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 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:
- Regular updates and patching
- Strong user authentication and access control
- Input validation and data sanitisation
- Secure file permissions and ownership
- Using HTTPS and SSL/TLS certificates
- Monitoring and logging
- Security-focused modules and plugins
- Regular security audits and penetration testing
- Secure backups and recovery plan
- 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 refers to the speed, efficiency and overall responsiveness of a site. It encompasses aspects such as page load , server response and resource . 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:
- Caching
- CSS, JavaScript and markup optimisation
- Image optimisation
- Lazy loading
- Content Delivery Network (CDN) and static site integration
- Database optimisation
- Web server and PHP configuration
- Module management
- Theme optimisation
- 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:
- Use of proper semantic markup
- Alt text for images
- Proper use of ARIA attributes
- Keyboard navigation
- Accessible forms
- Consistent and logical navigation
- Accessible multimedia
- Clear and understandable content
- Colour and contrast
- Responsive design
View dedicated article, Drupal accessibility — a comprehensive Drupal self-help guide to creating accessible websites
Patching your Drupal site
Application 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:
- Stay informed on updates and security advisories
- Regularly update Drupal core
- Regularly update contributed modules and themes
- Test updates on a staging environment
- Implement a strong backup and recovery plan
- 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 (SEO) is the process of improving a website's visibility and rankings in search engine results (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:
- Keyword research and optimisation
- Mobile-friendly, responsive design
- Page speed optimisation
- Content optimisation
- Internal linking structure
- Meta tags and schema markup
- URL structure
- Secure website with HTTPS
- XML sitemaps and robots.txt
- 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 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:
- Optimise images
- Enable caching
- Optimise CSS and JavaScript
- Implement server-level optimisation
- Choose green hosting
- Enable lazy loading
- Optimise database queries
- Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN)
- Monitor and optimise performance
- 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