Brittany Gates

website code | test website performance

Test Website Performance | Create Your Business Website With WordPress

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Brittany Gates
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Author’s Note: Test Website Performance is the sixth chapter of my free ebook, “Create Your Business Website With WordPress.” This post is the final one from the ebook.

After building the website it’s time to test it. There are a few tests to run to make sure of the following:

  • Functionality: Do the links work? Does the contact form work?
  • Responsiveness: Does the website display properly on desktop and mobile devices?
  • Performance: Does the website load fast or slow?

I’ll explain how individuals can accomplish each test successfully.

Functionality

Testing the functionality of a website requires going through every part of the site to make sure it works properly. To make sure a person doesn’t miss anything, I suggest using a “Website Launch Checklist.” WebsiteSetup has a thirty step checklist here, while HubSpot has a eighty step checklist here. Don’t rush through the checklists, and notate anything that doesn’t work properly or any typos.

Responsiveness

This test is to verify the website displays properly on multiple types of devices. Back before smartphones were a thing, individuals built websites to fit a computer monitor’s screen. Yet, as smartphones became more and more popular, website layout had to adapt. It needed to shift its layout automatically depending on the device screen size. That’s where responsiveness came in.

While WordPress and its website builder plugins include responsiveness in their themes and templates by default, it’s always best to check to make sure responsiveness works properly. One can do this manually by using various mobile devices, tablets, laptops, and desktops to check the site. Or use a responsiveness test website to perform those checks:

Performance

This final test verifies if the site loads fast or slow. Everyone wants their site to load fast because slow sites cause visitors to bail. And that will cost the owner money. There are several websites one can use to test website performance:

These sites will notate what’s causing the site to be slow, and possible resolutions. Fix whatever is slowing down the website and then text the performance again.

Publish The Website

With the testing finished, and the website working correctly and loading fast, it’s time to push the staging site to the live site. To do this follow the instructions from the web hosting company, the automated installation scrip, or the WordPress plugin.

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