How copywriting can help save the world

At EcoPing we talk a lot about coding, design, images and video as a means to reducing your website carbon emissions, but there are even more unexpected ways to shrink your website’s carbon footprint. “If in doubt, leave it out” is the rule we like to live by, and this applies to the rest of your content, too. Streamlining your content — only including that which is absolutely necessary — not only makes serious saves on energy by reducing loading time, search time and dwell time on a page, it also keeps users happy.

On average, we read up to 250 words per minute and, in internet terms, more minutes spent reading means more energy used. Similarly, irrelevant, messy, confusing or misplaced copy leads to more links clicked, more pages loaded, and — you guessed it — even more energy, completely wasted. This is where copywriters come in. The unsung heroes of the low-carbon website, copywriters are champions of efficiency; beacons of clear, concise, informative and digestible information that engages and appeases the user, fast. So, here’s why we’re commending copywriters on doing their bit for the planet (and highlighting just a few reasons why they’re always worth the investment)…

Copywriters make the best juice

Experts at squeezing kilos of information into an ounce of sweet word nectar, a copywriter can convey your message — no matter how complex — in the lowest word count possible. This makes for super smooth and relevant content that’s good to the last drop; meaning users breeze in, find what they want, and leave in a flash (and consequently, will come back for more!).

They say it with words, not images

We’re all for any content solution that reduces the need for images — and sometimes, a snappy, descriptive piece of copy does the job just fine on its own. They might be pretty, but as the single largest contributor to page weight (and therefore energy consumption), the growing popularity of websites heavy on images and video spells bad news for the planet. Essentially, never underestimate the beauty of the written word — and think twice before you add in that extra image “just for good measure”.

They attract attention

Selling something in a split second is a copywriter’s bread and butter. What is it that leads you to read an article or open an email? A highly efficient website will be littered with sensical and attention-grabbing headlines that make an imprint in the user’s mind or inspire an action — negating the need for streams of copy, and getting them to their destination faster.

SEO is the way to go

But you already knew that, right? Working off the principle that a smooth user experience goes hand in hand with saving energy, SEO is inherently sustainable; it nails our need for speed. Optimising a website for search engine rankings helps users find what they want as quickly and as easily as possible. And, spending less time browsing and visiting fewer pages equals less time on the internet, and therefore a significant save on energy. Wow!