Top tips for a ‘greener’ website

• Use rich media content sparingly - don’t embellish pages with videos or heavy files that add little value.
• Write succinct copy. Shorter copy makes for lighter pages and is more engaging.
• Create pages with a user-first approach. Give members the content they need, not what reflects your organogram.
  Our experts can help you identify the content your members will value. 

• Do you have pages with low visits and short dwell time? Have you identified the content isn’t being read?
  This could be because it is out of date or focused on internal needs rather than your audience. 
• Remove obsolete pages and content sections to lighten your website and deliver a better experience by enabling content to be discovered more easily, relevant and useful. 

• When we build a new website we challenge our clients to audit their existing content. Content that isn’t being read or has a high bounce rate should be removed on a regular basis. Our experts can help you identify which content you should retain or revise.

• Migrating existing content to a new website? Don’t just lift and shift content - rewrite and reshape it so it is more effective, useful and takes up less space. To coin a sustainability phrase: reduce, recycle and reuse your content. 

• Large images make up the majority of heavy files on websites across devices. Don’t add images bigger than you need to.
• ‘Lossless’ image compression can reduce large image size significantly - from megabytes to kilobytes. 
• There are many open source or free compression tools available including Squoosh from Google Chrome Labs, ImageOptim and Caesium.
• Pixl8’s Preside platform imaging tools auto-scales images and optimises them for the web.

• Get rid of heavy PDFs and create longform HTML pieces instead. By removing heavy files you will see a data saving benefit and lower bandwidth. Alternatively, saving pdfs as a Reduced Size PDF can reduce their size.

• Our longform report feature in Preside can help you do this. See how the NUJ are using it on their website.

• In 2014 a report by the World Bank highlighted that a third of its pdfs had never been downloaded. Do you really need all your pdfs?

• Duplicate, incomplete or out of date CRM records take up unnecessary space. If you have a new CRM integration or are moving to Preside CRM our team can advise on what you should move across.

• Custom font files can significantly increase the file size of web pages. A typical custom font file can be over 200kb and may only include a single weight. Multiple typefaces and multiple font weights can add up quickly, increasing energy use and causing slow performance. 

This practice delays loading images and other website assets until they are needed by the user as they scroll down a page. The benefits include:

• Reducing page weight so there is a quicker initial load time
• Conserving bandwidth by delivering content to users only if it’s requested
• Conserving both server and client resources, as only some of the images or code need to be rendered or executed

• Shorter user journeys not only deliver a better online member experience but also saves energy. The amount of time spent online is reduced along with the number of pages that users need to access to accomplish their goals.
• Remove barriers such as pop-up banners and avoid ‘dark patterns’ that intentionally trick or divert people. 
• Eliminate proprietary technologies that require a user to install additional software before they can use your digital product or service.

• At Pixl8, we are always optimising Preside - our platform for developing, building and maintaining websites. We actively move our clients to the latest version so that their websites perform at the highest level.