You have probably heard of SEO, but have you heard of sustainable SEO? With the rise of environmentally conscious customers, sustainable SEO is a holistic approach about the long-term effects of sustainable practices. In other words, creating high quality content to reduce energy consumption, ranking high in Google. In an increasingly digitalized world, progressively more data is being stored in data centers. Due to the higher energy requirement, the ecological footprint continues to grow.
What should you be doing to rank high in Google in the long-term?
Evergreen content
First you should concentrate on evergreen content. Videos, blogs or posts remain relevant over a long time by not focusing on current trends. Evergreen content constantly generates traffic, without regular updates. It is important to focus on long-tail keywords. The topics should be words that the target audiences consistently search for as they are also less competitive. As the keywords are more unique, it is easier for customers to find the content over time. In addition to that, customers who search for unique keywords are further along in the process of buying the product. This results in a higher conversion rate.
Green web hosting
Moreover, to reduce the carbon footprint and environmental impact it is important to choose green web hosting providers. Often they use renewable energies like solar or wind. To identify if a hosting provider is truly committed to sustainability, you should look for certifications like the ISO 14001. It could also be their support for environmental initiatives like ocean conservation. With Home – Green Web Foundation you can check if your hoster works with sustainable energy. To reduce server load, use more efficient image formats like WebP. It offers better compression, instead of JPG to improve user experience by faster load times.
Mobile optimization
Lastly, mobile optimization uses less data which reduces the overall energy that is required. User experience gets improved by faster loading times and better functionality on mobile devices. This reduces bouncing rates as customer engagement gets optimized. Less resources need to load, leading to a better battery life and less charging of the device. By optimizing mobile websites energy consumption can indirectly be reduced. The Website Carbon Calculator v3 | What’s your site’s carbon footprint? can show you how much CO2 your website produces per visit.
While sustainable SEO practices can have beneficial effects on our environment and economic performance it is crucial to consider negative aspects. As these could slow down the implementation of sustainable SEO.
What´s the catch here?
Sustainable SEO has to be reviewed constantly. Are the implemented measures working? Are requirements of our target audience changing? Since SEO optimization means redesigning websites, it requires investments and has the consequence of higher operational costs. This can be difficult, especially for startups. In addition to that, sustainable optimization can be very time intensive. Also it might require specialists what again contributes to higher costs. Besides higher costs the positive environmental impacts can be less compared to larger industrial activities
In conclusion, sustainable SEO is not abount slowing down processes. By implementing these strategies, companies can ensure that their practices are appealing to environmentally conscious customers. While also being part of the global pursuit of sustainability. Higher costs can lead to companies questioning the effectiveness of the implementation in relation to their investments. Despite the challenges, the long-term effect of sustainable SEO ensures better user experience and fosters growth and credibility. After all, every change -no matter how small- contributes to a more sustainable future. It is also important to diversify the contributions and not focus exclusively on industrial activities.