What happens
You test your website to ensure everything works properly and according to your specifications. When you are satisfied that it does, your site is ready to go.
What to aim for
A "live" website that meets your requirements.
Key concepts
There are different aspects of testing that you might wish to explore, depending on your budget and the scope of your website. For example, user testing involves checking whether features and functions work in the technical sense, while usability testing is essentially about ensuring that people can easily, accurately and intuitively use your website.
At a very simple level, testing means looking for typos, broken links and other malfunctions. You can also review the structure and navigation to verify that information flows logically. Test your site in different web browsers, different versions of the same browser and different screen resolutions and monitor sizes.
It's normal to find some things that need changing. Small corrections are usually all that's needed.
Launching typically involves copying your site from a "staging" or "development" server to a "production" server. It's a technical procedure that your web company or internal team handles. They will expect you to sign off your website first.
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