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in use; Firefox, Opera, and Safari are available for both Mac and Windows. Many Mac users complain that there are still far too many websites that simply do not work well using the Safari browser on their Mac. There are differences between versions of the same browser. Websites perform differently between the different versions of Internet Explorer 6, 7, and 8. They also perform differently when they are running on a Windows XP, Vista, or Windows 7 operating system. Designers have an uphill battle when designing for multiple users, because even in the Windows market, there are multiple combinations that are used by the searching audience, and all must be accounted for.

It is wise to test in all of these scenarios. Knowing that your site is available and works for the vast majority of users, regardless of operating system, computer type, browser, and software, will help you rest a little easier. However, those who recognize the fast approach of mobile search will not stop there and will test their websites in mobile devices.

It is also well worth your time to test your website in multiple mobile devices and ensure that your message is available to the widest audience possible. The iPhone is very forgiving and renders websites very closely to using a standard browser, but there are still some design issues that may prevent easy browsing and access to the content. Other phones are more finicky from the start. The mobile trend is growing, and it will not slow down for websites that simply do not work in that environment.

Wednesday: Use Firefox’s Free Tools

One of the best tools available for a quick analysis of your website is the Firefox browser. Because it is open source, many programmers contribute plug-ins that extend the functionality of the browser. The beauty of this is that the browser becomes customized to your particular needs as a user and contains many of the tools you need as a website manager.

Web Developer Toolbar

My primary plug-in is the Web Developer Toolbar. I can’t live without it. Simply calling up your website in the browser and then using the functions easily available in the toolbar will show you the compatibility of your website. Essentially, you get to see your site as the search engines see it. It’s a completely geeky exercise, I’ll admit. But once you start seeing the purpose, you will channel your inner geek on a regular basis.

You can download the Firefox browser at www.mozilla.com and the Firefox Web Developer Toolbar at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/60. Once you have installed the browser and the toolbar, open the browser to your home page or any page on your website. The very first thing to do is to disable JavaScript (Figure 4-7). If your navigation is written in JavaScript, then you cannot depend on the search engines to be able to see the links in the JavaScript. If the link code contains , then the search engines should be able to see the links. However, if you have no destination URLs in the JavaScript, it can just be a load of nonsensical code. It’s best just to disable this and see what works and what doesn’t.

Figure 4-7: Start with a web page for these tests, and then disable JavaScript.

Next, disable the images. If you are particularly daring, choose the option to replace images with alt attributes (Figure 4-8). alt attributes are the text that appears when the image doesn’t load, which happens frequently. You have to account for website visitors on mobile devices, bad conference hotel connections, and getting download speeds of 1Kb per hour on the subway.

Figure 4-8: Disabling images

After you have disabled the images and replaced them with alt attributes if you so choose, you should start seeing the content that the search engines see (Figure 4-9); however, it is still too “pretty.” The W3C guidelines suggest that your site should be understandable and viewable without the CSS. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a fancy way of referring to the design template for your website. Disable the CSS (see Figure 4-10).

Figure 4-9: