Archive for the ‘About SEO’ Category

Don’t forget you can check out your site from a search Engine perspective with our Free SEO Tools.

http://www.seoconsult.co.uk/tools.php

One of the most common problems I encounter on the web is sites with poor cross-browser compatibility. As a user it’s a minor inconvenience, as a developer, it’s one of my biggest concerns.

In the world of SEO there is naturally a heavy emphasis on how a web site looks to a search engine. In general web-crawlers don’t see the images, execute JavaScript or load third-party objects. It’s prudent for all web professionals, developer, designer and SEO to be aware of crawlers when they are working with web pages.

In both these worlds, the key word is “testing”. There are a glut of web browsers on the market and it would be impractical to test a web site on them all. Luckily, there are only a handful of web layout engines.

It is not not essential that your site is not compatibly with some older browsers. Some sites have chosen  not provide support for older browser with poor standards compliance. Here’s a good example, the site detects the unsupported browse and provides advice.

YouTube in Internet Explorer 8

YouTube in Internet Explorer 6

Here are some of the desktop browsers I use for testing. Some browsers use the same layout engine but different JavaScript engine.

• Text-Browsers & Screen Readers
- Lynx
- ScreenReader.net
- Google Webmaster Tools

• Trident
- Internet Exlorer 6
- Internet Exlorer 7 (Trident 3.x)
- Internet Exlorer 8 (Trident 4.x)

• Gecko
- Mozilla Firefox 1.5 (Gecko 1.8.0)
- Mozilla Firefox 2.0 (Gecko 1.8.1)
- Mozilla Firefox 3.6 (Gecko 1.9.2)

- WebKit
- Google Chrome 5.0 (WebKit 533, V8 2.1)
- Google Safari 5 (WebKit)

- Presto
- Opera Browser 10.0 (Presto 2.2.15, Futhark)
- Opera Browser 10.6 (Presto 2.6.30, Carakan)