There are many ways that businesses can make their IT operations more environmentally friendly. They can start by making the right choice and reducing the amount of paper they use, recycling their electronics, and using energy-efficient equipment and green software. But new times mean new solutions. In the age of everything going digital, a much-needed practice is using green SEO techniques.
Green Search Engine Optimisation
Green SEO is the practice of optimizing a website for improved environmental performance. Good user experience can directly contribute to the reduction of the website’s carbon footprint. Green SEO techniques focus on the following: optimizing the website’s architecture and layout, ensuring faster loading times, using images and videos in smaller resolutions, generating only relevant traffic. All of these actions help to reduce the amount of time the user is spending when looking for relevant information, as well as the amount of energy needed to display said data.
Accommodating Search Engines
The fewer google searches are needed to find a website, the less energy is wasted to fulfill the user’s intent. A site’s architecture and organization can help or hurt its search engine ranking, therefore making the website more sustainable or less sustainable.
Webmasters should take advantage of SEO practices that help customize the website according to the user’s exact needs, meaning the first page the user lands on, should be the one they were looking for. This would help to reduce the overall search volume.
Website’s Architecture
There are many ways to optimize a website’s architecture to make it more sustainable. One way is to reduce the amount of energy needed to use the website. This can be done by using energy-efficient equipment and green software.
Another way is to make the website as easy to navigate as possible. The resolution might be creating internal linking between the articles and including a sitemap. Good architecture and tailored layout can save not only energy but also save time, which makes the user more eager to come back to the website.
Faster Loading Times
One of the best ways to optimize a website for faster loading times is to minify your JavaScript and CSS files. This can be done with a tool like YUI Compressor. You can also use Gzip compression to compress your files, which will make them smaller and therefore load faster.
Another way to optimize your website for faster loading times is to use a content delivery network (CDN). A CDN will host a copy of your website’s files on servers all around the world so that users will download them from the closest server. This will speed up the loading time for users located far from the hosting server.
Images and Videos
Shredding off even a few kilobytes from uploaded pictures or videos has a big impact on the whole digital ecosystem. Files should be compressed and resized to the smallest possible without sacrificing quality. This is also a great way to reduce the cost of storing huge amounts of worthless data.
Low-Energy Color Scheme
The most commonly used color in e-commerce sites is blue. Blue, according to studies, has the lowest energy usage of all colors. But not all businesses can make their layout blue, so the rule is that the darker website is, the less energy it consumes.
Green Web Hosting
Green web hosting is a way to improve the carbon footprint by using hosting services that are environmentally friendly. The green hosting company should use renewable energy sources, efficient hardware and its structure should be built according to ESG rules.
Useful Google Webmaster Tools
Google’s Webmaster Tools are a fantastic place to start when making a website more environmentally friendly. Webmasters should use keyword research to determine keywords to target. This will allow concentrating only on relevant content, meaning subjects that are appropriate for the visitors.
Google tools can also be used to check for errors on the website. If there is a problem, the time ad energy used to display a website can increase. This can help ensure that the website is running smoothly and efficiently and locate errors fast and then correct them.
SEO Tools That Will Help You Go Green
There is a multitude of SEO tools and techniques that reduce energy consumption. For example, Surfer SEO will help optimize the content, to make it more visible in SERP results. Others are more focused on the technical aspect of reducing carbon footprint, such as cleaning up the servers and centralizing the data.
Promotion of Green Content
Being ecologically aware is the first step when it comes to going green, that’s why companies should promote green content and green SEO practices. It is also great for the company’s reputation and can make it more ethical in the eyes of clients.
Green companies stand out among competitors because people are more and more informed on a daily basis. Soon, the success of a business will be determined by its sustainability.
Team-up with Like-Minded Businesses
Businesses also grow more aware of the impact the internet has on the environment. The dangers are real and the best way to fight them is by uniting like-minded companies and giving a platform for green solutions. It may seem like a little brick, but it helps to build a sustainable industry that doesn’t destroy our planet.
Conclusion
There are many benefits of using green SEO tactics. Not only can they help reduce your carbon footprint, but they can also improve the website’s search engine ranking and visibility. As a result, it brings more relevant traffic, which often has a direct impact on sales.
Being green is all about effectiveness and speeding up the process of the information you are looking for, therefore green websites are favoured by Google.
