Topic List:
- All pages of your site spell checked by an online service (if necessary);
- All links verified by an online link checker;
- Determine your download times for each page;
- Evaluation of comments from other people;
- A backup copy of all your files.
How to test your Website ?
What should testing include? Testing your Website should include testing each Web page for: HTML validation, load time, browser compatibility, bad links and spelling errors.
Why Is HTML testing important?
Testing each Web page (called validating) will help you identify HTML coding errors, when it doesn't follow the correct HTML standard. HTML validation will also ensure your Web page has cross-browser compatibility. The more valid your HTML coding is, the more people will be able to view it correctly.
Validation Service: Next, you need to select a free on-line validation service to use. Note: W3C recommends that HTML 4.x document validators continue to support HTML 3.2 and HTML 2.0 documents. My favorites validation services are:
- The W3C HTML Validation Service : You can enter the URL of your Web page or upload HTML files from your computer. W3C will check your HTML documents for conformance to W3C HTML standards.
- WDG HTML Validator : You can enter the URL of your Web page or several URLs of your site to validate. Alternatively, you can upload HTML files from your computer. WDG will check your HTML documents for conformance to W3C HTML standards.
Broken links: Search your Website for Broken Links. Link Valet is a WWW Link checker. It uses an HTML table to present the links in a page, and highlights information that is likely to be of interest to you.
Spell check your site: If you were unable to spell check your pages earlier, visit this http://www.iespell.com site and spell check it now. At http://www.a2solutions.co.uk Spell Check you can enter a URL, and they will retrieve your Web page and spell check it. Make sure you check all of your pages for misspelled misspelled words.
Download time: To determine your download times using modem speeds of 14.4k, 28.8k, 56k, ISDN 128K and T1 Link 1.44 Mbps, try this link Net Mechanic. Ideally, try to keep your download time for your home page size under 20 seconds (sites that take more than 20 seconds to load lose up to 50% of their visitors). For your other pages, keep them under 12 seconds using a 28.8 modem. According to Net Mechanic the download times for this page are shown below:
Reduce down-load time: "Fat" graphics are the leading cause of slow-loading Web pages. What's the secret to reducing download time for a Web page?
- Reduce the number of graphics on your page
- Use the right image format
- Optimize your graphics
Test using different browsers : If possible, your testing should also include using different browsers to view your Web pages. If this is not possible, visit AnyBrowser.com to view them.
The Final Test: Ask other people to evaluate your Website:
- Ask your friends, relatives, and colleagues to test your site. Also, ask them to provide you their recommendations on improving your Website. They will be more than happy to give you their opinion. :-)
- Consider their recommendations carefully and make the required changes, spell check your files again and FTP all changed pages to your host computer.
- Re-validate and spell check all the files you changed.
Make a backup copy:
Download all your HTML, image and sound files to your computer and copy these files to a diskette. Label this diskette as "Backup for My Website".
