Now that you know why it can be important to see how many visitors are coming to your site from various browsers, we can take that a step further and look at a few more of the capabilities your visitors may have when viewing your site. The Browser Capabilities reports offer data on six additional system settings to consider when maximizing your visitor’s experience on your site. They include Operating Systems, Browsers and Operating System combinations, Screen Colors, Screen Resolutions, Flash Versions, and Java Support.
Operating Systems
Understanding the operating systems your visitors are using can be useful when adding new technologies or features to your site, such as pages for mobile users. If only a small percent of your visitors are coming to your site from mobile operating systems such as the iPhone or Android, maybe this is a trend to watch before spending too many resources on creating pages targeted at mobile users.
Browsers and Operating System
This report takes the previous two and combines them into one showing you what browser and operating system combinations your visitors are using. This is yet another metric to consider when doing site designs and upgrades.
Screen Colors
The screen colors setting on your visitors’ computers can have an impact on how your site looks to them. You can’t design for all possibilities, but taking into consideration what the majority has can be useful.
Screen Resolutions
Similar to Screen Colors, the Screen Resolution of your visitors effects how they are going to view your site. With screens ranging from wide screen to mini notebooks you want to optimize your site to look great on as many as possible.
Flash Versions
If you have Flash on your site or are considering adding it is good to know if most of your visitors have the capability to view your Flash features. If they have to install or upgrade software to view your site, some visitors, and maybe some conversions, may be turned away.
Java Support
This report simply tells you if Java is supported on your visitors’ platforms or not. Optimize your site to be more engaging and usable and the result can be higher conversions.
The Browser Capabilities reports may not be ones you dig into on a daily basis. But it is good to examine these metrics every now and again to make sure your site is keeping up with your visitors’ capabilities while not outpacing them either. Before you do any major additions or redesigns that may include the latest technologies be sure to study these reports and work to optimize your site to meet the capabilities of as many of your visitors as possible.
Up Next: Visitor Reports – Network Properties – Network Location
