What is browser checking?
Browser checking is basically a compatibility check. Some web browsers may display certain web pages slightly differently to others. It is important to make sure that your website displays its pages the same way on every browser that is commonly used. Some examples of commonly used web browsers are Google Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge and Safari.
Do I need to browser check?
Generally, no. You do not need to do browser checking yourself as Rocketspark already does the browser checking for you to make sure your website is consistent.
How do I browser check?
If you do want to do additional browser checking on your own, there are many browser checking services for you to use so you don’t have to download each browser and test them all yourself. A quick way to test it is if you have friends or family members that use different web browser versions. E.G. someone on a Mac may use Safari, someone else may use Microsoft Edge and someone else might use Chrome or Firefox — these four browsers make up the majority of web visitors.
If you do want to check all browsers, most browser checking tools require paid plans, however, there are some services such as Browsershots that are free and provide you with screenshots of your web page displayed in various browser programs and versions. From there, you can see if there are any inconsistencies and/or errors on your web page involving a particular version of a web browser.
How to use Browsershots:
- Open Browsershots
- Copy and paste the URL of your website into the search bar and click submit.
You also have the option of ticking or unticking the boxes of certain browser versions, the screenshot results you receive will only include browsers that are ticked. - After a couple of minutes of waiting, reload the page and you will see a large list of screenshots of the web page you entered on every different browser version that you want to test.
NOTE: If your site has been browser checked previously, just underneath the search bar you will see a link that takes you to a page of screenshots that already exist. - You can download any of these screenshots if you wish to send it to us later for viewing.
- NOTE: You will need to repeat this process for every page your website has.
If you find any major issues on a particular browser’s version you can contact us and we will find a fix for you. Please first double-check this is a browser we support here: What browsers does Rocketspark support?
If you see an issue with your website that you want to report to us, we will need to know what version of the browser you are using. If you’re not sure, you can easily check this by visiting Whatbrowser.