Although Matt Cutts from Google says on YouTube that PageRank does not take into account cross-browser compatibility, it’s better to make your website or blog compatible with different browsers, which will be good for user experience and impact your PageRank indirectly.
For example, if your website is not compatible with IE 6, the IE 6 users will think your website sucks for terrible layout, and they won’t link to it even though the contents are great, which will be not good for your PageRank, since no links, no PageRank.
So, how to find out if your website or blog is compatible with different browsers? It’s hard to install all the browsers in your computer and test them one by one, but it’s easy to test cross-browser compatibility with below 10 free web apps:
1. Browsershots
Browsershots is a powerful website for you to test cross-browser compatibility. Not only can you check your website layouts in Firefox, Chrome, IE and many other browsers, but you can also check them with Linux, Windows, Mac and BSD operating systems.
What you need to do is to enter your website URL and select the browsers and OS you would like to test.
2. Adobe Browser Lab
With Adobe Browser Lab, you can check out how your website look like when it is opened by IE, Firefox, Safari and Chrome browsers in Windows or OS X.
You will need to register and sign in to use the service.
3. Browsera
For free Browsera users, you can test your website and its linked pages in Firefox 2/3 and IE 6/7 browsers.
And you can also test multiple websites or web pages at a time.
4. IE NetRenderer
On the IE NetRenderer website, you can test how your website is rendered by Internet Explorer 8, 7, 6 or 5.5, what you need to do is just entering the URL of your website.
Besides, you can also add the NetRenderer Toolbar to your IE and / or Firefox browser.
5. Browser Screenshots
As the name, the Browser Screenshots website will take screenshots of your site or page in different browsers, such as Firefox, IE, Opera and some others for Windows, as well as Firefox, Safari and Chrome for Mac.
Just enter your URL and select the browsers and operating systems, then you are done.
Besides the above 5 websites, you can also install below 2 Firefox add-ons to test cross-browser compatibility.
6. IE View
The IE View Firefox add-on will let you load pages in IE with a single right-click or automatically.
7. IE Tab 2
IE Tab 2 is an enhanced version of the classic add-on IE Tab which allows you to test the IE browser compatibility of the current webpage in the current Firefox browser or in a new IE browser.
No matter websites or Firefox add-ons, the above 7 web apps are only available for you to check out how your websites look like in computer browsers, to test cross-browser compatibility in mobile browsers, you can check out below three web apps.
8. DotMobi Emulator
DotMobi Emulator will show you how your website looks like in Sony K750 and Nokia N70. What you need to do is to enter the domain name of the website.
9. iPad Peek
Enter the URL of your website, then you will see your website in a virtual iPad.
10. TestiPhone
With TestiPhone, you can test your website layout in a virtual iPhone by entering its URL.
So, how does your website or blog look like in different browsers? By the way, if you are looking for a WordPress theme, you can also first test its cross-browser compatibility with the above 10 web apps.
