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How can you optimize Imagesfor Website Performance without sacrificing Quality

Did you realize that optimizing your images prior to uploading them to WordPress could have a significant impact on the speed of your website?

When beginning a new blog most beginners upload their images without optimizing them for the web. The large images make your site slow.

This can be fixed by applying images optimizationbest methods in your daily blog routine.

This article In this article, we will teach you how to optimize your images to improve website performance, without sacrificing quality. We will also provide automatic images optimization plug-ins designed for WordPress which can simplify your work.

Because this is a complete guide to image optimization for the web We have designed an easy-to-follow table of contents:

• What exactly is optimization? (optimized and unoptimized images)
• What makes image optimization crucial? What are the advantages?
• How can I save and optimize images to improve web performance?
• The best image optimization software and tools
• The best images optimization plug-ins to WordPress

What is Image Optimization? (Optimized vs Unoptimized Images)

Image optimization is the method of saving and delivering images with the smallest file size , without compromising the quality of the image overall.

Although the process may sound complicated however, it's really quite simple nowadays. You can make use of one of the numerous image optimization tools and plugins to automate the compression of images by up to 80% , without any noticeable reduction in image quality.

Here's an example of an optimized contrasted with unoptimized images:

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

What is Image Optimization function?

In simple words the simplest way to describe it is that image optimization is achieved by using compression technologies such as "Lossy" and "Lossless" which reduces the overall size of the file without causing any loss in quality.

What is it to optimize Images?

If you've ever received an advice to optimize your images from your WordPress hosting service or an instrument for speed testing, the only thing it suggests is that you must reduce the file size of your photos by optimizing them for the web.

Why is Image Optimization Important? What are the Benefits of Image Optimization?

There are many advantages of optimizing your photos, here are the most important ones to be aware of:

• Speedier website loading
• Increased SEO rankings
• A higher overall conversion rate for leads and sales
• A smaller amount of storage and bandwidth (which could reduce hosting costs and CDN cost)
• Speedier backups of websites (also lowers the cost of backup storage)

In addition to video, images are the second most hefty item on a website. As per HTTP archives, pictures account for an average of 21% of the weight of a page's total.

We know that websites with fast speeds have higher rankings in search engines (SEO) and also have higher conversion rates and image optimization is a requirement for every website needs to do in order to be successful online.

You might be thinking what kind of difference could image optimization actually create?

According to an Strangeloop study, a 1 second delay in loading time for websites could cost you 7% in sales. It also results in 11% less pageviews, and a 16% lower satisfaction with customers.

If you don't have enough reason to speed up the loading time of your site you need to know that search engines such as Google offer a preferential SEO treatment to websites that load faster.

By optimizing your web-friendly images it will improve your 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 success in picture optimization to improve web speed is finding the ideal balance between the smallest file size and acceptable quality of the image.

The three elements that play an important part in the process of image optimization are:

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

If you choose the best combination of these three options, you can cut down your image's size by as much as 80 percent.

Let's look at each one in more specifics.

1. Image File Format

For the majority of website owners, the three primary image formats that truly need to be considered include JPEG, PNG, and GIF. The choice of the correct file format is crucial to image optimization.

To simplify things To keep things simple, you should use JPEGs for images or photos that have a lot of colors. PNGs for basic images or for transparent images. You can also use GIF for images that are animated only.

If you don't know the distinction between each file type, the PNG image format is not compressed, which means that it's a better quality image. However, the downside is that file dimensions are larger.

However, JPEG is a compressed file format that slightly decreases the quality of images to offer a considerably smaller size file.

While GIF is limited to 256 colors together with lossless compression, which is why it is the ideal option to use animated pictures.

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

2. Compression

The second thing to consider is image compression, which plays an important part for image optimization.

There are various types and levels of image compression that are available. the settings of each will differ based on the image compression tool you choose to use.

The majority of image editing software like Adobe Photoshop, On1 Photo, GIMP, Affinity Photo and many others have built-in features for image compression.

You could also save your images in the normal way and then utilize a web tool such as TinyPNG or JPEG Mini for easier image compression.

While it's not the most user-friendly however, these two methods let you to compress images prior to uploading images to WordPress which is the method we use on WPBeginner.

There are also a variety of popular WordPress plugins such as Optimole, EWWW Image Optimizer and many more that automatically compress images once you upload them for the first time. A lot of novices and even big companies prefer using these images optimization plugins due to the fact that it is simple and efficient.

We'll discuss more details about these WordPress plugins in the next article.

3. Image Dimensions

Normally, when you import a picture from your smartphone or digital camera, it comes with an extremely high resolution and huge file dimensions (height as well as width).

Most often, these images have an average resolution of 300 DPI and sizes that start at 2000 pixels and up. High-quality images are ideal for desktop or print publishing. They are not appropriate for use on websites.

Reduced file size to something acceptable can dramatically reduce the size of images. It is easy to resize images by using an image editing program on your personal computer.

As an example, we have optimized the image with 1.8 megabytes of original file size with a 300 DPI resolution, and image dimensions of 4900x3200 pixels.

We opted for the Jpeg format to allow greater compression. We also changed the dimensions to 1200x795 pixels. In addition, it decreased the image file size to 103KB. This is 94% smaller than the size of the original file.

After you have a better understanding of the three most important aspects of image optimization Let's take a look at the various images optimization tools available to website owners.

Best ImageOptimization Tools and Programs

As we have mentioned previously, the majority of image editing software comes equipped with photo optimization as well as compression options.

In addition to the software for editing images, there are a variety of powerful , free image optimization tools you can make use of to improve images for web use (with only two clicks).

We suggest making use of these tools to improve images prior to uploading them to WordPress especially if you are an perfectionist.

This technique helps you save the disk space of your WordPress hosting account and also guarantees speedy images with highest quality as you manually examine every image.

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop is a premium software that comes with the ability to save images that are optimized for web use. Simply open the image, then select"File >> Save for Web" or "File >> Save for Web" option.

This will open a brand new dialog box. On the rightside, you can choose different image formats. If you select JPEG format, you'll be able to select different quality options. If you choose your preferred options it will also display the size of the file at the bottom left.

GIMP

GIMP is a no-cost and open-source alternative to the popular Adobe Photoshop. It is a tool to enhance your photos for use on the internet. Its disadvantage is that it's not as simple to use as other options on this list.

The first step is to open the image within GIMP then click the File >> Export as option. This will open the dialog box for saving your file. You can give your file a new name, and then click an export option.

Then, you will be presented with options for exporting images. If you are using JPEG files, you can choose the compression level to decrease the size of the file. Then, click an export option to download the image you have optimized.

TinyPNG

TinyPNG is a no-cost web application that employs a clever lossy compression method to minimize the dimensions of PNG images. All you need to do is visit their site and upload your photos (simple drag and drop).

They will compress the image, and provide you with a download URL. You can also use their sister site, TinyJPG to use JPEG images.

There is also extensions for Adobe Photoshop which we employ as part of our editing process for images because it blends the best of TinyJPG and TinyPNG inside Photoshop.

For developers, they offer an API that can convert images in a way that is automatic, and for novices, they offer an WordPress plugin that will automatically convert images for you (more on this in the future).

JPEG Mini

JPEGmini utilizes a lossless compression technique that significantly reduces the size of images , without impacting their visual quality. It is also possible to compare the quality of the original image with the compression image.

You can download their web version for no cost or buy the software to run on your personal computer. They also offer a paid API that automates the process to your servers.

ImageOptim

ImageOptim is an Mac application that allows you the compression of images with no sacrificing any quality, by locating the most efficient compression parameters and eliminating color profiles that are not needed.

Windows Alternative to this Trimage.

Best Image Optimization Plugins for WordPress

We believe that the most effective method to optimize your images is to do it prior to uploading images to WordPress. If you have an online site with multiple authors or require an automatic solution then you could try an WordPress plugin for image compression.

Here is our list of the top WordPress Image compression software:

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

Utilizing any among these WordPress image optimization plugins will help 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 should begin doing this immediately. It'll make a massive impact on the speed of your website and your visitors will be grateful for it.

In addition, faster websites are excellent for SEO, and you'll likely see an increase in the rankings of your search engines.

Use this tool to convert to png