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How to Optimize Imagesfor Web Performance without Losing Quality

Did you be aware that optimizing images before uploading them to WordPress will have a huge impact on speed of your website?

When creating a blog, many novices upload pictures without optimizing them for web. Large image files can make your website less responsive.

You can correct this by making use of image optimizationbest techniques in your daily blogging routine.

In this article in this article, we will teach you how to improve your image for faster web performance without losing quality. We'll also show you automatic photo optimization plug-ins designed for WordPress that can make your life easier.

Because this is a complete guide to image optimization for the web and mobile, we've developed an easy to follow table of contents:

• What's an image optimization? (optimized vs unoptimized images)
• Why is image optimization important? What are the advantages?
• How do you organize and save images for web performance?
• Top image optimization software and tools
• Best images optimization extensions for WordPress

What is Image Optimization? (Optimized vs Unoptimized Images)

Image optimization is a process that saves and delivers images at the lowest possible file size without reducing the overall quality of the image.

While it may sound like a complex process but it's actually fairly simple today. You can make use of one of the many image optimization applications and tools that instantly compress images at least 80% without any noticeable degradation in image quality.

Here's an example contrasted with unoptimized images:

As you can see, if optimized properly , the same image can be 75% smaller than what it was originally, but without any degradation in quality.

How does Image Optimization function?

In simple words, image optimization use compression technology such as "Lossy" and "Lossless" which help to reduce the overall size of the file without causing any loss of quality.

What is it to Optimize Images?

If you've ever received an advice to optimize your images from your WordPress hosting support team or a speed test tool, then it is the need to reduce the size of your photos by optimizing them for web.

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

There are many advantages in optimizing your image, here are the top ones that you should know:

• Speedier website loading
• Improved SEO rankings
• A higher overall conversion rate for leads and sales
• Storage and bandwidth are reduced (which can lower hosting costs as well as CDN cost)
• More efficient backups for websites (also reduces the cost of backup storage)

Beyond video, pictures represent the next biggest weight that a website page can host. As per HTTP archive, pictures account for approximately 21% of a total webpage's weight.

Because we know that fast websites have higher rankings in search engines (SEO) and have better conversion rates, image optimization is a necessity for every business website must do if they want to succeed online.

Now , you may be wondering how much of a difference could image optimization can really can make?

According to an Strangeloop study, one-second delay in website load time will cost you 7 percent in sales. It also results in 11% fewer pageviews, and 16% reduction in satisfaction of customers.

If you don't have enough reason to speed up your website and increase your traffic, you must know that search engines like Google also offer preferential SEO treatment to faster loading websites.

That means that by optimizing your images for web and improving your website's speed, you can increase 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 key to successful optimization of images for optimization to improve web speed is to find the perfect balance between the most compact file size and acceptable image quality.

Three things which play a major influence on Image 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 these three options, you can decrease your images' size by up 80 percent.

Let's take a look at each of them in more details.

1. Image File Format

For most webmasters, the only three image formats that truly require attention to consider are JPEG, PNG, and GIF. The selection of the proper file type is crucial for image optimization.

To make things easy In order to keep things simple, use JPEGs in the case of images or photographs with lots of colors. PNGs for basic images or when you need transparent images, and GIF to create animated images.

For those that don't know the difference between each file type, the format of PNG images is not compressed, which means that it is a higher quality image. The drawback is that the file dimensions are larger.

On the other hand, JPEG is a compressed file format , which can slightly diminish image quality to offer a considerably smaller size file.

Whereas GIF has 256 colors, GIF uses only 256 along with lossless compression which makes it the most appropriate option with regard to animation images.

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

2. Compression

The other thing is image compression that plays an essential part for image optimization.

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

The majority of image-editing tools like Adobe Photoshop, On1 Photo, GIMP, Affinity Photo and more come with built-in image compression capabilities.

You are also able to save images and then utilize a web application like TinyPNG and JPEG Mini for easier image compression.

Although it's a bit manual the two methods will allow users to compress images before uploading images to WordPress This is what we do with WPBeginner.

There are a number of well-known WordPress plugins like Optimole, EWWW Image Optimizer and many more that automatically compress images when they are uploaded for the first time. Many novices and even huge companies prefer using these image optimization plugins due to their ease of use and quick.

We'll talk more about these WordPress plugins in the coming article.

3. Image Dimensions

Normally, whenever you import photos from your phone or digital camera, it comes with a very high resolution and enormous file dimensions (height and width).

Most often, these images have typically a resolution of around 300 DPI and sizes that range from 2000 pixels and more. These high-quality photos are well-suited to print or desktop publishing. They are not suitable for use on websites.

Sizing down the dimensions of files to something more acceptable can dramatically decrease the size of images. Simply resize images with an image editing program installed on your computer.

We optimized, for instance, photos with 1.8 Megabytes as its original file size The image has a 300 DPI resolution, and image dimensions of 4900x3200 pixels.

The format we chose was jpeg for better compression. We also altered the dimensions of 1200x795 pixels. it reduced the image file size to 103KB. That's 94% less than the original size.

Now that you've identified the three most important aspects of image optimization We'll take a look at different images optimization software for webmasters.

Best ImageOptimization Tools and Programs

We mentioned it earlier that the majority of image editing software comes that have image optimization and compress settings.

In addition to the software for editing images, there are also several useful and powerful image optimization tools that you can employ to optimize your images for websites (with just two clicks).

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

This method helps you save storage space in your WordPress hosting account and also guarantees the fastest image with the best quality since you manually check each image.

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop is a premium software with the ability to save images that are optimized for the web. Simply open your picture and select"File >> Save for Web" or "File >> Save for Web" option.

This will open an additional dialog box. On the rightside, you can set different image formats. If you select JPEG format, you'll get a range of quality options. After you have selected your choices the program will give you the size of the image in the lower left.

GIMP

GIMP is a free and open-source alternative to the popular Adobe Photoshop. It can be used to optimize your images for online use. Its disadvantage is that it's not as straightforward to use as the other alternatives on this list.

In the beginning, open your image within GIMP then click the File > Export as option. It will open the dialog box for saving your file. Then, give the file a brand new name and then click on"Export.

This will display options to export images. If you are using JPEG files, you can choose the compression level to decrease file size. And finally, click on an export option to download the image you have optimized.

TinyPNG

TinyPNG is a totally free web application that employs a clever lossy compression method to reduce their size PNG images. All you have to do is go to their website and upload your pictures (simple drag and drop).

They compress the image, they will give you the download URL. It is possible to use their companion web site called TinyJPG and TinyJPG for JPEG picture compression.

They also have Extensions for Adobe Photoshop which we use in our image editing process since it blends the best aspects of TinyPNG and TinyJPG in Photoshop.

For developers, they have an API for converting images on the fly, and for beginners , they have the WordPress plugin that will do it for you (more on this in the future).

JPEG Mini

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

You can try their web version for no cost or buy the program to run on your personal computer. They also have a pay API to automate processes to your servers.

ImageOptim

ImageOptim is an Mac software that allows you for compression without sacrificing any quality. It does this by finding the best compression parameters . It also helps in eliminating color profiles that are not needed.

Windows alternatives to that are 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 images to WordPress. If, however, you operate the site of multiple authors or you require an easy solution then it is possible to use an WordPress plugin for image compression.

Here is our list of the top WordPress image compression plugins:

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

Using any ones of them WordPress image optimization plugins can help you improve the speed of your website.

Final Thoughts and Best Practices for Image Optimization

If you're not saving images optimised for web, you need to start doing this today. This will make a major difference on your site speed and your users will be grateful for it.

Additionally, faster websites are ideal for SEO and you'll likely notice an increase in your search engine rankings.

Use this tool to convert to png