There are over 1.5 billion websites on the internet today and this number is only growing. With such a large amount of competition, it’s important that your website stands out from the rest. But not just for the sake of being different – your website needs to be sustainable.
What do we mean by sustainable? A sustainable website is one that can be maintained and operated over a long period of time without incurring excessive costs or causing harm to the environment.
Building a sustainable website can be a bit difficult for someone who has no prior experience in it. By following a few simple steps, you can create a website that is both environmentally friendly and cost-effective.
But if you have no prior knowledge of creating a website, this is the right page for you. In this article, we will not only list the best practices for creating a sustainable website but also share the resources that can help you publish your first ever website on the web.
Table of Contents
The Process of creating a sustainable website.
Get a brandable domain
A domain is the address of your website (i.e., www.example.com). It’s important to choose a domain that is both easy to remember and relevant to your business or brand.
When it comes to choosing a TLD, there are a few things to keep in mind. Some of the well-known TLDs are .com, .net, and .org. However, these TLDs can be quite expensive, especially if the domain you want is already taken. But in case the domain is at a premium price, you can try other TLDs like .io, .co, .me, etc which are quite cheaper.
If your business is about SaaS or technology, go for .io TLD because it has a tech-savvy feel to it. But, of course, this is not limited to tech companies only. Any other company is free to register a domain with the .io extension.
There are several .io domain registrars available on the internet, but choose the one that’s most trusted, don’t fall for “cheap .io domains” sellers, you might end up losing your domain in the future.
A reliable Hosting
Hosting is like a home for the website. It’s where all your website files, images, and videos are stored.
But when it comes to choosing a reliable and efficient hosting, one should consider several factors that we are listing below.
- Uptime: This is the amount of time your website is up and running. Look for a hosting provider that offers 99.9% uptime.
- Bandwidth: This is the amount of data your website can transfer per month. If you have a lot of images and videos on your website, you’ll need more bandwidth.
- Support: This is the level of customer service offered by your hosting provider.
If you have enough money to spend on hosting, stay sun to earth distance away from shared hosting. They are not efficient and prone to hacks and vulnerabilities because shared hosting is distributed among various website owners, and if even one of the sites catches the virus, the entire root directory can get wrecked.
Always choose cloud hosting, they are more efficient, faster, and scalable. Also, they don’t have any physical limitations like servers so you can easily scale up or down according to your needs without incurring any additional cost.
A content Management System that’s efficient & Admin friendly (CMS)
A Content Management System (CMS) is software that helps you create, edit, and publish content on your website. There are a lot of CMSs available, but we recommend using WordPress. It’s the most popular CMS with a market share of over 60%. It’s also free and open source.
WordPress is a great choice for creating a sustainable website because it’s very easy to use and has great community support as well. Moreover, you can find a lot of plugins and themes for WordPress which can help you extend the functionality of your website.
WordPress can also help you to create a blog as well as a shop, both in a jiffy.
Basic Technical SEO setup
SEO helps you to sustain higher rankings on search engines and bring organic traffic to your website. There are a lot of factors that go into SEO, but we’ll just focus on the basics.
The first thing you need to do is install an SEO plugin. We recommend using the Yoast SEO plugin. It is one of the most installed SEO plugin with 5 million active users.
Once you’ve installed and activated the plugin, the next thing you need to do is add a title and description for your website. The title and description are what appear in the search engine results.
You can also add keywords to your website so that your website can rank for those keywords. However, don’t stuff too many keywords into your website as it will just result in a lower-quality website.
The last thing you need to do is submit your website to Google Search Console. Google Search Console is a free service provided by Google that helps you track your website’s performance in the search results.
Creating a website design
Even though there are thousands of themes and templates available on WordPress, it is still better to create a custom website design. This will give your website a unique identity and help you stand out from the crowd.
Moreover, it can also help you beat the core web vitals as well as improve your website’s speed and performance.
If you don’t have the time or skills to create a custom website design, you can always hire a professional web designer to do it for you.
When creating a custom website design, there are a few things to keep in mind:
- Layout: It is said that the layout of a website should be simple and easy to navigate. All the important elements of your website should be easily accessible.
- Design: The design of your website should be clean and simple. Avoid using too many colors and fonts as it will just make your website look cluttered.
- Images: Use high-quality images on your website. Avoid using stock photos as they are often overused and can make your website look
- Mobile responsiveness: Do I even have to explain this? More than 70% of internet users use mobile to visit websites, and a mobile responsive design is very important for every website.
Enable Caching
Caching is a simple process of keeping static data such as javascript, CSS, Html, and images preloaded in a server so that it can be served as soon as a user sends a request. When you enable caching on your website, the pages and files are stored in the cache so that they can be loaded faster the next time someone visits your website.
Caching can help you improve your website’s speed and performance as well as reduce the load on your server.
You can enable caching using a plugin like W3 Total Cache or WP Super Cache. Both plugins are available for a minimal price.
Don’t forget to take backups
Backing up your website is important because it helps you restore your website if something goes wrong. There are a lot of backup plugins available, but we recommend using Updraft Plus. It’s the most popular backup plugin with over 2 million active installations.
Updraft Plus is a great choice for creating a sustainable website because it allows remote backups to services like Dropbox, Google Drive, and Amazon S3.
You can also schedule automatic backups so that your website is backed up on a regular basis.
Conclusion
Creating a sustainable website requires planning and effort. However, it’s worth the effort as it can help you save time and money in the long run. Follow the tips mentioned above and you’ll be well on your way to creating a sustainable website.
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