Optimizing images on your website can make the page load more quickly and increase overall site speed. Site speed is important not only for user experience but for SEO as well. A faster site will receive a higher ranking in search engine results.
If you want to optimize the images on your WordPress site to increase your site speed, here are some tips:
Choose the Right File Type
To start off on the right foot, make sure you’re choosing the best file type for the image you’re uploading. JPEG and PNG are the two most common file types used. Use a JPEG for photographs or images that have a lot of different colors. Otherwise, use PNG for things like graphics, drawings, and charts. They can have a transparent background and can easily be resized without lowering the quality.
Crop and Resize
Cropping out unnecessary space in an image and resizing can help increase loading speeds. Make sure that no graphics or images are larger than they need to be. Reducing the size of the image directly reduces the size of the image file. If resizing makes certain elements of the image difficult to see or read, try cropping instead. These are two of the easiest to optimize images in WordPress.
Compress Images
Of course, we all want the highest quality images for our web pages. But, that translates to large image files. You may be surprised to find out that lower the image quality even a little will make a big difference while not being noticeable to the naked eye. Compressing images from a quality score of 100 to, say 80, won’t be noticed by the average viewer and will increase your speed. Don’t go too crazy though. You still want your images to look professional.
Use a CDN
Using CDNs, or content delivery networks, to access your images will allow users to load your pages more quickly. CDNs allow you store content on multiple servers all over the world. When someone visits your website, they will connect to the server closest to them. This allows for fast image uploads, even if they’re on the opposite side of the world.
Use a Plugin
There are many plugins available to help you optimize images for WordPress. Here are a couple of popular options:
- Shortpixel – ShortPixel is a versatile image optimization tool that efficiently compresses and resizes images to enhance website performance and speed.
- reSmush.it – reSmush allows you to optimize images immediately when you upload. If you already have a lot of images on your site that need to be optimized, it can also do bulk files.
- EWWW Image Optimizer – This plugin allows you to optimize pictures at upload and also can do bulk files of older pictures. It performs on your own server, so you don’t need to sign up for an account.
Optimizing images for WordPress is a great way to increase your site speed quickly and easily. If your site is loading slow or you’re content relies on a lot of images, try out these tips to optimize so that you don’t sacrifice your site speed.