Website Pre-Launch Testing

Testing a website before signing it off is an important step to ensure the website is functioning correctly and looks appealing to the user.

Testing a website before launch can save time and money by preventing errors when going live. You should get a clear idea of what pages and functionality your website should have, then test for these before signing it off.

Every web project if different and may include more complex functionality however below are some things you’ll want to test in almost all cases.

Links

Broken links negatively impact user experience and credibility. They also harm website SEO. You can very quickly check this using a deal link checker like this one deadlinkchecker.com

Forms

Make sure to do a test run on any forms you may have. Check that inputs are being validated if it’s required and that you are receiving any emails that should be triggered. You’ll also want to check that you are receiving the data the user inputs properly whether thats is in the database or an email etc.

Cross-Browser Compatibility

Testing your site on multiple browsers is critical because different browsers can display websites differently. If a website is not compatible with a browser your users are likely to use, it could lead to a poor user experience and a decrease in traffic.

The easiest way to test this is by using a service like browserstack.com Using this tool you can test your website on virtual machines for practically any browser or device.

Mobile / Tablets

With an increasing number of users accessing websites through smartphones and tablets, it is crucial to ensure that your website is optimised for smaller screens and touch-based navigation.

You want to make sure that things work practically but also that the design breaks down gracefully when on a smaller screen.

Again a good way to do this would be to use something like browserstack.com

Check loading speed.

A slow loading website can be a major turn-off for visitors and can cause SEO damage. Test the website’s loading speed using something like Google Page Speed

Other Considerations

The above applies to all sites but you may have other things to consider depending on your site. For example if you sell products you’ll want to make some test purchases using different payment methods etc.