When designing or re-designing your website, it’s not enough to know the numbers on browser usage across the internet, for all sites total. You should study your own numbers. Using your web analytics software, study the browser of choice for your site, from your audience, not the internet at large. Your audience will will tell you a lot, if you pay attention to the numbers. Don’t guess — know for sure how many are viewing your site in Firefox and Safari, as opposed to Internet Explorer or Opera.

From the chart shown below, we see that although IE may have a larger market share, overall, that’s not the case for 37signals.com. This may be true for your site as well. Different industries attract different audiences with diverse demographics. It’s not a one-size-fits-all world out there, so don’t assume that as the internet goes, so goes my website. Use your numbers, but to use them you must first know them. If you’re not using web analytics software, like Google Analytics, or FeedBurner, get started as soon as possible. Stop guessing, know your numbers.