Every few days, a popular browser advances. A new screen is made. Something happens that “revolutionizes” the face of technology. A new device. A new technique. Something.

When it comes to your website, this can be a real killer. Today, your design may look like it was designed by the gods, but it could be something disgusting tomorrow.

Many people don’t know what their website looks like, though, and that’s one major problem – just because it looks good for you, doesn’t mean it looks good for everyone.

Why Your Site Must Look Good Across the Board

Gain or Lose Readers

A percent of the users on the internet use Internet Explorer, which, as many web-designers know, causes a ton of problems when it comes to their design.

For the people who use a browser other than yours, the website may look completely wrong. This will quite easily make them close out of your website and never turn back.

Look Un-Professional

Once again, some browsers display the code a bit differently than others. One major problem I had while designing my website is that the sidebar wasn’t aligned right in IE, Safari, or Opera.

When it comes to the design of your website, you don’t want it to look bad. You want it to be the utmost of professional. If everything is unaligned, how professional will it look? Not very.

As a result, your [possible] readers will, once again, head on out the door without a tad-bit of regret.

How to See Your Site in Different Browsers/Sizes

Previous, I mentioned that you should test on multiple computers with multiple browsers installed. I since realized how un-affordable that is. Thus, I did some research and came up with 2 solutions.

BrowserShots

One of my favorite websites, BrowserShots.org, will take the URL you submit, and allow you to choose up to 131 browsers (that’s the current maximum), then it will show you the URL in that browser.

The only downside is that it takes about 30 minutes for every browser to load. So, simply take the URL it gives you, save it, and come back later. You will then be able to hover over (and click for a large-scale view) each box and see what your site looks like in that browser.

If it doesn’t look right in all of the browsers, continue editing your design until it does.

AnyBrowser

If you are interested in seeing your website in other sizes, go to the AnyBrowser.com Screen Size Tester, type in your URL, and scroll down until you see the sizes.

You can see your site in many different screen sizes for TV’s, Mac’s, or PC’s. If you are interested in seeing what the majority of your readers’ screen size is, go to your Google Analytics dashboard, then select Visitors > Browser Capabilities > Screen Resolutions.

Once again, if your design doesn’t look right, continue editing until it does.

Do You Optimize Your Website’s Design?

Photo Credit: Thumbnail