Many people often assume that once they test a website on their computer, the website is ready to be published. In reality, your computer is likely one of the only computers your users will have. Depending on the size of your screen, you might be using a wider screen than others. A good design on a big screen can easily be unreadable on a pocket size computer. Your users will not tell you why they are leaving your site, and most likely will never be back.

A lot of people test their websites design between one mobile phone and one bigger screen. Testing tablets is often missed, and so is testing multiple browsers. Designs completely shatter between browsers. For example, Chrome and Safari both display pages very differently, as do multiple versions of the same browser.Even within the same browser, screen size makes a huge difference. A page that fits on a big phone might look squished on a small phone, and something easy to click on a computer might be impossible to select on a small phone.

Don’t forget about users with slow connections. Your site that loads quickly on the office wifi may take a long time to load on a mobile network, especially if pages include large images or graphics. (And remember to turn off your wifi and use your data!)

Testing forms is very important, but often gets neglected. A contact form that works perfectly on a desktop may fail to work on mobile. Therefore, it is recommended you test your site’s forms on a mobile device, especially if they take payments or lead to submissions.

This is all easy to do and will solve many common issues. Just open your site on various devices and browsers and take a few minutes to browse. It will save you money to do this before launch instead of fixing these common issues after the site goes live and real customers find them. Ask your developer to explain the process they use to test browsers and devices. See if they test it when everything is ready for launching or if they test it when bugs are found.