Blog looks different — Have you checked your blog look in some browsers?
I have modified one of my autoblog’s theme today, and somehow it does not look same in each browsers.
It looks fine in Firefox, but this blog looks different in ie. I thought some people might have this problem too.
I personally installed some popular browsers in my computer, such as ie (internet explorer), Firefox, Safari, Chrome, and Opera..
Too much i know..But this is because i often modify some themes that i use for my blogs, well, though i use the same SEO theme, which is Thesis, but i want to modify them differently..
Usually i check if my blog looks different after the modifications.
The most troublesome is IE. When my blog looks fine in other browsers, IE gave me some troubles, most of the time, my blog looks different on IE.
It depends on your stats whether you care or not if your blog looks different.
This is actually just a suggestion. I mean for the perfect result, you should check if you blog looks different in a browser.
But because not everyone know how to fix “blog looks different” problem, and not everyone want to hire someone, so it also depends on your blog stats.
You can find what browsers your visitors use mostly. This information can be found in Google analytic. (see where to paste google analytic code in wordpress post).
If most of your visitors use Firefox, then you can only check on Firefox, and then, other browsers in the lists.
It is very well known that people tend to not using Internet Explorer browser anymore these days.
So i would not be worried too much if my blog looks different only on IE.
But how to fix and what is the solution if blog looks different in some browsers?
If you blog looks different in some browsers you can do some following fix solutions:
1. Only use plugins that you really need (check out my best blog plugins list).
Try to validate your site whenever you installed a new plugin. This way, you can track before you installed a plugin and after.
I am usually doing this with this blog. Example, before i installed plugin X i validated my blog. Then i installed and deactivate the plugin, use it in my blog and check again if it is validated.
So many times, my theme is already validated, but some plugin causes just some w3c errors.
So this is why i recommend, do not use too much plugins if you care to have a clean coded theme.
Of course there are some pros and contras about clean coded theme, however i prefer to have a clean coded theme, then to have a great looking layout, but the code has tons of errors.
So it is also people preference.
2. Validate your theme in w3c validator.
If it has errors, then it is not surprising if your blog looks different in some browsers.(see how i do validate wordpress blog with my previous theme before Thesis).
Internet Explorer is the most sensitive one! 🙁
Try to fix those errors, if you know a bit of coding it won’t be too hard, except if the error code is caused by the plugin you use, then it is also recommended that you don’t touch plugin codes, unless you know what you are doing.
3. Validate css in w3c css validator.
This is the last step i actually use if my blog looks different in some browsers.
So let me know what you think, have checked if you blog looks different in internet explorer browser?
Hi Kimi, I always wondered why web pages look different in different browsers? After reading your post I now know why, because of HTML errors!
Thanks for this great useful information. Now I can get my code checked and correct anything if need be and have a squeaky clean website or web page that will look the same in all browsers.
Not only web pages, but sometimes it may be just a segment that is not coming out right. With w3c validator it can be a quick fix.
Also, its good to know the cleaner the HTML code, the better it is for search engines.
I hope your holidays are going great. Have a happy and prosperous New Year Kimi. Catch up with you soon.
Terry Conti
Hi Terry!
Yes, that’s my habit to check how my blog looks in some browsers.
Indeed cleaner code helps Google bots or other bots to render our site much nicer.
Thank you for your visit and wish you all the best for 2011 as well!
Kind regards,
Kimi.