Specialists in web site testing, desktop testing and mobile application testing know that every type of software products has its specific functional characteristics.
Among compulsory elements of any web site or application are links. They help the users to quickly find the required information, considerably improve user experience and are an important part of web software functionality. Modern web sites and applications can contain numerous pages and thousands of links.
All the links must correctly open and lead to the required pages and resources. That is why links verification is always included in functional testing of web software.
It takes much time and effort to check every link on the site manually, automated testing is usually used for this purpose. A lot of free and commercial tools have been created for automatic link checking.
As a Rule, There are Such Links on a Web Site:
- Outgoing links; they lead on some outer resources.
- Internal links; they lead on other pages of the same site.
- Navigation links; they lead to the paragraph or object on the same page.
- Links for sending e-mails to the site owners, help desk, etc.
Carrying out web software testing one should check whether there are no orphan pages, broken links, links leading to the wrong pages or resources that do not exist.