compress-image
How to Optimize Images for Web Performance, without sacrificing Quality
Did you be aware that optimizing images before uploading to WordPress could have a huge impact on the speed of your site?
When the time comes to start a new blog the majority of beginners upload images without making them web-friendly. Images that are large can make your website slow.
It is possible to fix this issue by employing the image optimization best methods in your regular blogging routine.
This article In this article, we'll show you how to improve your image for faster website performance, without sacrificing quality. We will also provide automatic images optimization applications for WordPress that can simplify your work.
Since this is a comprehensive guide to image optimization for web so we've put together an easy-to-follow table of content:
- What exactly is optimization? (optimized vs unoptimized images)
- Why is image optimization important? What are the advantages?
- How can you conserve and optimize images for web performance?
- Best image optimization tools and software
- Top picture optimization extensions for WordPress
What is Image Optimization? (Optimized vs Unoptimized Images)
Image optimization is a process of saving and sending images with the smallest file size while not reducing the overall quality of images.
Although the process may sound complicated It's actually very simple these days. You can utilize one of the numerous image optimization programs and tools to automatically compress images by up to 80% , without any noticeable decrease in image quality.
Here's an example of an optimized against unoptimized image
The results are clear, if optimized correctly, the same image may be 75 percent smaller than the original image without any loss in quality.
How does Image Optimization function?
In simple terms simple terms, image optimization utilize compression techniques like "Lossy" and "Lossless" which can reduce overall file size without any noticeable reduction in quality.
What is it to Optimize Images?
If you've ever been given an advice to optimize your images from your WordPress hosting team or a speed tester tool, then it is that you must reduce the file size of your images by optimizing them for web.
Why is Image Optimization Important? What are the Benefits of Image Optimization?
While there are many benefits of optimizing your images, these are the top benefits that you should know:
- Speedier website loading
- Enhanced SEO rankings
- The higher conversion rate overall for leads and sales
- Reduced storage and bandwidth (which can cut hosting and CDN cost)
- Faster backups of websites (also reduces the cost for backup storage)
Outside of video, images are the next heaviest item on a web page. The HTTP archive says that according to HTTP archives, images make up an average of 21% of the total weight of a webpage.
Because we are aware that websites that are speedy perform better in search engine results (SEO) and experience better conversion rates images optimization is a necessity for every business website should do for success online.
Now you might be wondering what kind of difference can image optimization actually bring about?
According to the findings of a Strangeloop study, a 1 second delay in loading time for websites could result in a loss of 7% of revenue, 11 percent fewer views, and a 16% reduction in satisfaction of customers.
If these aren't enough motivations to speed up your website, then you should know that search engines such as Google offer a preferential SEO treatment to faster loading websites.
By optimizing your images for web this can improve the speed of your website and increase WordPress SEO positions.
Video Tutorial
If you'd prefer written instructions, just keep reading.
How to Save and Optimize Images for Web Performance?
The most important factor in successful picture optimization that is optimized for performance on websites is to find the optimal ratio between the smallest size of the file and acceptable image quality.
The three aspects that play a huge influence on images optimization are:
- Image file format (JPEG vs PNG vs GIF vs tiff )
- Compression (Higher compression = smaller file size)
- Image Dimensions (height and width)
When you pick the appropriate combination of the three you could reduce your image size by up to 80 percent.
Let's examine each of them in greater detail.
- Image File Format
For the majority of webmasters, the three primary image formats that truly count are JPEG, PNG, and GIF. The right choice of format plays an important role in image optimization.
To simplify things You should choose JPEGs for photos or images with a variety of colors, PNGs when you want simple images or for transparent images. You can also use GIF for animated images only.
If you don't know the difference between each file kind, the PNG format is not compressed which means it's an image of higher quality. image. Its disadvantage is that its sizes are much larger.
However, JPEG is a compressed file format that slightly decreases image quality to make it much smaller size file.
And GIF uses only 256 colors and lossless compression. This makes it the best choice of animated graphics.
On WPBeginner We use three different image formats based on the kind of image.
2. Compression
The next step is image compression, which plays a significant part within image optimization.
There are different types and levels of image compression available. Each of the parameters differ depending on the compression tool that you use.
The majority of image-editing tools like Adobe Photoshop, On1 Photo, GIMP, Affinity Photo and more come with integrated image compression features.
You could also save your images in the normal way and then utilize a web tool like TinyPNG , or JPEG Mini for easier image compression.
Although it's quite manual however, these two methods let the compression of images prior to uploading them to WordPress as well, which is the process we employ on WPBeginner.
There are also many popular WordPress plugins like Optimole, EWWW Image Optimizer, and others that can automatically compress images once you upload them for the first time. A lot of beginners and even large corporations prefer to use these image optimization plugins due to the fact that it is simple and efficient.
We will share more about these WordPress plugins in the next article.
3. Image Dimensions
Normally when you download a photograph from your phone or a digital camera, it is a very high resolution and huge file dimensions (height and length).
Typically, these photos have an average resolution of 300 DPI and sizes that range from 2000 pixels or more. High-quality photos work well for printing or desktop publishing. They're not suitable for websites.
Making the file's dimensions less limiting can drastically reduce the size of images. Simply resize images with an image editing software on your computer.
In this case, we optimized our photo to 1.8 megabytes original size with a 300 DPI resolution, and image dimensions of 4900x3200 pixels.
We opted for the Jpeg format to allow larger compression. The dimensions were changed to 1200x795 pixels. In addition, it decreased the image file size to 103KB. That's 94% less than the size of the original file.
If you're aware of the three most important aspects of image optimization, let's take a review the different image optimization tools that website owners can use.
Best Image Optimization Tools and Programs
We mentioned it earlier that the majority of image editing software comes featuring image optimization and compression settings.
In addition to the image editing software, there are a variety of powerful and affordable image optimization tools that you can utilize to make your images more attractive for the web usage (with just two clicks).
We recommend making use of these tools for optimizing images before you upload them to WordPress particularly if you are an expert.
This strategy helps you save memory on the WordPress hosting account. It also ensures the fastest image with the highest quality as you manually check each image.
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is a premium software that comes with the option of saving images that have been optimized for use on the internet. Open your image and click"File >> Save for Web" or "File >> Save for Web" option.
This will open an additional dialog box. On the rightside, you will be able to set various image formats. If you select JPEG format, you will have a variety of quality options. After you have selected your choices the program will provide the file's size at the bottom left.
GIMP
GIMP is a no-cost and open source alternative to popular Adobe Photoshop. It is a tool to boost your images' performance for the web. However, it's not as straightforward to implement as other solutions on this list.
First, you need to open the image within GIMP before you can select the File > Export as option. This will bring up the dialog box for saving your file. Give your file a new name and then hit the export button.
This will bring up options to export images. In the case of JPEG files you can select the compression level to reduce the size of the file. Click on"Export" button in order to save optimized images.
TinyPNG
TinyPNG is a free online application that utilizes a lossy compression method to minimize in size your PNG images. All you have to do is go to their website and upload your pictures (simple drag & drop).
They will compress the image and provide you with a download URL. You can utilize their sister websitecalled TinyJPG and TinyJPG for JPEG Image compression.
They also have an extension for Adobe Photoshop which we use in the image editing process as it combines the best qualities of TinyPNG and TinyJPG in Photoshop.
For developers, they've an API to convert images on the fly, and for novices, they offer the WordPress plugin that will accomplish the task (more on this in the future).
JPEG Mini
JPEGmini employs lossless compression technique that significantly reduces the size and size of images without impairing their quality of perception. You can also check the quality of the original image with the compression image.
You can use their web version for no cost and then purchase the software for your computer. They also offer a premium API to automate the process in your website's server.
ImageOptim
ImageOptim is a Mac utility that permits you to reduce images, without losing any quality. It can do this by locating the best compression parameters . It also helps in removing unnecessary color profiles.
Windows alternative to this is Trimage.
Best Image Optimization Plugins for WordPress
We believe the best way to make your images more efficient is to do it prior to uploading them to WordPress. However, if you manage the site of multiple authors or you require an efficient solution then you can try a WordPress image compression plugin.
Below is our list of the best WordPress photo compression plug-ins.
- Optimole one of the most well-known plugins created by the Team behind ThemeIsle.
- EWWW Image Optimizer
- Compress JPEG and PNG images with the plugin created by the TinyPNG team mentioned above in the article.
- Imagify - a plugin from the popular WP Rocket plugin team.
- ShortPixel Image Optimizer
- WP Smush
- reSmush.it
Using any from these WordPress image optimization plugins will help increase the speed of your site.
Final Thoughts and Best Practices for Image Optimization
If you're not saving images optimised for web, you should start doing this immediately. It will make a huge difference in speed and your customers will appreciate it.
Furthermore, speedier websites are ideal for SEO and you will likely see an increase in your ranking on search engines.
Make use of this tool: convert to png
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