The wave of digital transformation which commenced a decade ago is maturing and evolving day by day. Web applications and websites are the catalysts of this massive digitization worldwide. If you want to harness the potential of digital transformation, it is crucial to make your web apps function seamlessly across browsers, devices, and networks.
A mobile app testing tool is your best bet to ensure that the web apps function properly without any glitches. Application testing comes with numerous roadblocks. One of the most effective ways to address these roadblocks is by conducting cross-browser testing.
Your users are accessing several browsers, operating systems, and devices. It is no longer a luxury but a necessity to make sure that your web application functions flawlessly. Let’s explore the importance of cross-browser testing in today’s rapidly evolving app development environment.
What is Cross-Browser Testing?
Cross-browser testing is the process of ensuring that web applications and websites function as intended across several web browsers, networks, and devices. Not performing cross-browser testing can alienate a sizable number of users from your web application.
Each website contains elements like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. The way these elements are handled by different browsers varies considerably. The main aim of cross-browser testing is to provide a better end-user experience and consistency across platforms.
Before launching your web application, ensure that it is properly displayed across browsers and devices. Your QA team can easily detect compatibility issues by running cross-browser tests. It can help you improve the web app’s user experience.
The requirement for mobile app testing tool and cross-browser testing has evolved with this massive digital transformation. In earlier times, website development used to focus mainly on a handful of browsers like Firefox and Internet Explorer.
But digitization has introduced numerous browsers and devices in the market. Browsers like Chrome, Opera, Microsoft Edge, etc., have made web development complicated. It can be said that cross-browser testing has transitioned from being a best practice to an absolute necessity.
Why is Cross-Browser Testing a Necessity and Not a Luxury?
Your QA team should automate cross-browser testing in Selenium to avoid manual testing and wrap up projects faster. Cross-browser testing is an integral component of website development as it ensures that your web app functions uniformly across platforms. Here are the reasons that highlight the present-day importance of cross-browser testing.
It Offers Consistent User Experience
End-users will access your web application through numerous devices and browsers. In other words, there are no fixed browsers or devices that they will use to access the web app. If your web app fails to provide a consistent user experience across these platforms, it can lead to a steep decline in the app’s popularity. Cross-browser testing makes sure that your end-users can get a consistent experience irrespective of the device or browser they use.
Ensures Compatibility of the Web Application
Your testing team should automate cross-browser testing in Selenium to get accurate results. Cross-browser testing involves testing the web application in different browsers, operating systems, and browsers.
You can easily recognize the bugs and areas where your web application lacks with this extensive testing. There would be no issues whatsoever when end-users access the web application after its release.
Updates Released by the Developers of Browsers
The developers release timely updates to ensure that these browsers work seamlessly. However, these updates may affect the way your web application functions. For instance, there is no guarantee that your web app will function seamlessly in Chrome and Safari.
This is exactly where cross-browser testing can be effective. It helps you recognize and address issues emanating from the browser updates. Your web app will always remain functional if you conduct cross-browser testing before its launch.
Makes Your Application Popular
One of the best ways to make your web app popular is by implementing cross-browser testing. Moreover, the popularity of browsers differs based on the OS version. For instance, Chrome is favored mostly by Android users.
On the other hand, Safari is a popular browser choice among the iOS users. Cross-browser testing allows you to address these browser-specific issues and cater to the requirements of a huge user base.
Search Engine Optimization
The ultimate aim of cross-browser testing is to make the website accessible by users. When this happens, the organic traffic to your website automatically increases. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an integral aspect of any website’s success. Search engines like Google and Bing measure the engagement rate of your website while ranking it in search results.
Websites with a good engagement rate will rank higher and continue to drive organic traffic. On the other hand, websites with poor user experience will languish at the bottom of the SERP. Cross-browser testing of web applications lets you improve the SEO of your website.
Brand Reputation
The reputation of your brand might be at stake if your web app continues to provide a poor user experience. It doesn’t take long for the end-users to relate poor user experience with your brand. Cross-browser testing ensures that your web application provides a uniform user experience to users.
Approaches to Undertake Before Cross-Browser Testing
Your QA team should adopt a few approaches to ensure that cross-browser testing goes as planned. Listed are a few approaches that your QA team should undertake.
- Identify the Important Browsers
Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge are the most popular browsers commonly used to access websites. Instead of making the website compatible with every browser, your QA team should test the website on popular browsers.
- Parallel Testing and Automation
Running parallel testing is the best approach to get precise results. It can also help your QA team to spot bugs and address them before the app’s release.
- Prioritize mobile experience
A huge percentage of people nowadays access web apps through mobiles. Cross-browser compatibility issues can arise when people access your web app through mobile devices. It is crucial to conduct cross-browser testing of web applications by prioritizing the mobile experience of users.
Digital transformation has made cross-browser testing a necessity in web application development. The expectations of your users are always higher and the best way to exceed them is by conducting cross-browser testing of web apps.
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