How to Create an Eco-Friendly WordPress Website
How to create an Eco-Friendly WordPress Website and why you you should consider it. It’s simple and it’s a win win for everyone – business owner and the environment.
Did you know the Internet contributes two percent of global carbon emmissions? That number might sound small but it’s actually the same as the greenhouse-gas emissions of the aviation industry. It’s difficult to imagine something as intangible as the internet effects the environment negatively.
Did you know the Internet contributes two percent of global carbon emissions? This is higher than the aviation industry. Online business owners should understand that going “digital” doesn’t automatically mean “green.” So, it’s important to consider your business’ digital footprint as part of your overall sustainability strategy.
The internet’s environmental impact is greater than the entire aviation industry. Going “digital” doesn’t automatically mean “green.” So, it’s important to consider your business’ digital footprint as part of your overall sustainability strategy.
But digital marketers and web designers can lessen their organization’s impact and improve consumer relations through efforts to create energy-efficient user experiences.
The three main factors that contribute to the effect the web has on our environment are:
- The server farms and data centers that store websites, process search queries and hold the web’s content. This uses energy and, consequently, produces harmful emissions.
- User time on the internet. The longer internet users spend online, the more harmful emissions are created which harm the environment.
- The devices we use to surf online – how and who manufactures the computers, mobiles and IPads that we use and all their components.
Using an Eco-Friendly WordPress Website Design is a strategic way to build a beautiful website that is better for business owners, the planet and profit.
Learn how brands and digital marketers can implement sustainability principles in their online presence.
As brands increase efforts to lessen their impact on the environment by going digital, your online presence shouldn’t be an afterthought. It’s important to consider your website’s impact on your audience and the environment.
Have you considered the environmental impact of your website?
Your website should capture your brand’s essence (values, passion, and impact) while keeping the environment in mind. Maybe you’re looking to learn more about sustainable design practices to create a new website or are ready to overhaul your online presence. The helpful tips below can shed some insight on the benefits of having an Eco-Friendly WordPress Website and how to do it.
Do a quick audit to identify ways to improve your site usability and performance while reducing its digital footprint.
Click on image or go to www.ecograder.com
Why One Page WordPress Websites Are Trending Now
After navigating through the wilderness of search results, a unique visitor has landed on your page, and you’ve got one shot to make things work. For people who care about UX (user experience) design, a user’s behavior and impressions about a site, along with whether they stay and convert, is important.
The average web page is now over 2 megabytes (2008 kb, to be precise). Bloated websites lead to slow load times, frustrated users and wasted energy.
Is your website easy to navigate? Is the information organized? Consider that users are human. They can be impatient and lazy — I know I can be. If the information I want isn’t there, I bounce. And your users might, too.
However, if the site is organized well, and the information users want and the information that business owners need users to find is all in the right places, the site will be more successful.
It’s easy to use, and the information isn’t hiding. And when users can find the information they want, it will be easier for you to convey why they need to buy your product or service. Bonus! Everybody wins!
With so many people currently finding themselves having to re-invent their work and income earning potentials, it’s more important than ever to stand out amongst the crowd.
As a business tool, it will provide credibility and professional online visibility to an audience who is searching for your services and/or products.
The Building Blocks of Eco-Friendly Website Design
Here are the key areas where sustainability principles can be applied to the process of creating websites that are speedy, user-friendly and energy-efficient.
An eco-friendly website partners with hosts that operate sustainably and is designed to run fast. Speed is crucial to lowering usage, thus site speed can be achieved a number of ways – one of which is to have a simpler design (possibly even a one page website) and less photos and animation which tend to load slower and slow down website speed.
“Does this mean I have to forego a stylish and professional looking site?”
Absolutely not! You can still have the sleek and amazing site you want…..but it will be optimized and designed for efficiency and speed.
Here’s Why You Should Have An Eco-Friendly Website
We all do our best to buy organic and eco-friendly products, recycle, reuse and support sustainable businesses because we know this has a positive impact on the environment.
However, information about the environmental impact of websites, the Internet and online activity is not readily available to the public but is equally important and is easy to achieve. For that reason, just like in the real world, it is important to take measures to reduce the impact the web has on the climate and environment. And the only place where you can start is with yourself.
Getting Started with Going Green
Due to its virtual nature, it’s easy to forget that the existence of the Internet has real-life consequences. Since all that data has to live somewhere, everyday technology usage is ramping up its environmental toll.
With more and more people accessing the web and creating new online businesses, this will only increase. As a consequence, there has never been a better time to take steps to reduce your personal footprint and that of your site. You can follow the simple steps below to get started on your journey going green.
10 Ways to Make a Greener Website
- Choose an Eco-Friendly web host
- Use an Eco-Friendly one page website design
- Increase the speed and optimize SEO on your website
- Findability
- Mobile friendly
- Performance Optimization
- User Experience
- Monthly Maintenance
- Test
- Educate
1. Choose an Eco-Friendly Web Host & Eco-Minded Web Designer
One of the biggest steps you can take to reduce your website’s environmental impact is to find a web host that has the same goal.
That means, their servers are powered by renewable energy, the companies make use of energy use offsets, and adhere to other environmentally-conscious practices.
Green Geeks is a popular choice among many green website owners and is what I personally use for myself and my clients. It is comparable to many of the most popular hosting options but with the added benefit of being eco-friendly. Click here to visit
Also, working with a web designer that is knowledgeable about building greener websites is key. They will design and build website for less energy consumption without sacrificing design and function. Choosing a designer that partners with other like-minded businesses (copywriters, graphic artists, etc) can help to create your website dream team!
2. Use an Eco-Friendly Website Design
Here’s the long and the short of it. The more complicated your site design is, the more energy it consumes when loaded. This is why a one page website design can be effective. You can have everything you need on one page for simplicity and speed.
Each element of your site – the graphics, animations, code, etc. has a bearing on the energy footprint. Sites that load slowly draw more energy, and so do frequent server requests.
In addition to that, by focusing on what is absolutely necessary, you might just make your site more user friendly in the process. Studies have shown that users prefer less complicated websites as they’re easier to navigate.
Even if you don’t use a one page website design, sticking to the practices listed in this blog you can achieve an greener website.
3. Increase The Speed
As already mentioned, a slow website is one that uses a lot of energy. Besides that, users also really hate slow-loading websites. So much so, that page speed is a ranking factor to Google, including for mobile.
If that is not going to convince you to make page loading speed a priority, I don’t know what will.
Whether your motivation is based on sustainable practices or not, a faster site will always win and make the sale.
Bottom line, fast speed = more sales and growth + decreased global footprint.
Because websites are powered by energy, they use electricity. So, by doing simple things such as using fewer widgets, reducing the number of images and videos, making your site fast, efficient, easy to find and load…..it’s making a huge difference. You’re making it better for the planet.
4. Findability
Make sure your SEO is spot on so users can find you quickly and easily. The more time users spend searching online for what they want, the more energy they consume.
The easier content is to find, the fewer pages a user has to load to locate information. This means fewer server requests are made and that unnecessary page elements — like photos and videos, which take up a lot of bandwidth — don’t load, either. These small energy savings accumulate over time.
5. Mobile Friendly
We’re all on the go and spend a lot of our time on our mobiles. Make sure your site is optimized to be mobile friendly so you don’t lose the attention of mobile users.
6. Performance Optimization
Sustainability and page speed go hand-in-hand. When your website runs more efficiently, you use less processing power, which means that your site uses less energy and will have a lower carbon footprint. Your customers expect to get the content they want instantaneously, and efficient pages load more quickly, reducing your site’s bounce rate and keeping customers engaged and satisfied.
7. User Experience
Sustainable design is design that is efficient and accessible. Creating good experiences for both mobile and desktop users improve accessibility because it makes it easy for people to access your site no matter what device they use. Mobile-first web design also helps you avoid loading large assets designed for desktop machines, which improves your site’s speed and energy efficiency.
8. Monthly Maintenance
It’s not enough to build your website and then just abandon it to do its job. Monthly maintenance is crucial. You need to update any apps and plugins, check for any error messages or broken links that cause user problems and make sure you have the most up to date version of your website theme. If your site is updated and running smoothly it will perform better and everything will run faster.
9. Test Your Site Speed and Carbon Emissions
Ecograder (www.ecograder.com) is a free tool in which you enter a site’s URL and it reports the things you could do to improve that page. It’ll rank you based on high-level indicators for performance, user experience, SEO ranking and whether your site is using renewable energy. You can use the results to improve your site’s functionality.
If you wanted to estimate how much CO2 your website emits, you can go to the site WebsiteCarbon (www.websitecarbon.com) to get a general estimate of your emissions, so you can work to reduce or offset that by investing in renewable energy projects.
An example of Ecograder’s green findings for Google.com.
10. Educate
The thing about trying to save the planet is that you can’t do it alone. There are over seven billion of us and we can only make significant changes if we do it together. So, besides making your own eco-friendly website, another step you can take is to make your users aware of their own carbon emissions and let them know what they can do on their behalf.
Credibility
While “credibility” isn’t a “how to” for creating an eco friendly online presence, it is more of a “should do”. Take it full circle and go green with your website.
If you are an eco conscious business selling services or products, you will gain the trust of your potential customers by going green with your website. It gives you credibility, showing that you approach sustainability in all aspects of your professional endeavors from start to finish.
Anyone with an online presence or who is a digital marketer or business owner can take steps to preventing harmful effects on the environment with thoughtful consideration to their website. It’s not limited to business owners, it’s for everyone with a website.
Whether you have a DIY website or are working with a website designer and whether you have a complex multi-page website, taking some of the steps above will benefit you, your sales and the environment.
If we all do our part, as little as it may be, we can make a difference.
Learn more about creating an Eco-Friendly Website:
Top 5 Benefits of a One Page Website
WordPress & eCommerce Website Specialist
I work my magic from the far off lands of India where I’ve lived as a US Expat for the last 8 years! I work with clients from all around the globe.
I am an Eco-Minded WordPress Web Specialist who loves working with socially and environmentally conscious brands.
My website studio (www.amyeperez.com) was founded out of a desire to collaborate with purpose-led business owners. My goal is to fully reflect your brand story’s commitment to people and planet, while helping you earn the profit you deserve.
You’ve built a business that creates positive social and environmental change.
BUT DOES YOUR WEBSITE REFLECT A COMMITMENT TO THE PLANET?
I blend art and strategy with environmentally responsible practices to create websites that connect with your audience, tell your unique story, and help you confidently move toward your goals. Each site is strategically optimized to reduce your brand’s environmental footprint and help accomplish your biggest goals.
Amye Perez
WordPress & eCommerce Website Specialist