PJWD#15: How environmentally friendly is your website? 🌳

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Hello there |FNAME|,

How are you doing?

Here in my corner of Stockport I am gearing up for a bit of a rest, but not before wrapping up some more exciting client projects and an Instagram Live this Friday!

Last month was a busy one, with two SEO for Small Businesses workshops (https://pauljardine.co.uk/seo-workshop-for-beginners/) and going live with projects such as Heaton Hops’ online shop. It was very exciting hitting the big green launch button (imaginary!) and then see the first beer sale happening within half an hour. More about that below!

This month I’ve also written about how we can all make our websites more environmentally friendly, as everything we do online generates carbon emissions. See the blog post to learn how you can find out how big an impact your site has, and what you can do about it.

Here’s what you can read about in this month’s newsletter:

H (#small business inspiration) ow environmentally friendly is your website? (#environment)
Should your website have a blog? (#blog)
New case study: Heaton Hops online shop (#beer)
Supercharge your content Instagram Live (#live)
Bo helps you speed up your site (#bo’s tips)

** How environmentally friendly is your website?

How environmentally friendly is your website? - Paul Jardine Web Design

Make your website more eco-friendly with these tips and tools incuding choosing green hosting and making your website load faster.

Environmentally conscious businesses have been able to offset their travel emissions for years, but what about the impact of our online business practices on our planet.

One way to start addressing our digital carbon footprint is to make our websites more environmentally friendly. This blog post explains how even online life has an environmental impact, and what steps you can take to reduce the digital carbon footprint of your business.

Read the post (https://pauljardine.co.uk/blog/how-environmentally-friendly-is-your-website/)

** Should your website have a blog?

https://pauljardine.co.uk/blog/should-my-website-have-a-blog/ Since starting to blog twice a month in earnest since last April, I have seen traffic to my website increase by over 100%. If you rely on people visiting your site to buy from you, you can no longer delay starting your blog!

This post explains the benefits of blogging for your marketing and search performance, and gives pointers to help you get started.

Read the blog about blogs (https://pauljardine.co.uk/blog/should-my-website-have-a-blog/)

** Cheers for beers! Heaton Hops online shop is live

https://pauljardine.co.uk/case-studies/heaton-hops-web-shop/ I was very happy to launch the brand new Heaton Hops (https://heatonhops.co.uk/) website in June, and see them sell their first beers online within half an hour of going live!

It was a great project to work on (I was a customer at their award-winning Heaton Chapel shop previously), but it was particularly satisfying to help Charlotte and Damian adapt their business following lockdown.

The new site attracted over 2,500 visits and 22,000 page views in the first two weeks since the launch, and lots and lots of beer has been sold through it.

Their phase 1 investment paid for itself in under 48 hours! You can find out more about what happened behind the scenes in the case study.

Read the Heaton Hops case study (https://pauljardine.co.uk/case-studies/heaton-hops-web-shop/)

** Instagram Live this Friday

https://www.instagram.com/pj_webdesign/ This Friday, 10 July, I will be going live on Instagram with Karen Webber of Goodness Marketing (https://goodnessmarketing.co.uk/) to chat about how small business owners can supercharge their content.

If you’d like to find out more about how content can help your marketing and performance in search, have a listen.

We will go live at 1pm BST on Karen’s account (https://www.instagram.com/goodnessmarketing/) !

Follow me on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/pj_webdesign/)

** Bo’s Top Tips: Speed up your site

Bo, Stockport’s favourite web design hound, is a fan of slow living but speedy websites.

He knows that hasty humans have little patience for slow-loading sites, and that Google give treats to good boys and good girls who have speedy sites.

Here’s how you can do it!

Clean design isn’t enough. You need clean code to make sure you impress the robots with the simplicity.
Only keep the files you absolutely need for each page.
Compress your images so that they are still of good quality, but small file sizes.
Uninstall any plugins that aren’t needed.
Consider whether you need third-party scripts (such as social media feeds) on your site. If they are not crucial, get rid of them.

Sending love to you all. Be safe (and speedy)!

I’m currently able to take on more projects from September 2020 as well as consultancy work (https://pauljardine.co.uk/services/) . If you’re thinking of working with me, please note I will be on holiday from 20 July - 3 August.

When I get back, I want to make sure I keep creating content that you find really valuable. So please get in touch to let me know what you would appreciate the most!

Take care,

PS. If you liked this newsletter, please send it onto someone who might find it useful!

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Good Websites for Good People

LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-jardine-web-design/) Instagram (https://instagram.com/pj_webdesign) ** Twitter (https://twitter.com/pjwebdesign)

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