Testing before launch is a crucial step to ensure a safe, fast, and bug-free website. Without proper testing, issues will likely arise, ruining your users’ experience and damaging your brand. In this article, we’ll discuss how to approach functionality, design, safety, and SEO optimization to ensure a smooth post-launch experience.
Key takeaways 👌
Website testing (including page load optimization and security checks) will minimize risks and problems further down the line
Whatever was missed by the development team – will become apparent during pre-launch testing
Proper SEO audit before launch can significantly improve the discoverability of your website by search engines
Introduction
Before setting out on a long and relaxing car drive, you’d probably check the engine, tire pressure, oil, and other vital parts of your vehicle – finding out that your brakes need changing while on the road is as far from a serene road trip as it gets.
Think of website testing in the very same way, and the importance of a small pre-launch check-up will become apparent to you
Basic technical testing
Let’s start with the basics. Before you start questioning the design team’s color palette choice, it’s necessary to check if your website actually works. Here are the steps you should take:
- Performance. How much time does it take for your website to boot up? Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix are some of the best and most accessible tools out there to help you with just that. Keep in mind that having a slow-loading website is a very efficient way to lose customers – these days, when terabytes of data can be downloaded in a couple of hours, people won’t wait for something to start working for more than 15 seconds.
- Functionality. Is performance good? Wonderful. Now let’s find out if all the colorful buttons on your website actually do something. Elements of UI and all active parts of what the user sees on their screen should work. The same goes for forms (like ones for payment details, or for contacting support) – they all should display properly and not restrict potential users in any way, shape, or form. Losing clients and conversion because the phone number field in the shipment form wasn’t displaying properly is not fun.
- Compatibility. Now to the less obvious part – is your website displaying properly on all kinds of platforms and web browsers? The proper desktop rig is a privilege in today’s economy, so if your web page is unnaturally stretched or distorted on mobile phones – be ready to lose a whole bunch of potential customers.
Checking your parachute is, like, something you would do frantically at least a couple of dozen times before jumping from the plane for the first time, right? Pre-launch testing may not cost you your life, but unsatisfied clients won’t be back any time soon.
User testing
Done with all the technical aspects? Great! Now do some usability testing (again), but with actual people involved. Here are the aspects you should focus on:
- UX/UI. Is navigation intuitive and simple, or are your clients getting lost trying to find that coveted “In Cart” button? Using heat-maps or special tools like Google Analytics, locate potential bottlenecks and adjust accordingly.
- Mobile platforms. Once again, see how mobile users interact with your website. Someone with budget-friendly Samsungs can have a drastically different experience from someone with a plasma tv-sized iPhone 13. Again, there are, like, a lot of people without PCs – woulnd’t want them to go through an uncomfortable interface, right?
- Accessibility. This one might sound a bit much but trust us – having a website version accommodated for people with specific disabilities will do wonders for your business and is just a good, human thing to do. Start with a couple of tweaks for those suffering from epilepsy and colorblindness and go from there as far as your budget allows.
"Testing leads to failure, and failure leads to understanding."
— Burt Rutan, aerospace engineer
Safety check-up
Leaving valuable things out in the open is a great way to get something stolen. Internet is the definition of “out in the open”, so proper steps should be taken during pre-launch testing to bump up security.
Proper certification. SSL and HTTPS certificates are vital defenses for both the users and your website. So if you’re asking your clients to share their credit/debit card info or input some personal info – better make sure they won’t be seen by the wrong people.
Vulnerabilities. Accurate prevention is the best medicine. Using special tools for security analysis, such as OWASP ZAP or Burp Suite, make sure that your website has walls thick enough for whatever’s lurking out there on the web – SQL injections, XSS attacks, and other culprits.
Updates. Plugins, frameworks, and other vital components of your website must be up-to-date – old versions are prone to having a whole bunch of vulnerabilities, and we don’t need that in our safe and sound bastion of a webpage.
Learn more about protecting your website in the article Website security tips: How to protect your web resource from threats
Pre-launch SEO-audit
Now, when performance, security, and other key components of your website are checked and adjusted accordingly, let’s think about whether it’ll actually be seen by all your potential future clients. SEO can be intimidating, sure, but let’s start with the basics:
- Meta-tags and keywords. Also headers and text on all the pages – all that should help with the indexing, not put your website on the 10th page of Google where it’ll never see the light of day. Using special services like Google Analytics or SEOSurf, check if the keywords you’ve used are still around. Adjust if needed.
- Interlinking. Check if all the links on your website lead to the right place, if they lead anywhere at all. All categories and sub-categories should be logical and represent a strict and understandable hierarchy. A couple of broken links can seem not that much but can erase your website from the search pages.
- All of the above, but for mobile platforms. Everything’s working perfectly and your SEO tools are happy, rating your content score above all the competitors? We’re not out of the woods yet. Follow the same steps to reach the same result on mobile platforms and you’re good to go.
Interesting fact 👀
Snapchat employed a stealthy beta release strategy to validate its product concept before a public launch. By starting with a small group of users, they gathered valuable feedback, refined the user experience, and ensured their features resonated with the target audience. This approach minimized risks and contributed to Snapchat's widespread adoption.
Conclusion
Website testing before launch is an ongoing and thoughtful process. Implement all the measures we've discussed above and regularly check their effectiveness.
The Toimi team guarantees high-quality testing for projects of any scale. Trust us with your website concerns, and we'll do everything to keep it always up to date.
Recommended reading 🤓
"The Art of Software Testing", Glenford J. Myers
A classic guide to the fundamentals of software testing, explaining the importance of the right approach to testing.
On Amazon
"Software Testing: A Craftsman's Approach", Paul C. Jorgensen
Methods and strategies for testing that help create reliable and high-quality software solutions.
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"How to Break Software", James Whittaker
A practical guide on how to effectively find and fix bugs using unconventional testing methods.
On Amazon
Artem Dovgopol
Testing is not just a stage; it's the foundation. Only by thoroughly checking every element can you be sure everything will work as it should😉