From staging to live website. Use this website QA checklist to check the most important items before you ship. 👇
Verify key user flows, and all interactive components behave as expected.
Confirm the build matches the intended designs – branding, typography, layout, interactive elements etc.
Check for typos, placeholder text, accurate product info, consistent tone, and legal pages are in place.
Meet WCAG 2.1 AA: alt text, color contrast, keyboard navigation, visible focus rings etc.
Cover everything search engines and AI tools need to find and cite your content.
Ensuring the website renders correctly across the main browsers, different breakpoints and devices.
Work through each category with your team/clients before launching your website.
Run through the checklist with your staging or pre-production environment open in a second tab.
Start with Functional Testing and work down. Each item has a description to guide what to look for.
Make your web developer's life easier by using a website QA tool like BugHerd to pin issues directly on the page.
When done, hit "Copy summary" to export a plain-text report of what passed and what remains.
Common questions about website QA testing.
Website QA (Quality Assurance) testing is the process of systematically checking a website before launch to identify bugs, broken links, accessibility issues, performance problems, and other defects. It covers visual design, content accuracy, functional behaviour, cross-browser compatibility, and SEO — ensuring the site meets requirements before it goes live to real users.
For a standard marketing website, a thorough QA pass typically takes 4–8 hours for an experienced tester. Larger sites with complex functionality, e-commerce checkout flows, or many page templates can take several days. Using a structured checklist like this one significantly reduces the time spent and ensures nothing is missed.
Ideally, QA is a shared responsibility. Developers check technical correctness. Designers verify visual fidelity. Content editors proofread copy. A dedicated QA tester or project manager then runs a final pass against a checklist like this one before sign-off. Using a visual bug tracker such as BugHerd keeps all stakeholders aligned during the process.
QA testing is performed by the team building the site to catch technical issues, visual bugs, and broken functionality. User Acceptance Testing (UAT) is performed by the client or end-users to confirm the site meets their business requirements. Both are important: QA catches defects, UAT validates the solution. BugHerd is designed specifically to support UAT by letting clients annotate feedback directly on the live site.
BugHerd is a visual bug tracker that lets clients and stakeholders pin feedback directly onto a website — no screenshot attachments or lengthy email threads. Testers click on any element, leave a comment, and BugHerd automatically captures browser details, OS, and a screenshot. The team sees all feedback in a Kanban board and can resolve issues without chasing vague descriptions.
More guides and tools to help you ship client websites with confidence.
Watch a pre-recorded demo covering setup, collecting website feedback, managing revisions, and integrating BugHerd with your existing tools.
How Longhouse — Canada's top-rated marketing agency — cut revision time by 88% and reduced employee turnover using BugHerd.
Stop chasing copy changes over email. Highlight text directly on the live page, suggest a replacement, and keep every revision in one place.
