Discover the role that SEO plays in increasing the returns of green marketing strategies for the benefit of the brand.
The sustainability of a business from an environmental standpoint has become an increasingly important asset in recent years, so much public awareness of how much the production of goods and services impacts the environment has increased.
Searches for terms such as "green" were typed more than 110,000 times in 2020 in the United States alone, and Google research reports that 66 percent of customers search for "eco-friendly" brands.
The company, through its web channels, has every interest in demonstrating its commitment to environmental sustainability in a transparent manner. In this regard, SEO optimization practices are able to extend the brand positioning benefits that come from the eco-friendly practices put in place.
What is green marketing SEO
The website is an important ally in codifying and publicizing a company's commitment to supporting the environment and sustainability. SEO today is not just about optimizing web page code, but in a broader sense involves all those factors that affect a site's appreciation by search engines, and ultimately by the people who use it.
Green marketing SEO is the practice of optimizing a website for search engines in order to attract consumers interested in sustainable and environmentally friendly products and services. This can be achieved by incorporating green marketing keywords and phrases into website content, as well as using eco-friendly design elements and practices.
SEO strategies of green marketing
SEO COPYWRITING AND SUSTAINABILITY
Skepticism is a reaction anyway when somewhat all brands claim to care about the environment. It's facts that count to differentiate oneself and demonstrate a real commitment. The phenomenon of greenwashing-the practice by which brands claim to be doing more for the environment than is actually happening-includes various sectors, from cosmetics to household products. National consumer protection authorities even went so far as to think that in 42 percent of cases the claims are exaggerated, false or misleading and could even qualify as unfair trade practices under EU rules.
By examining the concerns raised by the European Commission, we can draw insights into the sensitive issues that green websites are called upon to address through their content:
- absence of sufficient information to allow consumers to verify the accuracy of claims
- vague statements such as "awareness," "sustainability," and "eco-friendly" used to create the unsupported factual impression that a product has no negative impact on the environment
- lack of access to clear evidence behind reported green claims
Through the website, we must therefore engage in offering our users actual evidence of the brand's green commitment that will secure the company from reputational crises and increase authority with its audience.
Some on-page SEO strategies declined in green include:
- Identify your mission statement: What is your company doing to actively counter any environmental problems? Explain how you follow up your words with action (e.g., sponsorships, grassroots events, online campaigns, etc.).
- Keyword research: what is the target audience looking for on that topic? If your topic is niche, how can it be intertwined with environmental issues?
- Analyze competitors: doing a quick research on how competitors talk about the topic will provide valuable information on how competitors communicate their eco friendly activities, and provide insights on how to fill any gaps
- Once you've identified the macro topics that are relevant to your green activities (such as social justice or environmental conservation), think about how to highlight your expertise on the subject: videos? blog articles? podcasts? interviews?
Create relevant green contents: be as transparent as possible about how your brand or products espouse your mission and produce content about it. Tell clearly about what you are doing and make this information easily accessible on your website.
UX AND SUSTAINABILITY
Sustainable UX design, or Green UX, combines user experience design principles with ecological compliance to create enjoyable and environmentally responsible digital experiences.
By embracing fundamental concepts such as simplifying the user journey, minimalist design, and optimizing performance, designers can define digital experiences that place the user and respect for the ecosystem at the center.
The integration of sustainable UX design strategies not only benefits the environment, but also increases user satisfaction, reducing energy consumption and solidifying brand reputation.
It is therefore a matter of striking a design-level balance between usability, aesthetics, and ecological impact by designing interfaces that minimize energy consumption, reduce waste, and promote sustainability.
The purpose of ecofriendly website design should be to make it possible to perform the required actions with as few tasks as possible, so as to create more environmentally friendly and efficient browsing experiences.
For example, simplifying the checkout process on an e-commerce site not only improves user satisfaction, but also reduces the energy spent to accomplish each transaction.
The concept of sustainable UX design emphasizes the importance of optimizing performance in order to create faster and more responsive digital experiences. From adopting efficient coding practices to using image compression techniques, every aspect of design must be carefully refined to reduce loading times. In this way, we will not only improve user satisfaction, but also reduce the power consumption required to provide the required resources
In addition, we can opt to reduce the brightness of some site assets in order to lower emissions as well as improve loading performance.
After Google partnered with Arnette, an eyewear brand owned by EssilorLuxottica, to introduce a dark mode browsing option on the retailer's website, the improvements resulted in a lower digital carbon footprint and a 32 percent higher conversion rate for site visitors who used the feature. Ecograder estimated that Arnette's site is 59 percent cleaner than other web pages on the Internet.
In this case, precisely, EssilorLuxottica has demonstrated in its actions that it intends to reduce its ecological impact while maintaining high standards of navigation for its users.
ADS E SUSTAINABILITY
Do we want to do our part in eco-friendly advertising as well? Products such as Campaign Manager 360 and Display & Video 360 allow specialists to perform A/B tests on variables such as viewability, screen time and other attention metrics, cutting out extra impressions to improve sustainability and performance.
There is no shortage of virtuous examples of such efforts. The French electricity provider, EDF, is taking steps to make its advertising more sustainable by improving media efficiency through Display & Video 360. The agency specializing in green media, Greenbids, has found that using the Custom Bidding option within the tool has enabled EDF to optimize campaign performance, reducing the carbon footprint of ads while generating a high number of conversions.
As you say, there are many things to do and you don't know where to start? To start you can follow the guidance of Ad Net Zero, the advertising industry standards aimed at decarbonizing the production, distribution, and publication of advertising. Through a series of specific actions we can discover effective ways to reduce the production of harmful emissions in the performance of advertising activities.
WEBSITE PERFORMANCE AND SUSTAINABILITY
Internet browsing requires energy, and energy production can negatively impact the environment.
A green strategy when it comes to website management is to use providers and hosting services that are certified as sustainable, so that you can attest to your willingness not to impact the environment any more than you have to.
In any case, your website should also be easily accessible to people with disabilities, so that it is welcoming to everyone and is usable for Google as well.
If you want to make your website greener in deed as well as in intention, we-go is ready to help you: contact us now!