The Internet is an important part of our everyday lives, both professionally and personally. The Internet is the information capital of the world. Websites host most of the information we access every day. Any business regardless of the type must have a good website, and the website must respond quickly, reliably and accurately to the user. Your website needs to remain prosperous and to distinguish your businesses from your competition. However, not every browser works the same, and without external, multi-browser testing your website visitors may not get the experience you would like them to have.
Multiple browser testing protects your investment and reputation
To attract visitors and introduce your company and products to a large audience, you have spent a lot of money to get your website running. If you are redesigning your website or you want to make sure your investment in your website is working, you need to know how it performs in multiple browsers. Website testing from multiple browsers can help make sure your company makes a good impression on potential customers and existing customers.
Automated testing of your website can help you make sure your website always works correctly, responds quickly, and displays correctly. Today, knowing more about your website than just whether your servers, network, and infrastructure are running correctly is crucial.
The importance of external testing
It is very important to check your website in multiple web browsers from an external source. Have you ever noticed that your website looks different on someone else’s computer from outside of your office? Your website might look just fine in Chrome; however, it may look disastrous in Internet Explorer and vice-versa. You have no control over which browser your visitor chooses to use when visiting your website.
The different ways each web browser interprets CSS, HTML, XHTML, and browser plug-ins causes the differences in page display. The browser is a mini operating system that is doing multiple tasks. Browsers offer many new ways of navigating and visualizing your website and the web. The more we ask browsers to do on your website, the slower they become. It is critical in today’s competitive and increasingly global Internet world to know your website’s load times and how your website looks on different types of browsers.
Differences in browsers and browser versions matter
It is crucial to know your true end user’s experience on your website. Whether your site is an informational site, used to generate leads, or increase revenue, your website’s performance and appearance affect the reputation of your company. To make matters worse, you have to know how your website renders in different versions of the browsers and at different screen sizes. Think about Internet Explorer. How does your website look in Internet Explorer 8, 9, 10 or 11? You need to make sure your website is rendering in as many browsers and their versions externally as possible.
According to the US Government, the most popular desktop browser with 35% of the market is Chrome followed by Internet Explorer with 28%. Safari follows Internet Explorer with 20% of the market share. (Source ZDnet.com ) According to the latest data in Europe, Chrome dominates the browser market share at 50%. (Source StatCounter accessed 8/30/206)
Using the right monitoring tool is crucial
It is important that you find a tool that can monitor your website natively in the browser, meaning it is not emulating the browser but loading your content in a real browser. In addition, this tool needs to check your website from the locations where your visitors access your website; i.e., checking your website externally on the web from outside your firewall from multiple geographic areas.
One way to do this testing is for you to set up your own servers at external sites and test your website in multiple browsers. It would be prohibitively expensive to setup 20-30 servers in remote geographic areas to test your website in multiple browsers. There are monitoring tools available that can check your website from external geographic checkpoints economically. Tools that ensure you do not lose visitors due to improper rendering in a browser or a browser version. Do not assume your website performs well; instead, make sure you secure your website investment by inspecting and monitoring your website performance. It is your company’s reputation and revenue you are affecting by not testing.
Uptrends allows you to monitor your website in all browsers from 154 checkpoints located throughout the world. If you would like more information on Uptrends, please contact us at 561-208-6602 or send us an email.
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