Someone who has taken on the task of constructing a site knows that a great design revolves around more details than one might initially think, and that’s where a great website steps ahead of the rest. One small error, whether that be in the CSS, linking, or overall performance, will keep it from running at its very best. Careful checking should be carried out for browser compatibility, broken links, HTML code, site speed and visual functionality.

In case this is starting to overwhelm the amateur designer, there are thankfully plenty of free tools to help with website validation and testing to note, and here are 13 to get you started.

Validation Provided by W3C

The W3C, or World Wide Web Consortium, is the international organisation responsible for deciding and promoting web standards in the internet world. In return, they have provided a number of tools to validate that a website meets these standards.

1. W3C Link Checker – The W3C Link Checker is a brilliant tool that is simply used to check a website for broken links.

2. W3C Markup Validation Service – The W3C Markup Validation Service takes a look at web documents’ specific markup language (HTML, XHTML, SMIL, MATHML, etc) and reports any errors specific to that language.

3. W3C CSS Validation Service – The W3C CSS Validation Service checks the validity of the CSS style sheet.

4. W3C Feed Validation Service – The W3C Feed Validation Service checks the syntax of Atom or RSS feeds.

5. W3C mobileOK Checker – The W3C mobileOK Checker is a way to see if a web page is friendly enough for decent viewing in mobile internet devices.

Other Testing Tools

6. Web Page Analyzer – With the Web Page Analyzer, getting page load times and file sizes is just a matter of entering the URL to search. This free tool will also give tips on how to help improve the page loading time.

7. Full Page Test – Pingdom Tools provides the Full Page Test to give a rundown on how long it takes to load a web page, including all objects, images and RSS.

8. Browsershots – Browsershots lets you check the cross browser compatibility of a website quickly and easily. Just enter the website address and Browsershots will supply a screenshot of it as viewed through a number of browsers.

9. BrowsrCamp – BrowsrCamp provides the ability to view a website in the Safari browser. Just enter your domain name, and BrowsrCamp returns the screenshots.

10. Functional Accessibility Evaluator – The Functional Accessibility Evaluator runs through a given website and addresses its code in relation to current standards. The hope for this tool is to promote more accessible websites that are cross browser friendly.

11. WebAIM Wave – Wave makes it easy to see where accessibility issues appear directly on your website. Instead of sifting through lengthy technical reports, get a clearer picture with the embedded icons and tips provided by Wave.

12. AccessColor – For those web users with decent vision, the small detail of text contrast may not have ever been an issue. But, web users with vision disabilities can quickly be turned away if they simply cannot read the site. AccessColor runs through your website and analyzes text color in comparison to background colour to see if your site is friendly for all types of visitors.

13. Colour Blindness Simulator – The Colour Blindness Simulator gives a designer the ability to see how different web colours are viewed by individuals with colour blindness. Just upload an image and see the difference.

These are just a few of the many websites out there to help you test and validate your website. Do you know of any greats that are not included? If so, please submit the site by leaving a comment.