Improve your Drupal website’s security, performance, patching, accessibility, SEO and carbon emissions

Drupal self-help guides — introduction

Article summary: In today’s competitive digital environment, it’s important that your Drupal site is working hard for you and your organisation. Salsa’s Drupal self-help guides cover six key metrics — security, performance, accessibility, patching, search engine optimisation (SEO) and carbon emissions. Within each of these areas we’ll provide a dedicated self-help guide with actionable steps to improve your site across each area.

On this page:

Date:
8 September 2023
Author:
Phillipa Martin

Improving your Drupal site across six key metrics

Salsa is currently developing a Drupal tool called Drupal360 that rates your Drupal site across six key metrics:

Below is more information on the six metrics, including actionable steps you can take to improve your Drupal website. Each metric will also have a detailed self-help guide that we'll be publishing over the next 2 weeks.

Improving your Drupal site’s security

Website securityExternal Link refers to the protective measures and practices implemented to safeguard a website and its data from unauthorised access, exploitation and other cyber threats. In today's digital landscape of continually evolving cyber threats, your Drupal website's security is crucial.

A secure Drupal website reaps numerous benefits, such as:

  • Enhanced user trust and confidence
  • Compliance with legal and regulatory requirements
  • Improved search engine rankings
  • Reduced risk of downtime and financial loss

The top 10 ways to improve your Drupal security are:

  1. Regular updates and patching
  2. Strong user authentication and access control
  3. Input validation and data sanitisation
  4. Secure file permissions and ownership
  5. Using HTTPS and SSL/TLS certificates
  6. Monitoring and logging
  7. Security-focused modules and plugins
  8. Regular security audits and penetration testing
  9. Secure backups and recovery plan
  10. Employee training and awareness

View dedicated article, Drupal security — a complete Drupal self-help guide to ensuring your website’s security

Improving your Drupal site’s performance

Website performanceExternal Link refers to the speed, efficiency and overall responsiveness of a site. It encompasses aspects such as page load timeExternal Link , server response timeExternal Link and resource optimisationExternal Link . Website performance is crucial for ensuring an exceptional user experience. Users expect websites to load quickly, function smoothly and provide a seamless experience across devices.

A well-performing website can result in numerous benefits, such as:

  • Improved user experience (UX) including better mobile UX
  • Higher search engine rankings and organic traffic
  • Increased conversions and revenue
  • Enhanced brand reputation and customer loyalty
  • Better scalability to allow for more users

The top 10 ways to improve your Drupal website’s performance are:

  1. Caching
  2. CSS, JavaScript and markup optimisation
  3. Image optimisation
  4. Lazy loading
  5. Content Delivery Network (CDN) and static site integration
  6. Database optimisation
  7. Web server and PHP configuration
  8. Module management
  9. Theme optimisation
  10. Monitoring and ongoing optimisation

View dedicated article, Drupal performance — a complete Drupal self-help guide to ensuring your website’s performance

Improving your Drupal site’s accessibility

Accessibility refers to the design and development of websites, applications and tools that can be used by people of all abilities. Accessibility is a critical metric in web development, ensuring that people of different abilities can access and navigate your website with ease.

Accessibility is essential for multiple reasons, such as:

  • Enhanced usability
  • Inclusivity
  • Improved SEO
  • Corporate and social responsibility
  • Legal compliance

The top 10 ways to improve your Drupal website’s accessibility are:

  1. Use of proper semantic markup
  2. Alt text for images
  3. Proper use of ARIA attributes
  4. Keyboard navigation
  5. Accessible forms
  6. Consistent and logical navigation
  7. Accessible multimedia
  8. Clear and understandable content
  9. Colour and contrast
  10. Responsive design

View dedicated article, Drupal accessibility — a comprehensive Drupal self-help guide to creating accessible websites

Patching your Drupal site

Application patchingExternal Link refers to the process of applying updates, fixes or improvements to a software application. Patching your Drupal website is crucial to ensure the security, stability, compatibility, performance and long-term maintenance of your website.

Proper patching provides the following benefits:

  • Enhanced security
  • Improved site performance and user experience
  • Fewer bugs and issues
  • Access to new features and enhancements
  • Improved compatibility with third-party components

The top 6 tasks for effective application patching are:

  1. Stay informed on updates and security advisories
  2. Regularly update Drupal core
  3. Regularly update contributed modules and themes
  4. Test updates on a staging environment
  5. Implement a strong backup and recovery plan
  6. Training and awareness

View dedicated article, Drupal patching — a complete Drupal self-help guide for effective patch management to keep your website up-to-date, stable and secure

Improving your Drupal site’s SEO

Search engine optimisationExternal Link (SEO) is the process of improving a website's visibility and rankings in search engine results pagesExternal Link (SERPs). The primary goal of SEO is to attract more organic, non-paid traffic to your website .

SEO is a critical component of a successful website for several reasons:

  • Increased visibility and credibility
  • Cost-effective marketing
  • Competitive advantage
  • Better user experience
  • Sustainable growth

Our top 10 SEO tips cover:

  1. Keyword research and optimisation
  2. Mobile-friendly, responsive design
  3. Page speed optimisation
  4. Content optimisation
  5. Internal linking structure
  6. Meta tags and schema markup
  7. URL structure
  8. Secure website with HTTPS
  9. XML sitemaps and robots.txt
  10. Social media integration

View dedicated article, Drupal SEO — a comprehensive Drupal self-help guide to optimise your website for search engine visibility and rankings

Improving your Drupal site’s carbon emissions

Carbon emissions produced by a website come from the energy consumed by servers, data centres and end-user devices while browsing and interacting with the site. Reducing CO2 emissions in web developmentExternal Link is a critical aspect of minimising the environmental impact of digital activities and creating a more sustainable future for our planet.

The benefits of reducing CO2 emissions in web development include:

  • Reduced energy consumption
  • Reduced environmental impact
  • Corporate responsibility
  • Improved user perception

The top 10 ways to reduce the carbon footprint of your Drupal site are:

  1. Optimise images
  2. Enable caching
  3. Optimise CSS and JavaScript
  4. Implement server-level optimisation
  5. Choose green hosting
  6. Enable lazy loading
  7. Optimise database queries
  8. Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN)
  9. Monitor and optimise performance
  10. Choose energy-efficient themes and module

View dedicated article, Drupal CO2 — a complete Drupal self-help guide to reducing your website's carbon footprint and impact on the environment