How to Test Your Website After You Build It

You have created your website. You like the look of it and you are satisfied with the outcome. But what does it look like to the rest of the world? The problem with the internet is that each browser is going to show your website differently, which is why it is so important to test your web pages and their design.

You should have a look at your website pages in Internet Explorer, Opera, Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. You can get all of these browsers at no cost. You just need to download them. Testing your pages in each of the browsers is the only way to do it. There’s no easy way to do it. 

Now you may be thinking that it's just easier to focus on your website looking good for one or two of these browsers, that’s not really good for business. You also want to be thinking into the future where you can ensure your site will show as the code changes. 

If you wish to improve your chances that the site is going to work in the future browser versions, think about validating your code for your web pages. What this means in non-technical language is that you check the underlying code of each of your web pages. This is called HTML and CSS. You are looking for syntax errors. Don’t worry, there’s no need for you to have technical skills here. It sounds a little intimidating but you will do fine. There are tons of free web page validators kicking around the internet. Find one you like and put it to work.

However, if the validator is telling you that you have page errors, it can sometimes be tricky to figure out where you have erred and whether it is a minor error or a serious problem. Some of the validators are good at giving excellent suggestions to help you fix the issue. 
 
Here are some of the more popular tools for testing your site:

1. HTML Validator – http://validator.w3.org/ -checks the validity of your pages - HTML, MathML, SMIL, XHTML, etc.
2. Links Validator - http://validator.w3.org/checklink - analyses anchors/hyperlinks in HTML/XHTML documents.
3. RSS Feed Validator - http://validator.w3.org/feed/ - this is a free service that checks and validates the Atom or RSS feed syntax.
4. CSS Validator - http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/ - validates CSS documents or style sheets using CSS style sheets.
5. Free Site Validator - http://freesitevalidator.com/ - the entire site is scanned for validation errors and dead links.
