time should not exceed 30 seconds.
Optimize the font size and line spacing of your site.
Use Flash and add-ons sparingly on the website.
All visuals should be tagged with appropriate ALT tags
A “404 error” page or “Not found” page should be displayed if an internal link is broken.

b) Identity

It is important that the website logo be prominently displayed on the top left corner of the page.
Every page must have a suitable tagline that clearly explains the purpose of the site. To create a suitable tagline for your webpage, you can use the free tagline generator.
To help identify the company, contact information must be clear.

c) Navigation

The main menu should be accessible from all pages.
When multiple navigations are used, it is important that the user understands the reasons.
Use simple and clear navigation labels
You can add a search bar (usually located on the right side).
To avoid confusion, use buttons and links correctly
The company logo should always be linked to the homepage.

d) Content

Use clear and informative headings. Search engines use heading tags to show pages in search results. The user will not click on your link if you give the incorrect titles.
For SEO purposes, it is important to use proper header tags such as H1, H2, etc.
The screen should have the most important content in an average resolution.
Make sure there are no spelling or grammatical errors
Images should be properly sized and placed.
Alternative descriptive text should be used for visuals.
For optimization, check the site’s colors and font sizes.
It should be clear, concise, well-structured and related to the topic.
Instructions should be easy to follow and include truthful information.
Both search engines and users will be able to understand navigation by using relevant and user-friendly keywords in URLs.
Users will recognize that they are still on your website if you use the same font styles and colors.
The text on the website should be aligned correctly.
It is important that all fields and buttons are correctly positioned and maintained in the same format and size.
Deactivated fields should not be grayed.
All textboxes, radio buttons, dropdowns, and other fields should have keyboard shortcuts.
You can examine the page in different resolutions using the same browser.

4. Performance

Website testing checklist includes performance testing. This is an important component that will determine the success of your website.

What is Performance Testing?

Performance testing is used for assessing a system or component’s compliance to defined performance requirements under various load conditions. This testing does not aim to find problems in the system, but to identify bottlenecks and determine how much load/stress the site can handle. This is done to assess the app’s scalability, load balancing issues, response times between users and the server, as well as the speed of the site.

It is recommended to test the website’s performance with different internet connections.

Performance Website Testing contains:

Web Load Test: Can the site handle peak load times? Site should be capable of handling multiple simultaneous users, large input data, multiple connections and excessive demand on specific pages, etc.

Web Stress Testing In general, stress is pushing the system beyond its limits. The purpose of web stress testing is to test the system by applying stress and then monitoring how it recovers from the crashes. Sign-up, login and input fields are often the main focus.

Performance Website Testing Checklist

Stress testing – Testing site behavior at or above the scheduled workload limit
Load testing – Observe site behavior as workload increases
Stability testing is used to test the ability to work within the time limit or beyond it.
To evaluate website performance, increase the data volume (Volume testing).
Concurrency testing is a method of testing the website’s performance when multiple people log in.
Test the site’s behavior when increased workload is applied continuously (Endurance testing).
The page load speed is checked

5. Compatibility Testing

Compatibility refers to the ability of two systems or components to work together without any modifications.

What is Compatibility Testing?

Compatibility is another important factor to be considered in order to improve website efficiency. Compatibility testing is a section of the website testing checklist that ensures that web pages render correctly in different browsers, such as IE8, IE9 and IE10, IE11 or Chrome. It checks if the website works on different operating systems, such as Windows XP and Windows 7, Vista, Linux, Mac, etc.

Compatibility testing also includes device compatibility, printing options, and database compatibility. As mobile surfing becomes more popular, websites that work well on mobile devices will enjoy a higher success rate.

Compatibility Testing Checklist

These are the most important compatibility tests to consider when evaluating your website.

Browser Compatibility

Some websites are very dependent on web browsers. Different browsers use different configurations, so your website must be compatible with them all. Your website code should be compatible with all browsers.

You can test your website with several browsers, such as Internet Explorer and Firefox, Netscape Navigator. AOL, Safari and Opera.

Verify that the HTML version you are using is compatible with different browsers.
Make sure that you test different browsers to ensure that images and text display correctly.
You should test animated GIFs and videos on several browsers.

b) OS Compatibility

Cross-platform testing allows you to test your site on a range of operating systems, both desktop and mobile, such as Windows, iOS/Mac OS Linux, Android and BlackBerry.

c) Printing Options

If you offer page-printing options, make sure that:

All fonts, page graphics and page alignment can be printed correctly.
Your website pages must match the specified paper size and the printing option.

d) Database Testing

This test is done to confirm the operation of your site with various database configurations, including Oracle, DB2, MySql and MSSQL Server.

6. Security Testing

Security testing should not be delayed until after software implementation or deployment. This will increase the cost. Security testing should be done in the very beginning stages.

What is Security Testing?

Security testing is the process of identifying security weaknesses and gaps. Every website must be secure. This inspection helps to identify potential flaws or software vulnerabilities, resolve security concerns, and maintain the website’s highest security. It protects data and resources from hackers and prevents illegal access.

Security testing is used to determine if private data is being kept secret. Testing a website’s security aims to identify and fix any vulnerabilities.

There are nine types of security testing.

A) Network Scanning

b) URL Manipulation

c) Vulnerability scanning

d) Password cracking

e) Log Review

f) Integrity Checkers

g) SQL Injection

h) Virus Detection

i) Cross-Site Scripting

Website Security Testing Checklist

Here are some examples of web security checks:

Copy and paste the URL from the internal page into your browser address bar without logging in. You should not access internal pages.
Log in using your username and password, navigate through the internal pages, then try to modify the URL parameters. Your request to update a parameter should not be made to someone other than the current logged-in user.
Input fields that contain incorrect information can be filled in and the system will respond accordingly.
Web files shouldn’t be accessible directly unless there is a way to download them.
Captcha can be checked using automated scripts.
Verify that SSL is being used for security purposes. The appropriate message should be displayed when users switch from HTTP:// pages that are not secure to HTTPS:// pages that are secure.
Log files should contain all transactions, errors messages, and attempts to breach security.
Check to see if passwords, credit card numbers and other data are encrypted.
Look at every page of your application that allows you to access a SQL Injection database.
Make sure that the error message does not contain any vital information.
Verify that no unauthorized access is granted to secured pages.
Verified sessions automatically end after a certain period of inactivity.
Verify that cookies are encrypted.

Password Testing

Verify that all authorized pages are covered by the password rules, including set password and change password.
Users should change their passwords after they have been changed. After that, users will not be able log in with the old passwords.
If users enter incorrect passwords more often than the specified number of times, they will be banned from logging into the system.
You can check to see if there are limits on how many forgotten password requests you can issue each day.
Make sure that your system cookies don’t save passwords.

7. Responsive Testing

It is increasing in popularity for people to only use their mobile devices to access the internet. It is important to ensure that your website is mobile-friendly. Your visitors should experience a seamless experience, regardless of what device they use. Your visitors should be able navigate your website easily, regardless of whether they are using a tablet, a smartphone, or a desktop computer.

This testing is done to make sure that the website works on various operating systems and smart devices of varying sizes.

A Website Testing Checklist Mobile-Friendliness

Verify compatibility with your smartphone or tablet.
You should make sure that the site navigation is as simple as possible.
Increase the loading speed of your website.
Large fingers will find it difficult to use the buttons.
All sizes of pictures should be optimized
Avoid flash and popups.
To make your point, use bullet points or short words.
You are only one click away to dial your phone number.
Verify that the website has GPS access.
Make sure that all elements are aligned properly.
You can check to see if hover and selection states are highlighted and changed colors.
Make sure you check to make sure that CTAs include a clickable area.
If possible, examine the uniformity of shading, colors, and gradients.
Make sure that you have the correct padding settings on the edges.

You should check to make sure that the font style, font size and color of text on every web page is consistent.
Scroll down the website to see its scrolling functions.
Verify that all pages are easily readable on different resolutions.
Verify that all links on the website are correct displayed and clickable.
Make sure that all input and output boxes, if any, are visible. Also make sure that the values are being taken and given according to the user’s commands.
You should ensure that there are no scroll bars horizontally on your web page. Everything should be scaled to fit the screen size.
All content on the website must be rotated while rotating it.

8. Database Testing

Database testing evaluates backend records that were inserted via web or desktop apps. Website data should match the database data.

What is Database Testing?

A database is an integral component of any online site. It must be properly tested.

The tester should be familiar with the functional requirements and business logic.
The tester should be able to understand the application’s tables and triggers, store methods, view options, cursors, and store methods.
When performing DML procedures, it is crucial that the tester considers the ripple effects.

Checklist for Website Testing:

Name of the database
Column types, tables, and columns
Verify that the column can accept null values.
You can check the foreign and main keys in the tables.
Make sure you check the parameters.
Simple queries can be used to test stored procedures.
Verify whether any stored procedures returned results.
Double-check data when using DML.
Verify the encryption.
Each query will have a different response time.
Compare the data on the front and back ends.
When running queries, check to see if any issues have been reported.
You should check to make sure that the data integrity has been maintained during a CRUD operation.
Verify that data retrieval was done as intended.

9. Change related testing

This section of the website-testing checklist has two parts.

Re-test or confirm that all issues found have been successfully resolved. You should then run the original test cases again to confirm that they are not failing.
Regression testing is used to ensure that there are no new errors created by the revisions. It includes test cases that identify problems and also ones that evaluate all aspects of your site.

10. Make sure you have a backup plan in case of disaster

After all the work that went into creating a website, nobody wants to lose it. In case of an emergency, make sure you have a backup plan. Before you launch the site, make sure to review the backup strategy. This will enable you to evaluate the backup strategy and save you pain if anything happens to your site after launch.

Conclusion

Wix and WordPress have made it much easier to launch and create a website. It is difficult to know if your website meets Google’s requirements. Before publishing your website, ensure that you thoroughly test every feature.

This article will help you to understand the essential elements and aspects of the website testing checklist before you make your website accessible to the public. These techniques can improve website functionality and provide a quality platform for consumers.

It is the end-users that must be satisfied, so ensure you do user-side testing.