Why cross-browser website compatibility testing is vital for your business website can be summed up with the following question: How would it affect your business if 24% of your website visitors had a negative experience?
If your website only shows well on Google Chrome, that’s what would happen. If it’s incompatible with Firefox, you just drove away 13% of your website traffic. And although Microsoft Edge, Safari, and Opera account for just under 1/10 of web browser use, do you want that much traffic clicking away from your website just because you didn’t conduct cross-browser website compatibility testing?
Why Cross-Browser Website Compatibility Testing is Vital for Your Business Website
Not all browsers are created the same. Because each browser creator has a different vision of how a browser should work, what a browser should support, and how the web should evolve, it’s logical that websites display sites differently on different browsers.
The major browser designers–Microsoft, Google, Mozilla, and Apple–prioritize their own unique features that work primarily in their browsers while fine-tuning existing features. Although these features mostly lead to a better web experience for users, these special features may cause your website to appear less pristine and professional than you’d like.
For this reason, cross-browser website compatibility testing is necessary for website design.
What is Cross-Browser Compatibility Testing?
Cross-browser compatibility testing involves testing web applications across multiple browsers and checking their compatibility to ensure that everything works correctly, regardless of the browser. Testing includes client-side and server-side behaviour.
Cross-browser testing ensures JavaScript, Applets, Flash, AJAX requests, and web design elements work as intended in each web browser.
Is Cross-Browser Website Compatibility Testing That Important?
The short answer is yes, as demonstrated by the potential loss of business. What if your next potential customer visits you on Microsoft Edge and the beautiful logo you designed as part of your re-branding looks like something a middle school kid designed on his Commodore 64 back in 1982? That visitor will re-brand you as unprofessional and move on his merry Microsoft way to your competitor.
A more detailed answer involves the proliferation of websites–business and personal–and the need to stand out. Complicating the need to stand out and look professional is the raise in responsive web design, which makes having a responsive website that works in all browsers very difficult. And now, web designers need to account for mobile browsers, which make up a growing number of internet users.
How to Conduct Cross-Browser Testing
With so many devices and platforms that could display your website–Androids, iPhones, Windows Phones, iPads, Kindle Fires, Chromebooks, laptops, desktop computers, etc.–you’d have to spend thousands of dollars just to know how well your site shows on all these platforms, which is why using a testing service makes the most sense.
The simplest way to conduct cross-browser testing involves testing each website component on different browsers and platforms. This is a straightforward process for an individual web developer or a small web design studio working on medium-complexity web projects. It would include owning several machines and an Android and Apple mobile device.
Once the projects become more complex, the need for more in-depth testing becomes paramount, primarily when many individuals work on the project. This requires even more machines with the most up-to-date browsers and several Android and Apple devices.
This is when a testing service becomes even more valuable. Because web users are spread out through so many different browsers and devices, using an agency that specializes in web design that knows how to showcase your products and services become a valuable asset for your business.
Contact Pixel Fish today and discover how their team of senior web designers can help you create a dynamic presence on the web.
Let Sydney’s leading Web Design Agency take your business to the next level with a Pixel Fish Small Business Website.
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