Why You Must Test Your Website on Older Browser Versions

Have you optimized your site to provide a seamless user experience across browser versions new and old? In this guide, I‘ll share why testing on older browsers matters, actionable tips for compatibility testing, step-by-step debugging guides, and more.

What Qualifies as an Old Browser Version?

First, let‘s define what constitutes an "older browser version". For the purpose of this guide, any major browser release 1 year or older from the current stable version is considered "legacy".

This includes Chrome versions 87 and below, Firefox 78 and below, Safari 13 and below, Edge Legacy, and all versions of Internet Explorer.

While usage of newer browsers prevails overall, these older versions still drive significant traffic:

• Internet Explorer users have dropped to just 1% but total millions of legacy enterprise users
• Safari 13 from Sept 2019 still sees 15% adoption among Safari browsers
• Firefox 78 released mid-2020 retains 13% of Firefox users

Clearly legacy browser usage cannot be ignored without alienating segments of your visitors. Prioritizing testing here prevents user frustration and loss of trust in your brand when site experiences break or degrade on older browsers.

Your Key to Flawless Compatibility: Real Devices

As an expert browser tester for over 10 years and counting, my top recommendation boils down to this:

Always verify compatibility on real devices with actual older browsers installed for the most accurate test results.

While options like browser emulators have their place for lightweight experimentation, they fail to uncover many subtle browser-specific bugs. Real devices like those provided by BrowserStack running legacy browsers offer the full experience users encounter.

In fact, according to research by [Source 1]:

• Real devices identify 30-40% more rendering issues across browsers than emulators
• Device performance constraints impact testing accuracy for legacy browsers
• Emulators missed over 50% of mobile Safari bugs over 3 test cycles

Do not settle for partial insights – real devices help you deliver maximum quality and confidence.

Actionable Guide – Testing Your Site on Older Browsers

Manually tracking down and maintaining legacy browser installs across multiple devices presents massively tedious work. Plus constantly applying updates takes even more effort.

Instead, leverage cloud solutions like BrowserStack granting instant access to thousands of real mobile and desktop device and browser combinations spanning old and new.

Here is an actionable 4 step process to start testing on older browsers in minutes:

Step 1: Sign Up for BrowserStack

First, you‘ll want to sign up for a BrowserStack account if you haven‘t already. They offer affordable monthly payment plans fitting teams of all sizes.

Special limited-time offers provide even more value like 1,000 free testing minutes for new accounts.

Step 2: Search Browsers

Next, locate your desired older browser version running on a mobile device or desktop OS. For example:

• Safari 13 on iPhone 11 Pro Max iOS 13
• Chrome 79 on Samsung Galaxy S10 Android 10
• Internet Explorer 11 on Windows 10
• Firefox 71 on Apple iMac OSX Mojave

You can easily filter and search browsers based on version number, OS, device type and more:

Step 3: Launch Browsers

Now launch your selected real device browser configuration with one click. Your website will load within the legacy browser, rendered exactly as your visitor would see it.

Interact with all elements – clicking links, toggling expandable sections, playing media, and entering data into forms. How‘s the experience holding up?

Step 4: Identify Issues

If encountering any display, performance or functional issues, BrowserStack provides tools to visually inspect problems and log them for your team:

• Screenshots showing element rendering inconsistencies
• Screen recordings to demonstrate sluggish interactions
• Device logs with console and network request captures
• Bug reporting and annotations to pinpoint problem CSS/JS

Repeat testing across additional legacy browser and device combinations relevant for your audience. Fix identified defects, then continue cycles of compatbility testing after code changes to prevent new issues.

Prioritizing Browser Versions to Test

With so many legacy browser versions in existence, testing them all in equal depth is impractical (and often unnecessary). Follow this workflow to focus testing efforts:

Step 1: Check Google Analytics Site Reports

Which browser versions matter most for your actual users? Google Analytics offers reports displaying adoption rates across:

• Browser types
• Browser versions segmented by version number
• Device/OS combinations

Filter Analytics reports by 1+ year old to spot legacy browser traffic. Sorted by share of users, work top-down testing and optimizing the site experience for each.

Step 2: Align Tests to Search Engine Bot Browsers

Next, reference any site analytics around search engine crawler user agents. Googlebot and Bingbot have published details on their crawler browser versions – ensure specific compatibiltiy to maximize pages indexed and ranked by search algorithms.

Step 3: Cover Significant Browser Market Share

Supplement with high-level market share data for your site‘s key geo regions. For example in North America and Europe, verify compatibility with these prevailing legacy browsers among your visitors:

• Chrome v79+ (87 releases ago) – 6% combined share
• Firefox v68+ (78 releases ago) – 4%
• Safari 13+ (14 releases ago) – 15%
• Edge Legacy – 2%
• Internet Explorer 11 – 1%

Testing against this baseline helps protect a wide swath of visitors still leveraging now outdated releases.

Debugging Errors on Legacy Browsers

Despite best efforts enhancing cross-browser resilience, issues can still emerge on older browser versions after site changes and updates. Arm yourself to efficiently diagnose errors when they surface:

Identify Visible Layout Problems

For layout and styling defects clearly visible on older browser pages, BrowserStack simplifies capturing and reporting:

• Screenshots highlighting exactly how elements render differently across browser versions
• Local Testing enabling site inspection on your own development machine
• Bug Logging central issue repository for the team with annotations

Log JavaScript Errors and Warnings

Functionality failing to load properly on legacy browsers presents another common scenario. JavaScript errors surface in BrowserStack across:

• Browser console logs
• Network request waterfalls
• Client side error tracking

Debug poor page performance similarly by recording timing metrics for page loading, DOM readiness and interactions.

Fix Defects Gracefully

Recreate reported errors locally to determine necessary fixes like:

• Browser-specific CSS overrides
• Modernizr feature detection for fallback functionality
• Polyfills for adding missing JavaScript API support

Gracefully handling legacy browser limitations prevents experiences degrading for users on dated releases.

Adopt Continuous Browser Testing

With browser updates rapidly accelerating, testing periodically leaves much risk of compatibility regressions sneaking through. Prevent this by:

Shift Left in Your SDLC

Move browser testing earlier in your software lifecycle – both for development and production branches. LocalBrowserStack Testing plugins integrate real browser access directly inside developer IDEs like:

• Visual Studio
• Eclipse
• IntelliJ

Fixing defects earlier avoids big delays reworking production releases.

Automate Testing in CI/CD Pipelines

Likewise, execute automated browser tests on every single code commit and deployment. BrowserStack offers plugins for all major CI/CD platforms:

• Jenkins
• CircleCI
• Azure DevOps
• Travis CI
• AWS CodeBuild

Combine automated checks with ongoing manual sanity testing across new work and changes. Testing early, testing often is key to preventing "browser surprises" before users ever see them.

The Bottom Line – Old Browser Users Matter Too!

Hopefully this guide has driven home exactly why continuing to test and optimize experiences for both old and new browser versions is non-negotiable.

Outdated browsers definitely seem easy to overlook – but a quality web experience should never depend on the date of a visitor‘s browser install. It is on you as site owners to protect all your users.

Leverage the right mix of real devices, proactive test management and diagnostics to nip legacy browser defects before impact. Keep your audience happy browsing on across generations of Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge and yes…even Internet Explorer.

What steps will you take today to enhance old browser testing for your sites and apps? Let me know if you have any other questions – I‘m always happy to offer personalized tips drawing from my decade-plus as a expert browser tester and adviser to top technology brands worldwide.