Freelance website testing and web services

Freelance Website Troubleshooter

Although I had originally planned to return to my roots as a freelance web designer after more than 20 years in corporate e-commerce, it quickly became apparent... literally from day 1... that a lot of people were having problems with their websites.

It was also clear how easy WordPress, Wix and other no code website creation tools had made it for people with no experience to build websites and offer their services as web designers. But their limited experience was frequently leading to problems which they were unable to solve.

Global problems became apparent from day 1

Even companies whose core business is printing services for leaflets, posters and business cards have begun adding web design as a service, but with very little knowledge of what it really means to produce and manage a business website to the level that people need and expect.

In so many cases modern day websites have been poorly built and are slow for many common reasons, including:

• Excessive use of plug-ins and other external code bases, styling and font libraries.
• Images which are over-size and unsuitable for use on websites, especially mobile.
• Code bloat, where far more code than necessary has been used in the creation in websites, individual pages and features.
• Lack of attention given to user experience on both desktop and mobile platforms.
• Breakages due to incompatible plug-ins and platform updates which are often outside of the web designer's control, and sometimes only become apparent when something suddenly stops working.

Can you fix my website?

Can you fix my website or would it be better to have it completely rebuilt?

This is not an uncommon thing to be asked, and the solution always begins with an initial free audit (or health check) of a website. I would then provide a report on the overall state of each website I was asked to evaluate.

From there it's possible to provide details of problems or areas of improvement, help the client to prioritise tasks, and provide options which ranged from guidance, to diagnosis, fixing or rebuilding.

Testing... Is it worth the effort?

Having worked in global multilingual e-commerce for more than 20 years and freelance for 7 years, the need for testing at all stages is very clear to me.

Unfortunately many people... including web designers... feel that testing is to find problems which shouldn't exist. And because they were careful when they built the website and didn't make any mistakes (yeah, right!)... testing often gets overlooked.

It will be fine... I built it myself!

So for many individuals testing would be an unnecessary and costly waste of time, especially when they're up against a deadline, or working to a low budget which is barely enough to cover the labour cost of building the website in the first place.

But even without mistakes, the website may be lacking in other areas, such as not appearing in search results, or leaving visitors frustrated for a number of possible reasons.

Attracting people to a website and keeping them there long enough to covert them into paying customers is the main goal for most businesses. Failure to do that will lose that business money, so the key is to do what you need to do to get found, get them onto your website, provide them with what they need and make it easy for them to obtain it.

The various types of website testing

The testing needs of a small service based business will differ greatly to those of a business with a large e-commerce website, and there will be different methods of testing based on the need to:

• confirm that a new feature, page, section, campaign or entire website works as intended;
• ensure that the design, styling and features are user friendly and appropriate for the intended audience;
• confirm that an update hasn't created new problems elsewhere on the website;
• find the cause of a known fault;
• identify areas of improvement.

Some testing will require the tester taking on a persona and have a specific objective to fufil.

Some testing might require a lot of detailed observation, note taking, screenshots, filling out annotated feedback forms, and videos of screen recordings.

Some testing may require the use of analysis tool, and using the results to identify problems, make comparisons, identify opportunities, and prioritise any subsequent actions.

Website Testing

Get in Touch

You can learn more about my professional background on LinkedIn, and if you would like to discuss anything further, feel free to reach me by email or phone as follows:

Email: daron@targaweb.com     Phone: 01406 373511