How to Measure
SEO Sustainability
Ellie Connor
iCrossing
speakerdeck.com/econn1
linkedin.com/in/ellie-connor/
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We don't need to
recap why we
need
sustainability
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Climate change is
overwhelming, and it’s
easy to feel we can’t
do anything
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SEO plays a
role in the fight
against climate
change
3.5%
AVIATION INDUSTRY
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SEO plays a
role in the fight
against climate
change
3.7%
INTERNET &
COMMUNICATIONS
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iCrossing UK
How Many of You Have Considered
Sustainability in Your SEO Strategy?
Poll Time
• Client Name
• 10.03.2022
• Project Name
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The global carbon
footprint of Google
search
is the equivalent of
7 return trips to the moon
per day
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It is our duty to
take action now
With the rise of AI,
internet carbon
emissions will double
by 2030
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We can’t stop our reliance on the internet , but
we can reduce how much energy is spent on
search
Reducing
energy needed
to load a page
Reducing
users’ number
of page loads
Making bot
crawls easier
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How to Measure
SEO Sustainability
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Spoiler: We’re SEO
Specialists, Not
Environmental Experts
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We know that reducing energy usage
reduces water waste and carbon emissions
Energy usage
Water
Waste
Carbon
Emissions
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Metrics That Reflect
Lower Energy Consumption
• Page Speed
• CWV
• Server Load Time
• CDN Time
• SSR Presence
• Text to Code Ratio
• Page Size
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Metrics That Reflect
Lower Energy Consumption
• Low time spent on
page + high
conversion
for PLPs
• Low Bounce Rate
• Crawl Depth < 3
Less Page
Loads
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Metrics That Reflect
Lower Energy Consumption
• Optimised IA
• All 200
indexable URLs
in sitemap
• No 4xx/5xx errors
• No 3xx redirect
chains
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Look Familiar?
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A Good SEO Strategy
is a Sustainable Strategy
A good user journey
is naturally a more
sustainable
one, which is SEO’s
bread and butter
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However, metrics around CO2 Emissions and
Water Wastage Speak More to Us
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If we calculate energy usage per web page
load, we can (roughly) calculate CO2 and
water usage
CO2
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To calculate energy, we need to look
at the journey of a web page load
Total energy = server energy + data centre energy
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A server request uses roughly
0.00015 kWh for a 1 second page load
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A Data Centre requires
1.8 x more energy than the servers it houses
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Total energy =
0.0004 kWh for 1 second page load
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CO2
For every 1 second of page load
0.0004kWh 0.5kg/kWh 0.2g CO2
Measuring carbon footprint
=
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If your
homepage has
a 2.5s page
load speed and
10,000 visits a
month…
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For every 1 second of page load
0.0004 kWh 3L/kWH 1.2 ML
Measuring water footprint
=
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If your
homepage has
a 2.5s page
load speed and
10,000 visits a
month…
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Combining the
Metrics
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We’ve created an SEO Sustainability
Calculator to make audits easier
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How It Works:
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How It Works:
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How It Works:
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Next Steps
Identify key
sustainability gains
Calculate website
sustainability
Fix energy
inefficiencies
Repeat!
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Good News
It’s not too late for us to combat climate change
together
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Got Questions?
Email us
at results@icrossing.co.uk
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iCrossing UK
30 Panton St,
London
SW1Y 4AJ
Thank you