Five Tips For Making Your Website More Sustainable
Looking to improve your website and make it more sustainable? Then look no further!
As digital wizards with a desire to save our planet, the team at Coconut Design have uncovered some of the most effective ways to reduce your business’ carbon footprint!
Keep reading as we reveal five great tips for making your website more sustainable…
Green Web Hosting
Although it is only one part of the journey, green web hosting is arguably the most well-known component of sustainable websites.
When you open a website, there are three main actors: the server, the network of the internet and the computer (or other device). By choosing a sustainable hosting provider you can impact one of these three.
Energy consumption by the other two parts will only depend on how well your website is built. In fact, the energy consumed by the global transmission network is roughly the same as the energy consumed by the server parks. Choosing a green web host is therefore a good idea, but there are many more things that can and should be done.
DOWNLOAD OUR FREE COLOUR PALETTE COLLECTION!
- 33 irresistibly beautiful palettes
- With colour codes, name and usage ideas
- Illustrated with eye-pleasing images
- 100% FREE
Image Optimisation
Unfortunately, it’s very common for great websites to have huge photos that take forever to load. This isn’t just bad for the environment, but inconvenient for users too.
Image files can easily add a lot of overhead to web traffic and can quickly increase the emission levels of a site. Unlike optimised images, loading these files takes more time and more energy, not to mention the higher bounce rate they can cause.
Image file size (mainly) depends on three factors: the quality (compression rate), the dimensions, or resolution (height and width in pixels) and the third one is file format such as jpg, png, webp.
Knowing these, how can we optimise our website images?
Well, we suggest playing with the quality and resolution, keeping in mind the location and function of the image. For example it’s not necessary to upload a huge image if it is going to be just a small profile image. Or, if an image is used as a background image, it doesn’t need to be a high quality picture. File format is trickier, but as a general rule, we suggest opting for file formats such as jpeg and webp.
Responsive Design
Responsive design aims to provide an optimal viewing experience. For example, easy reading and navigation with a minimum amount of resizing, panning, and scrolling – across a wide range of devices (from desktop computer monitors to mobile phones).
Although it is best if we think about this during the planning process, you can still do it even if you already have a website.
So, what are some basic tips for creating a responsive website?
First and foremost, check your website on various devices (or on your phone at least). Despite being a very simple process, we have found that few business owners actually do this.
And no, we don’t mean just doing this once. We highly recommend that you maintain regular checks. This way, you will be able to view what the majority of your website visitors will likely see. We suggest paying attention to the size of the clickable areas and the operation of the menu.
Additionally, it is always a good idea to check the speed of your website on a mobile phone. This is one of the most important ways to make a good impression on your visitors.
Focus on Website Speed & User Experience
So, why is website speed so important? Well, first of all, visitors don’t want to wait. Your website has 2 seconds to load or half of your visitors will leave (based on the survey by digital.com, 2022). In other words, the slower the website, the higher the bounce rate (this is the percentage of visitors that leave a webpage without taking an action). Of course, it can be painful. Especially if you have actually paid for these visitors (via paid social or paid search).
And the bad news doesn’t stop there. It is harmful for the environment too, because every visitor who comes to the site unnecessarily, means wasted energy. And even if they do wait, the longer the website takes to load, the more server capacity and energy it consumes.
So, what are some quick ways to create a faster website?
- Compress images: Large images can significantly slow down your website. You can use image compression tools to reduce file sizes without sacrificing quality.
- Don’t use too many unnecessary features such as maps, gifs & video content.
- Reduce the use of web fonts.
Once the website loads, our mission is to help visitors find the information they are looking for as quickly as possible. You should:
- Create an information hierarchy: the most important information has to be the most visible, the less important, extra information can be smaller. This includes text, images, videos, and other graphic elements that carry information.
- Prioritise readability. For instance, the contrast between the text and background is something that can be easily improved. You should also break up large pieces of text and use good readable fonts.
- Focus on making the website actionable. This doesn’t just mean clear CTA buttons, but most pages should be designed with a specific goal intended for the visitor. So, in order to build appropriate user journeys, we must ensure that proper focus is placed on what each visitor persona may wish to accomplish.
Collect Data Over Time
And last, but not least, we highly recommend collecting & analysing data about your website and its visitors. Use tools like Google Analytics and Search Console to monitor what’s important for your business, and make data-driven decisions to achieve your goals in an eco-friendly way.
And there you have it! Five simple steps for making your website more sustainable (and effective).
So, if you’re ready to take the next steps in doing your bit for the planet, why not book your FREE consultation now?
DOWNLOAD OUR FREE COLOUR PALETTE COLLECTION!
- 33 irresistibly beautiful palettes
- With colour codes, name and usage ideas
- Illustrated with eye-pleasing images
- 100% FREE