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Cross-browser compatibility has never been more important than it is right now. The first few years of the internet age gave us a limited number of available browsing solutions and was contained to desktop (or laptop) screens with 2-3 resolution options. The most popular browsers were Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator, with some people choosing Opera which (fun fact!) still happens to be the most popular browser in 2/3 of the African continent. Safari didn’t even exist until 2003 and all Mac systems were shipped with Netscape Navigator as the native browser. We didn’t browse the web on tablets, smart phones, gaming consoles or televisions. And we didn’t have the myriad of operating systems and browsers currently available at our fingertips. As standard practice most tech savvy consumers will have a minimum of 2-3 browsers installed on their machines for a variety of reasons.

Keeping your browser, like most software, up to date may seem like a logical and obvious choice. With the speed technology is progressing and the choices software developers make however, it is not always easy or accessible for us to do so. A great example of this is Microsoft making the decision to no longer support Windows XP. This means that the latest version of IE isn’t even available to anyone who is currently on that platform. It makes things problematic for users and developers especially when developers create websites based on the latest standard yet their clients don’t have a browser capable of meeting those standards.

I’ve touched on being aware of what browsers and devices your audience uses to access your website in previous columns. I cannot stress how important it is to be looking at your website the same way your clients are. As evolved as we think we are, ultimately we are all creatures of habit. We will use the software we are comfortable with, with our bookmarks and plugins and other browsing comforts.

IE as the native Microsoft browser is included with your copy of Windows and it’s likely you’ve been using that ever since because it was the go-to solution; not being aware of the fact that the bulk of your clients could very well be be using Chrome or Safari. You make extensive and costly decisions about the future of your website during the design or redesign process based on how you see your website - not how your clients see your website.

One of our clients use IE (on Windows XP) across all of their internal systems. Recently we found out that more than 75% of their customers are Mac OS users and are accessing the website exclusively on Safari. The clients had no way to see what their customers were seeing.

So what’s the solution for your business? Always have the latest version of Chrome and Firefox on your machine, even if your go-to browser is different. Trying something new can be a little uncomfortable but remember you can always go back to your browser of choice. Keep your finger on the pulse when it comes to your customers - check your analytics monthly at a minimum to see what technology they are using to view your website. It's simply unfeasible that we will have every device or browser accessible to us. We can always check in with business partners, employees, friends and family to see what the website looks like on their devices.

There are also some cross-browser compatibility tools available online and within browsers. If you'd like to learn about them, or how to access your web stats through the admin centre or add Google Analytics to your website give us a call on 1300 123 500.