Peachy Tip: Is your Blog Viewable and Accessible through Other Browsers?

As I was on my mother's work computer, I opened her Internet Explorer browser and came to the horrific discovery that my entire blog template was cut in half and completely shifted and distorted! Once I came home, I wanted to check how my blog was viewed through other browsers, and my sad discovery was confirmed: my blog was simply not accessible and viewable for all my readers who use a different browser other than Google Chrome!!

Due to the fact that I always worked on my blog content and layout through the Google Chrome browser, I never once thought about the fact that my layout might look completely different on another browser. And that was indeed for me the horrific situation I had on my hands...

This was a huge dilemma for me as 21% of my viewers come through the Internet Explorer browser, and 19% from Firefox. This basically meant that 40% of my visitors were not able to view my blog properly! 

When I viewed my blog on IE or FireFox, my entire header did not show up, hence all my buttons such as 'About', 'Archive', 'Testimonials', etc, were either completely scrambled all over the page or simply did NOT show up. How could I have ever had a chance to gain any more readers if my blog was not even viewable through other browsers?! 

I imagined how many potential readers I might have lost as they must have simply glanced at my blog once, saw that it looked all messed up, and clicked my blog away to never look back again... 

After working so hard on my layout, and building my content, this is the last thing that any blogger would want. Of course traffic isn't everything when it comes to blogging, but it is clearly something rewarding when your content is appreciated and shared with people who share the same hobby and likes as you. I therefore want to make sure everyone is aware of this and not run into the same mistake I had.

This is therefor something you should and need to ask yourself: is my blog viewable for all my readers? If you take your blog serious, and want to continue building and growing it, you need to think about your audience. Don't count on all your readers to simply use the exact same browser as you do, because in the meantime, you may be losing traffic, potential returning readers, and most importantly of all: your reputation and image of your blog may be completely put into a negative and bad light. 

After recovering from my mini panic attack, I decided to take the reigns in my hands and start completely over! In order to prevent myself from making the same mistake, I put things in reverse, and decided to work in the FireFox browser while re-installing my layout. And throughout each installment and change of my layout, I would check back and forth between other browsers (i.e. Google Chrome and IE), to see if my blog came out exactly like I wanted it to.

After 3-4 hours of work I puzzled my layout back together, widget by widget, image by image. All of this could've have been avoided if I simply checked my blog on different internet browsers. Hence, I want to help YOU through informing you on how to prevent this mistake by sharing my own experience on the matter.

One quick way for you to check whether your blog is viewable and properly accessible for all readers is by visiting www.browserstack.com. Here you can create an account in a few seconds and sign up for a trial version! All you have to do is run a free Test and paste in your blog link and you will have the opportunity to check how your blog looks on various browsers

If you are someone, like me, who changes your blog layout from one drastic version to another, you may want to consider making a permanent account. 

I hope this has informed you well and hopefully this has helped you in anyway possible! 

Share me your thoughts or if you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask them below!