Web Application Testing: 10 Step Guide to Website Testing

Nowadays online platforms have occupied a prevalent position. Almost every business runs online, from the smallest to the biggest decisions are made based on the information available online on the web. So the development of web applications is on the rise. But just having a website is not sufficient, making it error-free is a must to enhance its reputation and get the grip of the audience by providing adequate information.

A bug in the app will not only ruin its position but exhaust the user experience. Therefore the need for making the best version of an application is essential. To ensure that the web application is user-friendly, easily accessible, and good enough to avoid any negative user impact it should be properly tested and issues must be fixed. For that Web testing comes into place. By undertaking the web testing process bugs and issues can be efficiently evaluated and fixed in no time.

Before proceeding further a detailed understanding of web testing is a must. Let’s have a look at what web testing or website testing means?  

In simpler meaning testing a website thoroughly from every perspective of the user’s need is called the web testing process.

Web testing, or website testing, is a testing process of reviewing the web application or website for potential issues before it is accessible to web users. With the rapid growth in technologies, it has become crucial to provide the user application with a maximum number of features and with minimum or no bugs.

In Web testing checking of web application or website functionality, usability, security, compatibility, and performance is done. Website accessibility to the general public and handling traffic is also checked. Web testing helps in finding out all the hidden bugs and fixing them effectively before the release of the application.  

Web-based testing helps in giving information about different aspects of a website or application like-

• Website security.
• Its performance, and usability risks.
• Accessibility to all the users and meeting their needs.
• Adaptability to various platforms.          
• Ability to handle the traffic load.

Web App Testing is important because-

• It reduces bugs and errors on the website.
• It increases the website’s usability.
• It ensures that the users visit the website often.
• It improves the search engine ranking, hence increasing awareness.
• It ensures compatibility with multiple platforms & browsers.

If you are thinking of leveraging all the above-mentioned benefits and generating optimal user experience then implementing a proper testing procedure with proper planning is a must. Here are 10 step-by-step guides for you to ensure maximum outcomes of the web testing. Let’s go through them.

1. Establish test goals and objectives

The first step that comes in the proper testing procedure is prioritizing goals to make sure which major issues need to be checked first. Not knowing the objectives before starting web testing you will have difficulty detecting bugs or faults. Testing is not about being perfect but it is the ability to meet the intended user’s requirements and expectations. 

The best you can do is write your list of goals for testing this way you will ease out your task and will be focused on whether anything is missed out to check or not. Making a list and marking the objectives that require greater observation will also help your team members to understand and perform tests efficiently.

2. Create proper reports 

Once the objective of testing is set the next step should be on creating reports.  Reports are the status of the application process that includes a plan for bug tracking, defects, and other issues in the test cases, so they must be generated perfectly. The purpose of creating reports is to manage testing tasks systematically and efficiently so that there will be no chance of confusion among the team members.

3. Check for proper test environment 

Make arrangements for a test environment for carrying out environment testing. Because the existing computers might not be of any use while initiating separate environment testing. You need to have duplicate versions of the web application elements such as database servers, web servers, application servers, etc. if applicable.  Create a separate web application and database server as needed. You just need to move code to and from your test environment and make sure to test the source code to ensure that all issues are identified. 

4. Keep a good record of the results 

While executing the web testing procedure, and during the web testing procedure you can find a number of defects, bugs, and issues that should not be missed out. Tracking down the testing result and keeping the details of the finding in an organized manner is a must. Because this will further help the other team member to find it easily.

5. Test websites functionality 

You build a website for a purpose. So the next crucial step is to make sure that the website is performing the tasks it was built for, this means ensuring that the web application is functioning optimally the way it was intended to be. Functionality testing also verifies the links within the web pages, database connections, forms to be fulfilled by the users, cookies, etc. and other important aspects of a web application are up to the mark.

 6. Test websites compatibility

There are a number of users using different devices and they prefer to use the application on different browsers and operating systems. Some websites render elements differently in different browsers so the compatibility of the website must be tested to ensure that the display is consistent across a wide range of browsers and devices.

Compatibility testing is Verifying the application in different devices, browsers, and operating systems. It ensures that the web application is functioning smoothly irrespective of devices, browsers, and operating systems.

There are a number of tools where you can automate compatibility testing of your website and LambdaTest is one such platform to help you to have a consistent user experience irrespective of browsers and devices.

LambdaTest is a cloud-based cross-browser compatibility testing platform where you can perform both manual and automated cross-browser compatibility testing. This platform provides you with more than 3000 real devices, desktops, browsers, and operating systems along with their respective versions. It makes sure that your web application is functioning smoothly and rendering the same on almost all the latest and the oldest devices and browsers. Using LambdaTest, you can also test your websites and web applications on virtual macOS online across different browsers.

7. Test websites usability 

The purpose of building an application is to ensure maximum user experience.  Usability testing is another important step to test how pleasing your application is to the users. If the web application is unable to impress its users then it will take them no time to stop using the application.  

This testing is carried out to examine the navigation of the website. Usability testing also verifies that the application is understandable and easy to use as well as the displayed content on the website is also checked. This helps the testers to correct the weak spot and to detect bugs early. 

8. Interface Testing

Interface testing is another step in web application testing. It ensures proper communication between the server of the application, the web server, and the database.  That means it makes sure that requests sent to the database server from the web application are correct and without any delay and also it is displaying correctly on UI.  It also helps in finding out any interruptions or issues during data transfer and provides the user with smoothly functioning applications.

Interface testing helps in cases when database connections are not properly established due to internet error, or any client-side issues then it displays proper error messages to the users. 

LambdaTest can be used to automate Interface testing by ensuring that all the components are in sync.

9. Performance Testing

In order to prevent situations, where a web application takes a long time to load or is unable to handle traffic load and the user stops using it as they may get many other options online. That is why nowadays peak performance is the key to the success of web applications. For that, it is important to perform performance testing. 

It helps in identifying and verifying the maximum load the web application can manage and ensures its optimal performance under all the stress conditions.

It helps in calculating breakpoint by applying stress to the application and checking how it responds. This will help you decide whether to upgrade the application or if the current version is okay. This testing helps in preparing for situations like whenever a high load crash occurs the application should recover itself automatically in less time.

10. Security Testing

For any application as well as for any user, security is one of the most important aspects. An application stores users’ important data and sensitive information. So security should be a huge concern while building an application. It must be tested under security to provide the user hack proof and secure application thereby gaining user’s assurance.

Security testing helps in protecting user’s data and verifies that it is not compromised by testing the security of all the pages and finding weak security points by preventing unapproved access to the web application.  This testing also ensures that restricted files are not downloaded, the session timeout should automatically expire after an extended period of user inactivity.

Conclusion

Building the best version of your web application you have to test all its major aspects. Hence following the above-mentioned step-by-step guide will enable you to make your web application completely bug-free and provide the user with greater experience and help in greater revenues for your business.