Top 5 Professional SEO Tips to Ensure Web Browser Compatibility

Contrary to popular belief, not everyone uses the same Internet browser. Sure, there are a large number of Internet Explorer users, but there are also a lot of people who use Firefox, Chrome, Opera and others. That is why it is vitally important, to make sure that your website displays correctly, regardless of the browser it is shown on. If you don't, all of your website promotion efforts will be a waste of time.

The major web browsers and their market share as of December 2008, is as follows:

• Internet Explorer - 68.15%*
• Firefox - 21.34%*
• Safari - 7.93%*
• Chrome - 1.04%*
• Opera - 0.71%*

* Source - NetApplications.com

As you can see, if your website only displays correctly with Internet Explorer, you are missing out on a whopping 30% of visitors, that are unable to view your site correctly.

So, how do you ensure that your site is universally compatible with all of the web browsers out there? The answers can be summed up in five basic steps. They are explained in greater detail below.

1. Test Your Website

If you want to ensure that your website promotion efforts remain worthwhile, you need to test your site among the different web browsers. In the past this had to be done manually. But now, there are free services that can do this for you such as BrowserShots.

To use these free services, all you have to do is enter the URL of your website. You can also enter in other specs, such as screen size and color depth, but these fields are optional. The software will then return a set of screen shots, showing what your site looks like in each web browser.

2. Use Basic HTML

Basic HTML is essential to good website promotion as all web browsers can read HTML. Plus, it is a well developed and established programming language, that will enable even ten year old computers, to load HTML pages pretty quickly. Although websites that are designed using basic HTML may not be as elaborate as those created using more advanced languages, but at least they load and display properly.

3. Do Not Use Frames Foregoing on frames is one of the best kept secrets of website promotion. True, such a suggestion doesn't help with designing, but if you use frames too much, you risk having display problems if the site is shown on an older browser.

So, if your site needs different sections within the same page, use HTML tables instead. They are universal to most browsers plus, if you know what you are doing, they can actually be more attractive.

4. Do Not Include Fancy Fonts in Your Design

Your site should look good even if standard fonts are used. Therefore try and avoid using some of the more fancier font styles, as some web browsers may have difficulty recognising these. Again, this may not help with your site's design, but it will do wonders for your website promotion.

5. Limit Your Use of Images

When it comes to website promotion, content matters more than images. This is because when people are really hunting for information, they are not going to care whether or not a site looks pretty. Granted, there are exceptions to this rule, but as long as your site looks neat, uncluttered and professional, don't worry. Overloading a web page with images may slow down the loading time and can cause problems with the page displaying correctly in certain browsers.

Robert Smith has over 5 years experience in online marketing and search engine optimisation. He is the owner of Get On Fast, a specialist online marketing agency, based in Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom.

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