It’s estimated nowadays that with over 4 billion people using the internet, the combined carbon footprint of energy, infrastructure as well as usage of smartphones and laptops result in about 3.7% of greenhouse gas emissions on a global scale. It’s nearly as big as the airline industry contribution! What should we do to decrease that amount and contribute to creating a greener future?
What is the impact of SEO on environmental sustainability?
In order to change that situation, we should take specific actions to partially counter it and reduce the harmful impact of the IT industry on the climate. Our activity on the internet is not without harm to the environment that’s why we should introduce more eco-friendly digital marketing tactics. OK, but what does SEO have to do with a sustainable environment? Its influence isn’t direct but everything here happens with a butterfly effect – small actions lead to big changes in the ecosystem and a larger perspective. Every step taken on the internet consumes resources from electricity (it’s estimated that every year, around 416.2 TWh of electricity is used to make the internet run!) to devices used like smartphones, tablets, or laptops which causes generating more and more CO2 emissions. By the way, if you’re curious about how environmentally harmful your website is, you can calculate it here: https://www.websitecarbon.com/.
The optimization of your website and your whole online activity, not only enhances user experience and their comfort but also builds trust and credibility. A strong and sustainable search engine optimization strategy will help you to stand out from your competitors. In order to contribute to a greener and clearer internet environment, take into consideration some SEO tips we mention below.
1. Run your own blog and provide quality content
To gain the trust of your customers you should stay in contact with them not only through ads and posts on social media. Sustainable brands should educate their recipients about the products and the latest newest trends in the industry via their own blog. Being consistent in writing a blog and posting regularly, will bring you new loyal customers, save their time for looking for information in other sources and thus save some energy resources. Remember also to provide your target audience with quality content.
2. Use keyword research
Keyword research is a strategy that helps to identify growing trends and also to see what terms resonate better with different groups of your target audience. Multiple different groups of people with different needs and purposes may look for one product so there will be many different search paths toward one destination product. However, a specific product can be more interesting for one target group and less attractive for another. Consider proper keyword optimization when creating your content to get to know your audience better and improve your marketing strategy.
3. Answer long-term queries using SEO
The internet often leaves users confused giving them loads of imprecise information. To make it easier for them, a smart idea would be to answer longer queries with your content instead of using only 3-4 words. For that reason, include in your title the whole phrase, for example: “Why Green IT is important for the environment?” instead of “Green IT and the environment”. Giving users simple and direct answers should help you build a trustful relationship with readers and stop them from further searching.
What are other sustainable SEO strategies?
The above-mentioned strategies will maintain your brand in a high position in Google ranking and make your brand more trustful and sustainable. Moreover, in order to build a sustainable long-term SEO strategy, you should consider changing a few factors that make your website less efficient and thusly causes consuming more energy:
Code – Clean code impacts the efficiency of the functionality of your website on the given device or platform. Better flow of your website prevents people from switching to other search results and translates into more energy saved.
Images – The bigger the size of images you insert onto your website the longer the load time and the more energy needed to make it work properly and smoothly. If possible, make the pictures smaller and reduce their quantity.
Videos – Similarly to images, the bigger the size and quantity of the videos on your website, the more energy resources are needed to maintain the proper flow of your platform. It’s relevant to optimize these features if you want to reduce the negative impact of your company on the sustainability of the environment.
UX Design – Webpages that are accessible, easy to navigate, and provide valuable content are beneficial not only for users’ comfort but also help in managing the environmental impact of your website.
Content – Properly optimized content that you create is also helpful for finding and a better understanding of your website by search engines. When creating content, take special care of optimizing such aspects as URL, Meta description, Title tags, Headers, Alt texts, etc. One of the most significant sustainable SEO practices is to deliver people valuable content and precise information so people who are looking for it will be able to easily find and consume it.
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Effective SEO strategies contribute to a greener future
Successful search engine optimisation is a long process and affects the environment indirectly. That’s why fighting its effects will also take a greater span of time and require making small steps. Although all these small changes will create a big change in the wider picture.
Don’t forget that optimizing and improving your website, design and content brings your company even more profits – with a sustainable search engine optimization strategy you will attract more traffic to your website. That also increases your chances to reach the right target group with the right messages and information. If this article got you interested in the topic and you’d like to find out other SEO tips, you can read our blog post with 9 SEO tips for your new website.
