SEO Optimising Website Structure for Cross-Browser Compatibility
Hands holding a tablet while browsing the web
As far as SEO is concerned; a good portion of success hinges on the structural integrity of your website. A particularly important consideration, especially during redevelopment, is ensuring that your site remains cross-browser friendly. The goal here is to ensure universal access without alienating any user group. While Internet Explorer still retains its widespread usage, an array of alternative browsers, including Opera, Firefox, Konqueror, and Safari, have also emerged as contenders.
Developing in a Tableless Environment
Redeveloping a website or designing a website from scratch is now performed without the use of tables, and in the case of redevelopment (a time-consuming and costly exercise) dismantling any existing ones. Although tables no longer pose a significant obstacle, it’s advantageous to ensure an HTML tableless environment. This approach not only accelerates website crawling speed for search engine ‘bots’ but also fosters improvements in areas like accessibility and future-proofing for the Mobile Web
Cross-Browser Compatibility
We’re currently making plans for the forthcoming redevelopment of our website (as of 2006), and we’re going to take forward in terms of design and mobile-small device compatibility. We are exploring the idea of a streamlined publishing platform that will integrate with our main business website. From our perspective, the future of business websites hinges on integrated solutions that enable on-the-fly integration of content publishing. But let’s return to the core focus of this discussion: cross-browser friendliness.
BrowserCam testing
In a recent initiative, we undertook the task of subjecting our current website to stringent tests across various modern browsers and operating systems. To accomplish this, we employed BrowserCam (now defunct) —a tool that captures snapshots of your site as it appears on diverse operating systems and web browsers. This proved to be an invaluable resource, providing a clear window into how our site is viewed on different Operating Systems, browsers and devices. I am confident that BrowserCam ought to be an indispensable asset within every developer’s toolkit.
Unlike our older branded Intertec website, the new Southbourne Internet site offered promising results. Our tableless build worked very well, although we encountered a minor challenge with the main image on the home page. Despite some setbacks, we successfully addressed issues, with only a slight glitch in Konquerer that nudges the image from its intended position.
While Internet Explorer continues as the dominate browser, it’s important to note that other markets might adopt different browsers. Thus, it’s prudent to ensure your site is compatible with major browsers.
Final thoughts on web browser compatibility
The connection between effective SEO and a cross-browser-compatible website structure is essential to your marketing plan. By developing a website with a tableless design, you can ensure that your website not only excels in performance (such as speed and crawlability) but also caters to a wider audience on multiple devices thereby increasing visitor traffic.
