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Testing Tools

Here is a collection of some testing tools that we have compiled to aid your testing handily grouped into categories. Look out for our reviews of some of these tools coming soon.

Validators and Accessibility Testing*

  1. W3C Markup Validation – provided by W3C, validates your HTML and XHTML against several different doctypes includes HTML 4.01 Strict and HTML 4.01 Transitional.
  2. W3C CSS Validation – provided by W3C, validates the CSS (level 2.1) used on your web site.
  3. Wave – a free web accessibility tool that can either check a web site address, a file uploaded to Wave or some HTML code.
  4. Worldspace – another accessibility tool that will check the compliance of your web site against Section 508, WCAG1.0 and WCAG2.0.
  5. UITest.com – a series of tools to check the accessibility of your web site, validation of your code plus many other tests.

*please note that automated accessibility tools should be used in conjunction with real accessibility testing. They can give you a good idea of some accessibility problems with your web site but, used on their own, may mean that you miss some important issues.

Browser Compatibility

  1. Browsershots – a free service that gives you screenshots of any web address that you submit across many different browsers on Windows, Linux, Mac and BSD. You can also check screen resolution plus whether JavaScript, Java or Flash is enabled.
  2. BrowserCam – provide a range of browser compatibility testing tools including capturing screenshots, mobile device screenshot capture and remote access so you can log in to one their machines remotely and choose from a number of operating systems and web browsers.
  3. Litmus – providers of browser testing and email testing tools, Litmus takes screenshots and presents them to you whilst helping you keep track of which browsers your web site is compatible with and which still have outstanding issues.
  4. Browser Sandbox (was Xenocode) – gives you full free access to most of the major web browsers.
  5. CrossBrowserTesting.com – this paid service allows you live testing of many different web browsers on different operating systems starting at only $20 per month.
  6. Browsrcamp – gives you live testing on Mac OS X browsers such as Firefox, Safari, Flock, Camino, Opera and no longer supported Internet Explorer. 2 days subscription is only $3.
  7. Netrenderer – this free screenshot service provides you with renderings of IE5.5, 6, 7 and 8.
  8. IETester – this free downloaded software allows you to test web sites in Internet Explorer 5.5 through to version 8. This is an alpha software release at this stage.

Screen Resolution

  1. Google Labs Browser Size – a tool that offers a visualization overlaid onto any web site, which allows you to see how much of your audience can view your web page based on their browser size. Important for testing your web page to find out whether important elements of your layout or design are effectively ‘hidden’ because of a user’s browser or screen resolution.

Link Checking

  1. LinkAlarm (read our review) – automatic link checking service for as many web sites as you want, scans every link of every page and sends you a report.
  2. LinkScan – downloadable link checking and website management software including generation of sitemaps, tapmaps, identification of slow page load times, orphaned files and missing page titles.
  3. W3C Link Checker – a free link checker from W3C, which checks links and anchors in web pages or across full web sites.

Site Performance Testing

  1. YSlow – is a free Firefox add-on that analyzes page load times and can suggest ways of making improvements to the page’s performance.
  2. Websiteoptimization.com – a free web-based tool, which calculates page load time, the composition of the page and makes recommendations on how to improve page load time.
  3. AlertSite – performance monitoring that tests your web site URLs as often as every minute and alerts you page errors or performance problems occur. Now combined with Google Analytics so you can see how performance impacts on user behaviour.
  4. Webmetrics – a robust and scalable platform that provides performance monitoring and metrics for the broadest range of websites, internet applications and services.
  5. OctaGate SiteTimer – a free tool that calculates the time it takes a page to load.

Stress or Load Testing

  1. NeoLoad – web site loading testing software that allows real-time playback of virtual user activity plus business transaction monitoring.
  2. Load Impact – find the performance limits of your web site with Load Impact. Low level tests are free for up to 50 users and paid plans start at $9.
  3. LoadStorm – is a performance testing tool. It generates HTTP load from the cloud based on your test plans and user scenarios. Loadstorm can be used as a load testing, stress testing or endurance testing tool.
  4. BrowserMob – an affordable load testing tool, control up to 2K+ real browsers and 25K+ virtual users.

Usability Testing

  1. Clixpy – paste some JavaScript into your web site and Clixpy records what your users do and then plays it back for you. A great free usability testing tool.
  2. CrazyEgg – run tests to see what users click on and some details about each one. Produces a heatmap of the hottest (and coolest) areas of your web site. Prices start at $9 per month.
  3. Loop11 (read our review) – a user experience testing tool, Loop11 allows you to set tasks for real users to complete on your site gaining valuable input of how users actually use your web site. The cost is $350 per project for as many users as you want, first project is free.
  4. UserTesting – low cost usability testing by having a user record a video of themselves speaking their thoughts whilst they view your web site. You also get a written summary of problems they found, all for $29 per test.
  5. AttentionWizard – simulates human visual processing and attention to create an “attention heatmap” of your web page that predicts where real people would look during the first few seconds of their visit.

Split Testing

  1. Google Website Optimiser – increase your website and landing page conversation rates by trying different headlines, images or text. This free, web-based, A/B and multivariate testing tool lets you experiment with your pages to get the best results.
  2. SiteSpect – run A/B and multivariate tests in combination with one another including the ability to test dynamic content.
  3. Vertster – conduct A/B and Multivariate Taguchi testing to improve conversion rates of your web site and then extract the data to use elsewhere.
  4. Omniture Test&Target – gives marketers the necessary capabilities to continually make their online content and offers more relevant to their customers—yielding greater conversion.
  5. SplitTester – free tool to test your ads and how likely those ads are to have different long-term results.

SEO Tools

  1. Website Grader – gives you a free marketing report of your web site including on-page SEO factors and off-page SEO factors such as Google Page Rank, inbound links and directory entries.
  2. SEOmoz – a fantastic set of free and premium tools designed specifically for the SEO professional. From the straighforward Rank Tracker, Crawl Test and Term Target tools to more complex link analysis tools such as Linkscape and Trifecta.
  3. Wordtracker – a free keyword suggestion tool that generates up to 100 related keywords. Wordtracker also offer a paid version that helps you to find profitable keywords for your web site.
  4. Majestic-SEO – huge link and anchor text index that allows you to research and download the link profile for any web site.
  5. SEO Book Toolbar – a firefox extension that allows you to quickly see the Google PageRank, links pointing at a domain, links pointing at a page, directory links, site age, monthly uniques and a whole lot more.
  6. Advanced Link Manager – paid software to analyze your web site’s link popularity, keep track of your links and find potential link partners.
  7. XML Sitemaps – a free online sitemap generator that allows you to create XML sitemaps of up to 500 pages. You can also create ROR, Text or HTML sitemaps but I use the XML sitemaps to then upload and submit to Google, Yahoo and Bing. Really quick and simple to use. There is a paid version (around $20) that can create unlimited pages, which is good for larger web sites.

Web Analytics

  1. Google Analytics – enterprise class web analytics software – for free. Contains many higher end features alongside the basics, which mean that it is a rock solid choice for measuring visitors and what they do on your web sites.
  2. Yahoo! Web Analytics – highly customizable, enterprise-level website analytics system designed to help website businesses increase sales and visitor satisfaction, reduce marketing costs and gain new insight on online customers.
  3. ClickTale – in page web analytics, watch movies of your users browsing sessions, see where they click, where they look and where they scroll.
  4. Clicky Web Analytics – allows you to monitor, analyze, and react to your blog or web site’s traffic in real time.
  5. GoingUp – integrates popular analytics & SEO tools in one easy-to-use interface to see how your website is performing from all points-of-view.
  6. Omniture SiteCatalyst – helps marketers quickly identify the most profitable paths through their Web site, determine where visitors are navigating away from their site, and identify critical success metrics for online marketing campaigns.
  7. Crazy Egg – supplement your analytics with actionable data, create tests to figure out what people are doing on your website. Find out where people clicked including referrer details, search term used, browser version and operating system.

Online Surveys

  1. SurveyMonkey – ask questions, collect responses and analyze results in real-time. Free plan allows for up to 10 questions and stores up to 100 responses.
  2. 4Q – free online survey that allows you to find out why visitors are at your website, and whether or not they are completing their tasks. You can create as many surveys as you need.