In website testing or auditing, activities can be categorized to cover all essential aspects of the website’s performance, functionality, and security. Here’s a breakdown of main categories and the activities within each:
1. Functionality Testing
- Broken Links Testing: Ensuring all internal and external links work as expected.
- Form Validation: Testing form inputs for errors and expected behaviors.
- Navigation Testing: Checking menus, buttons, and links for proper navigation flow.
- Cookies Testing: Verifying that cookies are set, updated, and deleted as expected.
- Database Testing: Ensuring data is stored, retrieved, and displayed correctly.
2. Performance Testing
- Load Testing: Checking how the website performs under high user load.
- Stress Testing: Testing website stability and recovery under extreme load conditions.
- Speed Testing: Measuring page load times to identify slow areas.
- Scalability Testing: Evaluating how well the website scales with increasing users or data.
3. Usability Testing
- User Interface (UI) Testing: Ensuring visual elements are aligned and consistent.
- User Experience (UX) Testing: Evaluating ease of use, intuitiveness, and accessibility.
- Navigation Testing: Verifying logical flow and ease of finding content.
- Mobile Responsiveness: Testing on various devices and screen sizes to ensure adaptability.
4. Security Testing
- Vulnerability Scanning: Checking for common vulnerabilities like SQL injection, XSS, CSRF.
- Authentication Testing: Verifying login mechanisms and protection against unauthorized access.
- Data Protection: Ensuring sensitive information is encrypted and securely stored.
- Session Management: Checking session timeouts, secure cookies, and access after logout.
5. Compatibility Testing
- Browser Compatibility: Testing across different browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge).
- Device Compatibility: Ensuring the website works well on desktops, tablets, and mobile devices.
- Operating System Compatibility: Checking functionality across different OS (Windows, macOS, Linux).
6. Content and SEO Testing
- Content Accuracy: Ensuring correct and up-to-date content, grammar, and spelling.
- SEO Analysis: Reviewing metadata, headings, alt text, and structured data.
- Keyword Analysis: Verifying that targeted keywords are used effectively.
- Broken Links and Redirects: Checking for 404 errors, redirects, and canonical issues.
7. Compliance Testing
- Accessibility Compliance: Ensuring WCAG and ADA guidelines are followed for accessibility.
- Legal Compliance: Verifying compliance with GDPR, CCPA, and other data privacy regulations.
- Industry-Specific Standards: Ensuring adherence to specific industry standards, if applicable.
8. Analytics and Reporting Testing
- Tracking and Tagging: Confirming proper implementation of analytics tags and conversion tracking.
- Data Collection: Ensuring data accuracy in analytics reporting.
- Goal Conversion Tracking: Verifying that tracking for key performance indicators (KPIs) is functional.
Each of these categories ensures a comprehensive audit that not only checks technical aspects but also user experience, performance, security, and compliance, covering all essential areas for a fully functional and reliable website.