Image optimization in WordPress

Image optimization in WordPress

The importance of image optimization for the speed of your WordPress site cannot be overstated. It takes a long time for large photos to load. In other words, they considerably slow down the loading of your website. As a consequence, your potential customers will leave your website and go to one of your competitors who has a far faster loading speed.

As a result, if you don't optimize your photos, your bounce rate is likely to skyrocket. But don't be concerned. Using WordPress to optimize pictures is not a tough process at all. This post will show you how to accomplish it in a variety of ways.

The following are the three primary reasons why pictures influence your WordPress site:

Images are very big. Smaller sizes should be used. They're too many, necessitating as many HTTP requests as possible. Using a content delivery network (CDN) can assist.

Together with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, they help to ensure that elements load synchronously. As a result, the render time will be longer.

Therefore, optimizing your images is a must if you want your site to be lighter. But first, figure out what's causing your site to take so long to load. Here's where speed testing comes into play.

Manually Optimize Your Website Images

The term "optimization" can refer to a variety of things. We may discuss compressing, resizing, utilizing the correct formats, cropping, and other topics here.
  • Make use of the correct image format
How do you know which format is better for your website photos and which one is more resistant to editing and compression? The answer is that there is no one-size-fits-all ideal format, however, there are forms that are recommended based on the content of each image.

PNG is commonly used for graphics, logos, drawings, icons, design sketches, and text since it is simple to edit with picture editors while maintaining high quality after compression. That's because PNGs are lossless, which means they don't lose any important information during compression.

Photographers, casual users, and bloggers are more likely to utilize JPG. It's lossy, which means it can be reduced to smaller sizes while maintaining high quality when viewed with the naked eye. JPG is a file format that can store millions of colours, which is why it is commonly used for photographs. It also allows for high compression.

In terms of picture formats, the conclusion is that there is no such thing as a universally correct format. It is entirely dependent on the sort of photos you want for your website. If you're working with photographs that have a lot of colours, JPG could be the best option because it's good at compressing colour-heavy images, which can be decreased significantly. It is incompatible with pictures containing only a few colour data, such as graphics or screenshots.
  • Images can be resized and cropped.
When dealing with files that are far larger than you typically need to display on your site, you may simply shrink or crop them before uploading them. You'll save up disc space and make your site load faster.

You may also crop your photos at any moment if you simply want to reveal a particular detail to the public and there's no purpose to submit the entire image if the rest of the material is unnecessary.
  • Compress Images
All photo editors feature a setting that asks you what quality you want your modified image to be saved at. For obvious reasons, you should choose quality of 100 per cent, but you may reduce it to 70-80 per cent if necessary. If the image already has a high resolution, you won't notice much of a change. In this instance, it will be smaller.

After you've saved the image with a lower quality %, you may do another round of optimization with the same image using an online tool to shrink it even further.
  • Use online image compression tools to compress images
ImageOptim and ImageSmaller are two of the many images compressing programs accessible online. Optimizilla, on the other hand, is the most popular. It can compress up to 20 pictures at once. You may also adjust the compression level. The following are the steps to use the tool:

  • ·Compress Images with Optimizilla
  • Go to https://imagecompressor.com/ for more information.
  • Drag and drag the images you want to use. The online tool will start compressing them right away.
  • Go to the bottom of the page. To change the quality, move the slider. Then press the Apply button.
  • Finally, to receive the compressed pictures, click the Download All option.

Compress WordPress Images with ShortPixel
  • ShortPixel is a plugin that you should install and activate.
  • Go to ShortPixel >> Settings. Type your email address and click on the Request Key button
  • The page will be refreshed. You'll see that the API key has been automatically inserted. The key will be sent to your email address as well.
  • ShortPixel parameters can be customized to your liking. You can do so by following the procedures outlined below.
  • ShortPixel will automatically optimize all of the photos you add to your media library once you've finished configuring it. However, go to Media > Mass Shortpixel if you want to bulk optimize older pictures on your WordPress site.
  • To compress a file, click the Start Optimizing button.
Using WordPress Plugins to Compress images

You'll have to do an extra step if you use internet tools. The compressed images must be uploaded to your WordPress site. If you don't want to go through the extra step and would rather have everything in one place to be more productive, image compression plugins are available. They have options for optimizing the photos during the upload process. WP Smush and Imagify are only two of the many plugins available.

You've learned many methods for optimizing images for your WordPress site in this post. You may utilize WordPress image compression plugins if you don't want to deal with the extra work. They provide you with the greatest possible service.

However, after optimizing a limited amount of pictures, most of the outstanding plugins, like ShortPixel, demand you to pay for a monthly subscription. If you don't want to spend money, you may compress your pictures using free internet programs like Optimizilla before uploading them to your site. However, be careful to use the correct picture format.
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