I've got a cool, quick tool that you can use to optimize your website. You're not going to want to miss this.
As you know, not everyone uses the same web browser to view websites - some people use Firefox, others use Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer, Opera, etc.
If you've got Google Analytics setup or another analytics tool such as Clicky hooked up to your site, you can actually see which browsers your visitors are using.
For the SPI Blog, for example:
- 40% use Firefox
- 23% use Chrome
- 18% use Safari
- 14% use Internet Explorer
- 5% use something else
The thing is, not all websites look the same in every browser, and sometimes one particular browser, even some of the more popular ones, totally mess up the look of your site.
Oh, and I forgot to mention there are also differences depending on the operating system (Windows, Mac, Linux) that people are using.
This is bad, because without even knowing it you could be leaving a bad impression on visitors losing potential subscribers and customers.
I know this, because this happened to me with one of my niche sites. One of the themes I was using was just not compatible with Internet Explorer, and I missed out on a good chunk of traffic because of it.
So how do you know what your site looks like in other browsers?
Check out http://browsershots.org - it's FREE, no signups required, and all you have to do is enter your web address, press a button and a few minutes later you'll get a bunch of screenshots to look at showing you exactly what your site looks like in all different types of browsers.
Note: you'll see a list of about 60 to 70 different browsers to choose from, some you've probably never heard of before. Don't worry about the random ones when doing your testing, just focus on the major ones like Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Mircosoft Internet Explorer (MSIE). There's a quick select "none" at the bottom to easily deselect and pick the ones you want.
If you notice something is wrong (let's hope there isn't!), then you can take the appropriate action to get it fixed right away.
Again, the website is http://browsershots.org. Check it out and test your site when you have time to make sure your site looks the way you want.
