Image optimization
Image optimization plays a crucial role in enhancing your website’s performance. By optimizing your images, you can achieve faster load times, improve user experience, and positively impact search engine rankings.
To optimize website images and achieve better performance you can follow the following tips:
- Image Compression: Reduce the file size of your images without significant loss of quality. You can use image compression tools or plugins like Smush, ShortPixel, EWWW Image Optimizer or Optimole, which automatically optimize images during upload or on-the-fly.
- Correct Image Dimensions: Before uploading images to WordPress, resize them to the dimensions needed for their display on your website. Avoid using larger images and relying on CSS or HTML to scale them down, as it increases page load times.
- Choose Image Size when filling the content: When you add images to your content editing widgets or section/column background choose the maximum needed Image Size in the settings. By default it is set to the Full but in practice you may need the smaller size to be displayed and there is no need to load the full image.
- Image Formats: Consider using appropriate image formats for different types of images:
JPEG (or JPG): Ideal for photographs and complex images with many colors. It offers good compression and quality balance.
PNG: Suitable for images with transparency or simpler graphics. PNG-8 can be used for simple icons or graphics with limited colors, while PNG-24 preserves more colors and is useful for images with transparency.
GIF: Best for simple animations or graphics with limited colors.
SVG: Ideal for vector graphics or scalable icons, as they offer small file sizes and are resolution-independent.
WebP Format: WebP is an image format developed by Google that provides superior compression and smaller file sizes compared to JPEG and PNG. To use WebP in WordPress, you can convert your images to WebP format and serve them to browsers that support it. There are plugins available, such as “WebP Express” or “EWWW Image Optimizer,” that handle the conversion and delivery of WebP images.
Remember to test your website’s performance after optimizing images to ensure the desired results. Monitor the file sizes, loading times, and overall user experience to find the right balance between image quality and performance.