Websites are not just repositories of information. They help businesses welcome potential users, capture interest, and generate sales. If you care about your website, want to stand out among competitors, or simply just deliver top-notch UX, web testing is essential.
In this article, we’ll learn:
Let's dive in!
Web testing is a systematic process used to evaluate a website or web application before it goes live (and sometimes continuously afterward). It ensures the product works correctly, behaves securely, performs efficiently, and delivers a smooth user experience under real-world conditions.
Because websites often combine frontend UI, backend APIs, databases, third-party services, and different client environments, testing must verify that all these layers operate together without failure.
We’ll use Tripadvisor, a leading travel review site, as an example.
Receiving ~99M visitors per month, it can't afford a bug.
This is a screenshot of the homepage of Tripadvisor.
A typical list of test cases to run for this page includes the following:
And that is just the Homepage.
A complex website with interconnected functionality can have hundreds of scenarios to be tested. QA teams usually adopt automation testing to speed up the process.
Web app testing ensures that every feature on your website behaves as intended. For example, a typical day of a web tester includes checking whether:
Functional problems are the most visible bugs, so this category forms the backbone of most test suites.
Besides functional testing, web testing is also done to ensure that the site is safe and secure. Since websites are exposed publicly, they face many threats, so testers must:
A security flaw can be far more damaging than a design bug, impacting user trust and business reputation.
Web testing also checks how the application behaves under real-world conditions:
The goal is to detect slowdowns or crashes before users do.
Website testing can be carried out using different methodologies, but the two primary approaches are manual testing and automation testing.
Manual testing involves testers evaluating a website’s functionality, interface, and overall user experience by interacting with it directly without relying on automated scripts.
Pros:
Cons:
Automation testing uses scripts, frameworks, and automated systems to execute test cases with minimal manual intervention. This increases speed, consistency, and repeatability.
Pros:
Cons:
Here are the key types of web testing:
In this initial phase, software testers collaborate closely with key stakeholders to fully understand the product’s requirements and expectations. This step forms the foundation for the entire testing process. Testers gather all functional, non-functional, business, and technical requirements. This includes:
Every insight collected is documented in a Requirement Traceability Matrix (RTM), which maps each requirement to corresponding test cases. This ensures complete coverage and prevents anything from being overlooked.
Three primary roles work together during requirement analysis:
If certain requirements are incomplete, unrealistic, or technically constrained, testers collaborate with the business side to refine expectations or adjust the scope.
Here are some ideas for your web test cases:
Once done, the real web testing process begins.
Once the requirements are solidified, the team moves into Test Planning, where the strategy for the entire testing process is defined.
After planning is complete, testers begin creating test cases. These define how each feature will be validated step-by-step.
A well-written test case contains:
Here's an example of a good test case for the Login feature:
| Component | Details |
|---|---|
| Test Case ID | TC001 |
| Description | Verify login with valid credentials |
| Preconditions | User is on the login page |
| Test Steps | 1. Enter email 2. Enter password 3. Click Sign In |
| Test Data | Email: validuser@example.com Password: valid123 |
| Expected Result | User is logged in and redirected to homepage |
| Actual Result | (Filled after execution) |
| Pass/Fail | Pass if redirected; Fail if error shown |
Please note that this is only ONE of the many test cases you can do during your web testing project. Make sure to always think beyond the basics and include the edge cases:
Then testers turn that test case written in plain language into a programming language and test framework of their choice. For example, here I am using Selenium to write the test case:
from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
import unittest
import time
class TestLoginValidCredentials(unittest.TestCase):
def setUp(self):
self.driver = webdriver.Chrome()
self.driver.maximize_window()
self.driver.get("https://example.com/login") # replace with real URL
def test_valid_login(self):
driver = self.driver
# Test data
email = "validuser@example.com"
password = "valid123"
# Step 1: Enter email
driver.find_element(By.ID, "email").send_keys(email)
# Step 2: Enter password
driver.find_element(By.ID, "password").send_keys(password)
# Step 3: Click Sign In
driver.find_element(By.ID, "loginButton").click()
time.sleep(3) # adjust if needed
# Verification: redirected to homepage
self.assertIn("dashboard", driver.current_url.lower())
def tearDown(self):
self.driver.quit()
if __name__ == "__main__":
unittest.main()Once everything is prepared, testers execute the test cases and compare actual results with expected outcomes:
These stages align with the bug life cycle. Any bugs found are recorded in a defect management tool, including:
Here's how you can report a bug after testing.
The final phase focuses on summarizing results, evaluating overall quality, and documenting lessons learned.
Finally, the QA team meets with other stakeholders to:
To work with an automation framework requires knowledge and experience in coding. Plus, scripts must be updated continuously as the application evolves. Some of the most common frameworks are:
Selenium helps you send “commands” to the browser and interact with on-page elements by locating their selectors (XPath, CSS selectors, etc.).
Selenium relies on a client–server architecture. When you write scripts, they communicate with the WebDriver server, which then sends commands to the browser driver. The drivers translate those commands into actions.
Here's a brief example of an automation test case in Selenium:
from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys
import time
# Initialize the Chrome driver
driver = webdriver.Chrome()
try:
# Open the login page
driver.get("https://example.com/login")
# Find username and password fields and enter credentials
username_field = driver.find_element(By.ID, "username")
password_field = driver.find_element(By.ID, "password")
username_field.send_keys("my_username")
password_field.send_keys("my_password")
# Submit the form
login_button = driver.find_element(By.ID, "login-button")
login_button.click()
# Optional: Wait for page to load
time.sleep(3)
# Verify login success (simple example: check URL or page text)
if "dashboard" in driver.current_url.lower():
print("Login successful!")
else:
print("Login failed or incorrect credentials.")
finally:
# Close the browser
driver.quit()This code:
📚 Read More: Top 7 Selenium Alternatives You Should Know
Similar to Selenium, Cypress also helps you automate on-screen actions on the browser. However, it takes a unique approach: Cypress runs tests directly within the browser, rather than remotely controlling it like Selenium.
This translates to faster tests and more efficient execution since all interactions of Cypress scripts align with real-time events on the web. However, Selenium offers a grid for parallel execution, while Cypress requires a paid orchestrator or a third-party service.
Playwright runs tests outside of the browser context, controlling multiple browser instances via automation protocols rather than injecting scripts directly into the page (as Cypress does). This architecture unlocks several advantages:
Comprehensive web testing can reduce production defects by roughly 30% compared to minimal testing approaches. Validating functionality early and often prevents issues from reaching users and reduces expensive post-release fixes.
Users access web apps through a wide variety of browsers, devices, screen sizes, and networks. Robust testing ensures:
This reliability improves customer satisfaction and reduces support tickets.
Research shows that 88% of users will not revisit a site that shows visible bugs, layout issues, or confusing navigation. Thorough testing protects the user journey, reduces friction, and prevents losses in engagement and conversions.
A thoroughly tested website gives confidence to:
Testing reduces uncertainty and supports smoother delivery cycles.
However, web app testing is not without challenges:
Web apps must work across countless combinations of browsers, devices, OS versions, and rendering engines. These differences create inconsistencies that can be hard to predict and reproduce.
Modern apps use complex frameworks, async operations, microservices, SPAs, and more. As technologies evolve quickly, testing tools and strategies must keep up, increasing maintenance effort and the risk of outdated tests.
Automated tests can be fragile. Even small UI changes can break many scripts. Teams often face:
Keeping automation stable can be as difficult as writing it.
📚 Read More: 10 automated web testing best practices