Resources we can refer to

[noraferreiros]

The objective of this issue is to collect any source that may be useful to be referenced within the guidelines or provides us with useful information to write them down.

This is a brainstorming for the moment. This means that not necessarily everything posted here is going to appear or be used, so feel free to share anything you think might be helpful and then it will be decided if it is the case.

All the information in this description as been taking from the document created during Yoast Contributor Day (October'24).

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How to test your website

Use the sustainability plugin

Use an external tools to test the pages of your site

• https://www.websitecarbon.com/
• https://ecograder.com/
• https://digitalbeacon.co/
• https://ecotool.digihobbit.nl/ (you need an account)
• https://carbonfooter.nl/ [Dutch only]

Additional plugins/tools

• https://wordpress.org/plugins/performance-lab/

Why should we make websites less energy consuming

• https://www.sustainablewebmanifesto.com/
• https://w3c.github.io/sustyweb/intro.html
• Joost de Valk’s talk at WordCamp NL 2022: https://bit.ly/JoostTalk

Hosting

• Is your website hosted green: https://www.thegreenwebfoundation.org/
• Choose a green hosting company: https://www.thegreenwebfoundation.org/tools/directory/

Caching

Server side

CDN

• https://sustainablewebdesign.org/guidelines/4-10-consider-cdns-and-edge-caching/
• What is a content delivery network (CDN)? (yoast.com)

Browser cache optimization:

• https://sustainablewebdesign.org/guidelines/4-2-optimize-browser-caching/
• How to optimize browser caching

WP plugins

Optimizing load times

Image optimization

• https://sustainablewebdesign.org/guidelines/2-15-take-a-more-sustainable-approach-to-image-assets/

Video optimization

• Site speed tips for faster video loading

Font optimization

Minifying

• https://gtmetrix.com/minify-javascript.html
• https://sustainablewebdesign.org/guidelines/3-2-minify-your-html-css-and-javascript/

Lazy loading

Choosing the right WordPress Theme

• https://sustywp.com/ [classic theme - not a block editor theme]
• One of the WordPress default themes

Other guidelines

• https://sustainablewebdesign.org/ and https://sustainablewebdesign.org/guidelines/
• https://w3c.github.io/sustyweb/
• https://w3c.github.io/sustyweb/glance.html
• ‪Reduce the carbon emissions of your website‬
• https://greentheweb.com/best-practices/
• ‪climate-friendly WordPress websites‬
• Videos: https://wordpress.tv/?s=sustainability
• Podcasts: https://sustainwp.com/

[oldrup]

"This is a brainstorming for the moment. This means that not necessarily everything posted here is going to appear or be used, so feel free to share anything you think might be helpful."

In that case, allow me to share a few resources that were useful to me, and blog posts that are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0 and thus can be referred to, copied, scraped, leached -- it's free information.

Podcasts

In addition to SustainWP, there are a handful of other great digital sustainability podcasts. I've listed my favouites along with some recommended episodes to get you started:

• https://oldrup.dk/en/tag/podcast/

Embed optimization

In these tests, network traffic was reduced by 85% by using an embed overlay, improving page grade from F to A+. Several GPL plugins are available for that on wordpress.org

• https://oldrup.dk/en/more-speed-less-tracking-with-embed-privacy/

Video and GIF optimization

Example of actual video encoder settings to achieve substantial file size reductions of screencasts and GIF's.

• https://sustainableweb.dk/en/video-compression/

Audio Optimization

We got audio files down ~60% for a tourist app, reducing the footprint and improving the ux.

• https://sustainableweb.dk/en/audio-formats/

Analytics

There are many great alternatives to the heavy Google Analytics, with a script less than 1kb. Some examples.

• https://wordpress.org/plugins/koko-analytics/
• https://wordpress.org/plugins/independent-analytics/
• https://wordpress.org/plugins/plausible-analytics/ (premium)
• https://wordpress.org/plugins/fathom-analytics/ (premium)

Fonts

I'm currently writing an article on fonts, compression and how to implement system fonts in any WP theme. Would that be of interest?

PDF's and other documents

A lot can be gained by compressing PDFs, but care should be taken regarding its contents. Also writing an article on that. Please let me know if that could be helpful.

Showcases

My clients and I have found sites showcasing low carbon websites inspiring.

• https://lowwwcarbon.com/showcase/
• https://www.lowww.directory/

[DSGND]

Optimizing load times

Fonts

[TOOL] woff2: stable 1.0.2 (bottled)

Utilities to create and convert Web Open Font File (WOFF) files
https://github.com/google/woff2

# Convert any font format to woff2
woff2_compress wp-content/themes/my-themes/assets/fonts/my-font.ttf

[TOOL] fonttools: stable 4.54.1 (bottled)

Library for manipulating fonts
https://github.com/fonttools/fonttools

# Use only necessary glyphs
pyftsubset wp-content/themes/my-themes/assets/fonts/my-font.woff2 --output-file=wp-content/themes/my-themes/assets/fonts/my-font.woff2 -unicodes="{glyph subsets}" --floavor="woff2" --option=value

[DOC] Best practices: optimizing fonts

Greenspector: https://greenspector.com/en/best-practice-optimizing-fonts/

Other guidelines

• [FR] GreenIT: Les bonnes pratiques d'écoconception WordPress