Let’s face it, checking all search engines and W3C documents, even on an informal level, is hard work. It takes knowledge, effort, time and patience. Depending on the needs of your project, it might not be a viable option for you or perhaps the decision has been taken out of your hands—which is very common, unfortunately.

What is this test about?

The MetaTest tests various aspects of a website, as far as they can be tested online and by a non human.
The test suite is broken up into 4 tests for convenience:

1. A full findability test
2. A quick scan with tips to improve your website
3. A Ranking Test to check your website's position in search results
4. A Dead Link Test to test your hyperlinks

MetaTest: the full findability test

This test checks major search engines and reports:

• if the website is indexed at all
  
• if a specific web page is indexed
  
• if the page is ranking in the top search results
  
• the link popularity or amount of backlinks to your site

How does MetaTest determine a web page's findability?

Many factors constitute a search engine's indexing process.
Most of these factors are easy to test and improve. The findability test checks:

• content and web page title
  
• link popularity: the extent to which other pages link to your page
  
• meta tags
  
• directions for search engine robots
  
• content and quality of the hyperlinks
  
• techniques and standards
  
• the usage of image descriptions and ALT tags
  

MetaTest scrapes your pages and scans for all of these factors to determine overall findability.

Next MetaTest checks your ranking with the popular search engines, however we stick to top ranking results only: if you are not listed within the first 10-30 search results, your ranking is ineffective.

manual testing, why not?

The ideal way to test the findability of a website is to find a tester who has never seen the site. A set of tasks or questions are set relating to the site subject matter, and the tester attempts to carry out those tasks. The same methodology can be applied to site navigation and content tests. In the absence of full user testing, a developer can still conduct the search tests, though it is important to recognise that a developer knows exactly what they are looking for, whereas a new user will not.

Begin with the title of the pages being tested. Alternatively, select a set of words such as 'Emergency Information' and insert a relevant keyword (bushfire, flood, storm) or location (NSW, Riverina, Canberra) selected according to the sites that are being tested.