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There’s a common misconception that a sustainable website limits commercial growth, due to the perceived compromises businesses need to make to achieve a cleaner online presence. You may even think that carbon conscious websites mean inferior aesthetics, poor user experience (UX) and lack of search engine optimisation (SEO). This, however, is not the case.

With the news that the internet’s energy consumption is now overtaking that of the global airline industry, something has to change. The good news is that businesses can make a huge impact on those stats, simply by updating their website.

If you’re a business leader who doesn’t want to be a part of the problem, but also wants a website set up for commercial success, there’s no need to compromise on quality. A carbon conscious website can showcase your brand, improve performance and promote conversion, all whilst limiting your business’s negative impact on the environment. Here’s five reasons why a sustainable website is exactly what you need.

1. Faster Loading – The key to a carbon conscious website is to make it as fast as possible. This can be achieved by stripping away elements such as large image files, that take time to load and in the process burn unnecessary energy. Google’s own research has shown that the chance that a website visitor will bounce increases by 32% when page load time is three seconds, compared to one.
2. Better SEO – Faster loading speeds, combined with a tighter focus on prioritised keywords, helps boost the organic search rankings of a sustainable website. In fact, faster loading also helps you to pass ‘Core Web Vitals’ which is a metric used by Google in their ranking. To test yours, try https://pagespeed.web.dev/. Furthermore, a good sustainable website will also ensure optimal accessibility features are as standard, with key elements such as alt text (subtitles for images) ensuring that even imagery is SEO optimised. 
3. Slicker UX – Over the years we’ve become over reliant on excessive use of videos, imagery, blogs and sub-pages, which not only make a website sluggish and energy intensive, but also make it suboptimal for a slick user experience. A carbon conscious website puts the user first and pulls the user journey back to the basics of what they need, helping them get from A to B on your site in the quickest fashion possible.
4. Distinctive Design – With speed of the essence, designing a sustainable website forces one to think creatively about how to best convey a message, taking users on a short yet captivating journey. In this environment, long and intrusive auto-playing videos are no longer the solution to every problem. Instead, clever use of copy, graphics and animations, effortlessly guide the user through your site.
5. Optimal Conversion – What do all of the above lead to? Better conversion, of course. A carbon conscious website ensures the site is easier to find, easier to navigate and easier to purchase from. And what a delight that by doing this, you’re helping the environment too!

If you’d like to explore what a sustainable website could look like for you, or would like an in-depth site audit, please get in touch today.