QA Series: Image Validation and Sizing Limits

• The Smart Way: Automated Image Crawling
• Configure Your Standards
• Schedule It and Forget It
• Get Notified When Issues Arise
• Example Output
• Ready to Start?

Part of our QA Testing Series

Broken images and missing alt text aren't just accessibility issues—they hurt your SEO rankings, create poor user experiences, and can even trigger legal compliance problems. But manually checking every image across your website? That's a nightmare at scale.

¶The Smart Way: Automated Image Crawling

Instead of clicking through every page to check images manually, modern QA teams use automated crawlers that systematically discover and validate every image on your website. Here's how it works:

Intelligent Image Discovery

• Crawls every page and finds all image elements automatically
• Validates <img>, <picture>, video posters, and favicon links
• Checks responsive image implementations (srcset, sizes)
• Tests both internal and external image references

Comprehensive Image Health Checks

• Detects broken images (404 errors) before users see them
• Validates alt text for WCAG accessibility compliance
• Identifies oversized images that slow down page loads
• Finds missing width/height attributes that cause layout shifts

¶Configure Your Standards

The best part? You can set your own quality standards right in the script:

• Custom size limits - Flag images over your specified MB threshold
• Alt text requirements - Enforce minimum and maximum character limits
• External image checking - Choose whether to validate third-party images
• Modern format testing - Check for WebP, AVIF optimization opportunities

¶Schedule It and Forget It

Run these validations automatically to catch issues before they impact users:

• Pre-deployment checks to prevent bad images from going live
• Weekly accessibility audits to maintain WCAG compliance
• Performance monitoring to catch oversized images
• Post-content-update validation after editorial changes

¶Get Notified When Issues Arise

When image problems are detected, you'll know immediately through:

• Email alerts with detailed issue breakdowns by severity
• Slack notifications in your accessibility or QA channels
• Zapier integrations to connect with your existing workflow tools
• Dashboard reports showing trends and top problematic pages

This proactive approach means you can fix accessibility and performance issues before they affect users or search rankings.

¶Example Output

LoadForge automatically pass/fails tests for you, but, this script also provides detailed output:

[from worker loadforge-684fb9541238f9_5fef384110574fbb9a1b80434dd399f8] Starting image validation
[from worker loadforge-684fb9541238f9_5fef384110574fbb9a1b80434dd399f8] Max image size limit: 1.0MB
[from worker loadforge-684fb9541238f9_5fef384110574fbb9a1b80434dd399f8] ⚠️ Oversized image (1.21MB): /testimonials/marni.png on /
[from worker loadforge-684fb9541238f9_5fef384110574fbb9a1b80434dd399f8] ❌ Image error (400): /_next/image?url=%2Fvanta%2Fsoc2.webp&w=828&q=75 on /
[from worker loadforge-684fb9541238f9_5fef384110574fbb9a1b80434dd399f8] ❌ Image error (400): /_next/image?url=%2Fvanta%2Fgdpr.webp&w=828&q=75 on /
[from worker loadforge-684fb9541238f9_3cd1c2b95ca144758c5db66225d949f2] ❌ Image error (400): /_next/image?url=%2Fvanta%2Fsoc2.webp&w=828&q=75 on /company
[from worker loadforge-684fb9541238f9_3cd1c2b95ca144758c5db66225d949f2] ❌ Image error (400): /_next/image?url=%2Fvanta%2Fgdpr.webp&w=828&q=75 on /company
[from worker loadforge-684fb9541238f9_3cd1c2b95ca144758c5db66225d949f2] ⚠️ Oversized image (1.21MB): /testimonials/marni.png on /
[from worker loadforge-684fb9541238f9_3cd1c2b95ca144758c5db66225d949f2] ⚠️ Oversized image (1.15MB): /screenshots/desktop.png on /product

¶Ready to Start?

Setting up automated image validation is straightforward. We've created LoadForge scripts at three different complexity levels to match your needs.

Get the complete image validation scripts →

Choose your level:

• Simple: Basic broken images and alt text validation with configurable size limits
• Comprehensive: Full validation including responsive images and external links
• Advanced: Modern format testing, CDN performance, and SEO optimization

Don't let image issues damage your site's accessibility, performance, or search rankings. Automate the validation, set your quality standards, and maintain perfect images without the manual work.