Knowing when to say when with cross-browser optimization
Believe it or not, there are still folks out there in the World Wide Web that are relying on old, ancient browsers. These dinosaurs, the older versions of Internet Explorer and the NetScapes of an Internet gone by, are still out there today, and they’re still roaming the information highway, albeit slowly and with a skewed image of the online world of 2014.
Even harder to grasp perhaps is the fact that your site visitors might possibly be entering through one of these archaic windows. So what does this mean, other than the shear fact that some individuals are stubborn when it comes to upgrading their browsers?
For starters, it sheds light on the importance of cross-browser optimization and knowing where your traffic is coming from. Tools like those found on w3counter.com offer the big picture – a current overall market share for browsers in use today. As of February 2014, Google Chrome is way out in front with a market share of 36.4 percent. Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Opera all followed with 19.6 percent, 18.3 percent, 16.7 percent and 2.6 percent, respectively.
To go beyond global usage and discover what avenues visitors are taking to get to your specific site, Google Analytics is able to give a breakdown of what browsers are being used. Take the NetSphere Strategies website as an example. According to Google Analytics, NetSphere Strategies' traffic is what one would expect when taking market share into consideration. With 55 percent, Chrome makes up the bulk of browsers being used with Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer rounding out the traffic.
No matter what browser they’re using, giving visitors the best possible experience is – or should be – the No. 1 goal for eCommerce websites. Because when content doesn’t render properly, visitors will get frustrated, leave a site and make their purchase elsewhere.
Understanding browser usage is also helpful when it comes to allocating optimization efforts. A good rule of thumb is to apply your development efforts according to where most of your traffic is coming from. The reality of the situation is that when it comes to the individuals who are still married to outdated browsers, they just won’t or can’t have the same expectations as other online shoppers do. Until they upgrade their browser, they won’t realize what their online experience could be.
Luckily, there are plenty of online tools to help site owners and developers test new websites and new content or features added to websites. In a blog that we posted in 2013 – one of our most popular, in fact – we outlined the importance of compatibility testing whenever changes are made to a site to ensure that conversion rates aren’t affected. In that post, we shared a few websites that offer our favorite tools for testing new site additions.
Browsera, in particular, tops most developers lists when it comes to getting reports on cross-browser layout differences and scripting errors. Going beyond browsers, BrowserStack includes smartphone and tablet emulators to test a wide range of devices whereas Browsershots can provide screenshots of a site in different operating systems and browsers.
No matter how diligent a website owner is when it comes to testing, however, there is a point when the efforts and cost involved with cross-browser optimization just don’t make sense anymore. When developers feel as though they’re spinning their wheels with older browsers that can no longer support advanced site features, perhaps it’s time to instead spend those extra resources on new marketing efforts to increase engagement with the majority of your users who, in fact, are up to speed with current browsers.
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