Image Optimizer

compress-image

How to Optimize Imagesfor the Web's Performance, without sacrificing Quality

Did you think about optimizing your images before uploading them to WordPress can have a massive impact on the speed of your website?

When beginning a new blog lots of novices simply upload photos without optimizing them for the web. These large image files make your website more slow.

You can solve this problem by applying image optimizationbest techniques in your daily blogging routine.

With this article In this post, we will show you how to optimize your images to improve internet performance without losing quality. We will also provide automatic images optimization plugins for WordPress which can make life easier.

Because this is an extensive guide to image optimization for the web, we have created an easy to follow table of content:

• What is image optimization? (optimized image vs. unoptimized)
• What makes image optimization crucial? What are the benefits?
• How do you organize and save images for web performance?
• The best image optimization software and tools
• The top picture optimization WordPress plugins WordPress

What is Image Optimization? (Optimized vs Unoptimized Images)

Image optimization is the technique of saving and sharing images in the smallest file size while not reducing the quality of the image overall.

Although the process may sound complicated but it's actually fairly simple these days. It is possible to use one of the numerous image optimization plugins and tools to automatically compress images by up to 80% without any noticeable loss of image quality.

Here's an example vs unoptimized image:

You can observe, if optimized correctly, the same image could be 75 percent smaller than the original picture without losing any quality.

What is Image Optimization work?

In simple words, image optimization use compression technology like "Lossy" and "Lossless" which helps reduce the overall file size without any noticeable loss in quality.

What is it to Optimize Images?

If you ever received an offer to optimize images through your WordPress hosting support team or the speed test tool, then it is that you need to reduce the file size of your photos 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 photos, here are the top ones that you should know:

• Website speed faster
• Improved SEO rankings
• Conversion rates that are higher for leads and sales
• A smaller amount of storage and bandwidth (which will reduce hosting and CDN cost)
• Faster backups to websites (also lowers costs for backup storage)

Apart from video, images are the next most weighty element on a page. In accordance with HTTP archive, photos account for in the average 21% a total webpage's weight.

Because we are aware that websites that are speedy are more popular in search engines (SEO) and also have higher conversions in terms of image optimization is something that every business website should do when they want to achieve success online.

Now , you may be asking how much difference can image optimization really create?

According to an Strangeloop study, a one-second delay in the loading of websites can result in a loss of 7 percent of revenue, 11 percent fewer views, and a 16% less satisfaction from customers.

If this isn't enough of a reason to speed up your website then you should know that search engines such as Google also offer preferential SEO for faster loading sites.

This means that by optimizing your website's images that you can boost the speed of your website and increase WordPress SEO rankings.

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 an effective image optimization of web pages is to find the best balance between the smallest file size and acceptable quality images.

The three factors that play a huge importance in images optimization are:

• Image file format (JPEG vs PNG vs GIF vs tiff )
• Compression (Higher compression = smaller file size)
• Image Dimensions (height and width)

By selecting the most suitable combination of the three, you can reduce the image size by up to 80%.

Let's examine each one in more specifics.

1. Image File Format

For most webmasters, the three primary images formats that really have any significance can be described as JPEG, PNG, and GIF. Choosing the right file type is essential to image optimization.

To make things easy, you want to use JPEGs for images or photos that have a lot of colors. PNGs for basic images or for transparent images, and GIF to create animated images.

For those who don't know the differences between each file type, the PNG image format is uncompressed which means it's a much higher-quality image. Its disadvantage is that its dimensions are larger.

On the other hand, JPEG is a compressed file format that reduces the image quality to offer a considerably smaller file size.

The difference is that GIF only supports 256 colors and lossless compression. This makes it the best choice with regard to animation images.

On WPBeginner We make use of all three image formats based on the kind of image.

2. Compression

The second thing to consider is image compression, which plays a major role with regard to optimization.

There are various types and levels of compression that are available. Settings for every will differ depending on the compression tool that you use.

Most image editing tools like Adobe Photoshop, On1 Photo, GIMP, Affinity Photo and many others have built-in image compression capabilities.

You may also save images by default and then make use of a website tool like TinyPNG or JPEG Mini for easier image compression.

Although it's a bit manual These two methods permit users to compress images before uploading images to WordPress as well, which is what we do on WPBeginner.

There are also many popular WordPress plugins such as Optimole, EWWW Image Optimizer and many more that automatically compress images when they are uploaded for the first time. A lot of newbies and large corporations choose to use these image optimization plugins as it's quick and quick.

We'll explain more about these WordPress plugins later in the article.

3. Image Dimensions

Normally, when you import a photo from your phone or digital camera, it comes with an extremely high resolution as well as large file dimensions (height and length).

The majority of these photos have the resolution of 300 DPI and sizes that range from 2000 pixels and even more. These high-quality photographs are great to print or desktop publishing. They are not appropriate for use on websites.

Making the file's dimensions more manageable can significantly reduce the size of your images. Simply resize images using an image editing software on your computer.

For instance, we optimized the image with 1.8 megabytes of original file size With a 300 DPI resolution, and dimensions of 4900x3200 pixels.

We went with the JPEG format for greater compression. We then changed the dimensions to 1200x795 pixels. Additionally, it reduced the file size to 103KB. This is 94% smaller than the original file size.

Now that you've learned the three important factors in image optimization we can take a look at various images optimization tools for website owners.

Best ImageOptimization Tools and Programs

As we said earlier, most image editing software come equipped with photo optimization or compression setting.

Beyond the image editing software, there are several other powerful and affordable image optimization tools that you can use to optimize images for web use (with only one or two clicks).

We suggest using these tools to boost the quality of your images before uploading them to WordPress particularly if you are one of those people who are always perfect.

This method will help you save memory on the WordPress hosting account. It also ensures your image is the most speedy and has the finest quality because you manually look over every image.

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop is a premium software that comes with the capability of saving images optimized for the web. Just open the image in Photoshop and click"File > Save to Web" "File >> Save for Web" option.

This will open up a new dialog box. On the rightside, you can set different image formats. For JPEG format, you will see different quality options. When you select your options, it will also indicate the file's dimensions in the lower left.

GIMP

GIMP is a free and open source alternative to popular Adobe Photoshop. It can be used to enhance your photos to be used on the internet. However, it's not as simple to implement as other solutions on this list.

First, open the image within GIMP and then choose File >> Export As option. Then, you will be presented with the save file dialog box. You can give your file a new name, and then click"Export.

This will bring up options for exporting images. For jpeg files, you can select the compression level to decrease the size of the file. Click on"Export" button in order to save optimized images.

TinyPNG

TinyPNG is a free online application that employs a clever lossy compression technique to reduce its size PNG images. All you have to do is visit their website and upload your images (simple drag and drop).

They will compress the image, and give you a download URL. You can also visit their sister websitecalled TinyJPG and TinyJPG for JPEG images.

They also have the extension Adobe Photoshop that we use as part of the image editing process as it combines the best qualities of TinyJPG and tinyPNG inside Photoshop.

For developers, they've got an API to convert images automatically. For beginners they have an WordPress plugin that will automatically accomplish the task (more on this in the future).

JPEG Mini

JPEGmini utilizes lossless compression technique that reduces the size of pictures without having an impact on their visual quality. You can also evaluate the quality of your original image and the compressed image.

You can try their web version for free or purchase the application for your computer. They also have a paid API that allows you to automate the process that your server uses.

ImageOptim

ImageOptim is an Mac software that allows you to reduce images, without losing any quality. This is done by identifying the optimal compression parameters and getting rid of color profiles that aren't needed.

Windows option to do this would be Trimage.

Best Image Optimization Plugins for WordPress

Our opinion is that the best way to make your images more efficient is to make them optimized prior to uploading them to WordPress. However, if your site is the site of multiple authors or you require an automated solution, you may want to consider an WordPress image compression plugin.

Below is our list of the best WordPress compressors for images:

1. Optimole is a well-known plugin created by The developers behind ThemeIsle.
2. EWWW Image Optimizer
3. Compress JPEG and PNG images with the plugin created by the TinyPNG team that is mentioned earlier in the article.
4. Imagify plugin is developed by the popular WP Rocket plugin team.
5. ShortPixel Image Optimizer
6. WP Smush
7. reSmush.it

Using any Of these WordPress image optimization plugins will allow you to improve the speed of your website.

Final Thoughts and Best Practices for Image Optimization

If you aren't saving images that are optimized for the web, then you must begin doing this now. It's going to make a big difference in your site's speed and your customers will appreciate it.

Also, faster websites are great for SEO, and you will likely see an increase in your search engine ranking.

Utilize this tool convert to png