Boost Your Site Traffic - Invite The Internet Explorer 6 & 7 Crowd

You might be telling most of your readers that they are unwelcome at your site and not even know it. Are you telling half you blog visitors to go away? How does your site look to visitors using Firefox 2, IE7, and IE6? Stop ignoring your guests and give them all a better experience when visiting your site. By understanding your Browser Share can Boost Your Site Traffic by 200%!

You might as well be saying, “I don’t want more site traffic.”

I hear it all the time from my blogging friends, “I’m only getting 30-50 visitors a day (some get much less), how can I get more site traffic? Among the tips I give them to boost their site traffic the tip that comes with the most resistance is, make your site display correctly in as many browsers as you can. I usually get a defensive and excuse ridden explanation that explains to me why they are not seeing the traffic increase that they would like.

If you have find yourself repeating any of the below examples it’s the same thing as saying, “I don’t want more site traffic.” Here are some of the usual suspect excuses:

• My website looks fine in the browser I am using.
• I use Firefox, I don’t care what my site looks like to those people that use IE.
• They should be using Firefox, Internet Explorer is for people that don’t know anything about the internet.
• Why waste the time? I just put a message at the top of my website that says, “This site best viewed with Firefox.”
• I have a Firefox button on my site so that those IE users can download a real browser.
• That’s Microsoft’s problem, I shouldn’t have to design my site differently because Internet Explorer does not display websites the same as Firefox.

If you want to be a party of one and be one of the only people that reads your site then keep making excuses. If you want first time visitors to stick around read your website and feel welcome then it’s time to understand Browser Share and how you can use it to identify the needs of your readers and tailor your site to as many of those readers as possible. I’ll get to Browser Share in a minute first let’s explore why these excuses are holding you back.

Firefox is a better browser than IE

Yes I’ll have to agree with you on this one. The problem with this statement is that even though Firefox is one of the best browsers most internet users still use Microsoft’s Internet Explore and if they haven’t switched to Firefox already chances are they don’t really see a reason why they should.

Let’s do a little experiment. If you are still using Microsoft Internet Explorer switch to Firefox now.

Now I suspect some IE users will click on that link some may actually take the leap and discover what many bloggers and website owners already know—Firefox is a much better internet browser. However I highly suspect most IE users will just continue reading and continue using the browser they are familiar with. Personally I would rather spend more time writing content that people want to read than creating an army of happy Firefox browsing army. Unless you want to spend most of your time converting IE users to Firefox I suggest you spend your time making your site better instead of selling Firefox to users that really won’t see the benefit.

Did you click on the add and switch to Firefox if you were not already using it? Probably not, so now let’s get to what we can all do to stop excluding most of our visitors from our beneficial and interesting content (assuming you are writing beneficial and interesting content, that’s a discussion for another day.)

What does Browser Share mean and how can I find my site’s Browser Share?

Browser Share simply means, what percentage of the visitors to your website are using which browser. You might be surprised to know that almost 60% of the visitors to your website are using a different browser than the one you use. There are many ways to discover your Browser share for your site. Two of my favorite free services and the two I use are Sitemeter and Stat Counter. If you are not using one of these free stat counters I highly suggest installing one on your site today. If you have one of these two website site traffic counters already installed then you can use one of them (or both) to determine your Browser Share. Here is the Browser Share break down for Passionate America (click pictures to enlarge):

Sitemeter

This chart is showing you that 61% of my visitors are using IE 6 0r 7, 32% are using Firefox 1 or 2, and the remaining 7% are using other browsers (Mozilla, Netscape, Opera, and Safari)*

Stat Counter

According to this chart 73% of my visitors are using IE 6 0r 7, 25% are using Firefox 1 or 2, and the remaining 2% are using other browsers (Mozilla, Netscape, Opera, and Safari)*

*Sitemeter and Stat Counter use different methods of collecting their data. This explains why their is a difference between the two charts.

This means that between 61%-73% of my visitors are using Microsoft’s Internet Explore browsers. If your site’s Browser Share looks a lot like mine ask yourself if ensuring that 61%-73% of your visitors see your site the way it should look is something you should be concerned with. I think you’ll agree if these visitors are being ignored they might never give your site a chance.

Help The Internet Explorer 6 & 7 Crowd Have A Better Experience When Visiting Your Site

I could get spend a long time explaining to you all the things you can do to get your site to display correctly in different browsers (and maybe someday I will write detailed instructions for WordPress and Blogger) however to keep it short here is a list of the things you can do to get you started:

• Look at the way your site is displayed on various browsers. If you use Firefox open your site in Internet Explorer (even though it might cause you great pain) and make a note of how your site looks different between the two browsers.
• If your parents have a computer (and use a different browser than you) go over to their house (or walk upstairs, hehe), ask to use their computer and make notes on how your site looks different on their computer.
• Visit your friends that know less about computers than you do. Have a fun time with them talking, having a cookout, playing poker, or whatever it is that you like to do with your friends. At some part during the visit ask if you can check your website on their computer and tell them you want to see what they see when they visit your site (assuming they visit your site, if they don’t why haven’t you told them about your site, shame on you.) Once again make notes. You could also add to your notes things your friends like about your site and things they don’t like.
• Use your notes to make changes to your website that give all browser users a chance to enjoy your site.

Now you are well on your way to a more visitor friendly website. If you need further help making the changes you need to make leave a comment or contact me directly and I’ll try to help you.

 Digg this article

Get articles like this one delivered to you by email or your favorite feed reader. Subscribe to Passionate America today.