I’d like to begin by saying I’m not a writer. I can plan your project and build you a website; I can even show you around a construction site. But writing a blog? Let’s just say I’m new to this…
But, as Project Co-ordinator at Insynth, I was given the opportunity to attend Brighton SEO – a training conference for those interested in developing their skills in the world of digital marketing and SEO.
So, I wanted to take this opportunity to write my first ever blog post and reflect on one of the sessions I attended.
The Future of Search by Tom Greenwood, Wholegrain Digital
As we all know, aviation is a high polluter. It accounts for 2.1% of pollution worldwide.
But I was surprised to learn that the internet is accountable for a massive 3.9% of carbon emissions and a staggering 10% of global electricity demand.
You’re probably thinking… “Why is this guy criticising the internet on a blog about digital marketing?”
But, after listening to Tom Greenwood of Wholegrain Digital, I’ve come away with some exciting ideas on how we can reduce carbon emissions (and improve web user experience) through clever website design.
The Theory
A plain text HTML website is the most efficient site, but that isn’t what we as consumers want to look at, so how do we approach website development with this in mind?
1. Do we need this?
How many times do we make a decision based on a, “well why not?” Do you want another image here? A video? Well, why not? We have reasons; higher pages speeds, smaller carbon footprint, and having our site appear as number one on Google! The takeaway? Every element, be it text, image or video, should provide something to the bigger picture. It should build the journey.
2. What could we lose?
We have built our site. Now let’s review the elements we have. “Could we lose some of them?” Our thoughts shouldn’t always be ‘what else can we add to our website?’ The expression “too much of a good thing” it’s been around for a long time, and it stands today in our SEO as much as it has stood in the previous time we have heard it. The takeaway? Look back over designs and decide if certain elements are necessary and whether it has a purpose. If not, lose it and speed up your site.
3. Can we do the same with less?
Everyone loves a good image on a website but is this one needed? A study done by the Yale school of management tracked eye movement, and without going overboard in detail, people weren’t paying attention to the images. The takeaway? The image needs to be useful. It needs purpose!
The Practical & Immediate
There comes a time to look at our websites, and that’s when we can address the above points from the ground up, but what options do we have with our current sites?
Images
A well-optimised image can go from 11mb to less than 100kb so why wouldn’t we be doing this (we already are, but we should always have this in mind) or if you have any icons, let’s go for a SVG. At up to 90% smaller, it’s a saving we want.
Fonts
Picking your font is a big thing. It’s part of your brand. But this is something to think about: use system fonts to increase your loads speeds, and if not, make sure you’re using a woof2 subset font.
CSS
Are you adding on to your website? If you’re able to reuse the styles off your site, you’re creating reusable CSS. This means continuity and reducing your footprint.
Conclusion
There were so many talks and excellent speakers at this event, that it is hard to pick where to go. This was a talk I’m glad I made. It provided methods and tools to help us achieve “the future of search” and reduce our footprints.
There are going to be points from this talk that we will all think “this isn’t our area” or “surely this is already being done”. We need to ask the questions if we want to see the changes, and whether it’s a refresh or a new website, we can go greener and get ever closer to those page speeds that give us that number one spot on google.
If you’d like to discuss your website requirements further, don’t hesitate to get in touch.
About Insynth
At Insynth we deliver a predictable flow of leads, customers, and specifications for building product brands through our inbound marketing approach, proven to reach a technically demanding audience.
We use the latest marketing techniques such as construction inbound marketing, to equip building product companies to grow sustainability in this era of digital transformation.
As the only HubSpot certified agency to major in construction marketing. We have a proven formula of bringing a variety of functionalities together including CRM Implementation, Web Design, Sales Automation, SEO, and Email Marketing to achieve your ultimate aim: Growing your business and gaining new specifiers and customers.
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