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How to Optimize Images for High Performance on the Internet without Losing Quality

Did you realize that optimizing your images prior to uploading them to WordPress could have a huge effect on your website's speed?

When starting a new blog, many novices upload pictures without optimizing them for web. Large image files can make your website slower.

This can be fixed by making use of photo optimization best methods in your daily blogging routine.

Within this article In this post, we will show you how to optimize your images to improve web performance without losing quality. We will also provide automatic photo optimization plug-ins designed for WordPress that will simplify your life.

Because this is an extensive guide on image optimization for web and mobile, we've developed an easy to follow table of content:

• What is image optimization? (optimized and unoptimized images)
• Why is image optimization important? What are the benefits?
• How to save and optimize images to improve web performance?
• Best image optimization software and tools
• The top picture optimization tools for WordPress

What is Image Optimization? (Optimized vs Unoptimized Images)

Image optimization is the process of saving and sending images with the least dimensions without diminishing the overall quality of the image.

While the process sounds complex the process is actually fairly easy these days. You can use any of the numerous image optimization tools and plugins that automate the compression of images by up to 80% without any visible decrease in image quality.

Here's an example images versus unoptimized:

This is what you will see. if optimized correctly, the image may be 75 percent smaller than the original without any loss of quality.

What is Image Optimization function?

In simple terms in simple terms, image optimization utilize compression technology like "Lossy" and "Lossless" that helps reduce the total dimension of the image file without any reduction in quality.

What does it mean to Optimize Images?

If you've ever been given an offer to optimize images by your WordPress hosting support , or the speed test tool, that's all it means is the 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 from optimizing your images these are the top benefits to be aware of:

• Faster website speed
• Improvements in SEO rankings
• A higher overall conversion rate for sales and leads
• More storage and bandwidth (which can lower hosting costs as well as CDN cost)
• More efficient backups for websites (also reduces cost of backup storage)

In addition to video, images represent the next biggest weight that a website page can host. In accordance with HTTP archives, images comprise on average 21% of the total weight of a website's.

As we have seen that faster websites perform better in search engine results (SEO) and have better conversion rates in terms of image optimization is a necessity for every business website should do in order to grow online.

You might be thinking what kind of difference does image optimization can really make?

According to a Strangeloop study, a one second delay in the speed of loading your website can result in a loss of 7 percent of revenue, 11 percent less views, and a 16% reduction in customer satisfaction.

If none of these reasons are enough to speed up the loading time of your site then you should know that search engines such as Google provide preferential SEO treatment to faster loading websites.

That means that by optimizing your website's images that you can boost web page speed 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 on the web is to find the optimal balance between the smallest file size and acceptable image quality.

The three factors which play a major impact on picture 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 three you can reduce your images' size by up 80 percent.

Let's take a look at each one in more detail.

1. Image File Format

For most webmasters, the only three image file formats that matter are JPEG, PNG, and GIF. Picking the right type of file is crucial in image optimization.

To make things easy It is best to use JPEGs for images or photos with lots of colors. PNGs for simple images or when you need transparent images. You can also use GIF to create animated images.

For those who don't know what the distinction is between each kind, the PNG format is uncompressed , which means it's a much higher-quality image. The disadvantage is that it's file sizes are much larger.

On the other hand, JPEG is a compressed format that can reduce the quality of images to create a significantly smaller size file.

The difference is that GIF only uses 256 colors and lossless compression. This means it is the best option in animated image.

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

2. Compression

The following thing to consider is image compression, which plays a significant part when it comes to image optimization.

There are many types and levels of image compression that are available. the settings of each differ based upon the image compression software you are using.

Most image editing tools like Adobe Photoshop, On1 Photo, GIMP, Affinity Photo and others are equipped with built-in image compression features.

You can also save images as normal but then you can use a Web tool such as TinyPNG or JPEG Mini for easier image compression.

Though it's a little manual both methods allow you to compress images before uploading them to WordPress as well, which is what we do with WPBeginner.

There are also several popular WordPress plugins, such as Optimole, EWWW Image Optimizer, and others that can automatically compress images after they are uploaded for the first time. A lot of beginners and even large corporations are using these images optimization plugins since it's simple and simple.

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

3. Image Dimensions

Normally, when you transfer a photo from your phone or digital camera, the image has a very high resolution and large file dimensions (height as well as width).

Typically, these photos come with a resolution of 300 DPI and sizes that range from 2000 pixels and even more. These photos of high quality are suitable for desktop or print publishing. They are not appropriate for websites.

The reduction of file sizes to something more acceptable can dramatically decrease the size of an image. Resize images using an image editing program on your personal computer.

We optimized, for instance, an image to have 1.8 Megabytes in size as the original file size and 300 DPI resolution, and dimensions of 4900x3200 pixels.

We went with the JPEG format for larger compression. The dimensions were changed of 1200x795 pixels. it decreased the image file size to 103KB. This is 94% smaller than the original size.

Once you've mastered the three key elements in image optimization now let's have a look at different images optimization tools for owners of websites.

Best Image Optimization Tools and Programs

As we said earlier, most image editing software come with image optimization as well as compression options.

Beyond the software for editing images, there are several other powerful , free image optimization tools you can make use of to improve images for websites (with only the click of a button).

We recommend making use of these tools to improve images before uploading them to WordPress especially if are a perfectionist.

This method helps you save memory on the WordPress hosting account, and it guarantee the fastest image with the highest quality as you manually scrutinize every image.

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop is a premium software with a feature that lets you save images specifically designed for the web. Simply open your image and select"File > Save to Web" "File >> Save for Web" option.

It will open a new dialog box. On the right, it is possible to select various image formats. If you select JPEG format, you'll get a range of quality options. When you select your options it will also display the size of the file on the bottom left.

GIMP

GIMP is a free and open source alternative to Adobe Photoshop. It can be used to help you optimize your images for use on the web. Its disadvantage is that it's not as simple to use as the other methods on this list.

The first step is to open your image within GIMP then click on the File >> Export As option. This will display the save file dialog box. Make sure to give the file a different name and then hit the export button.

Then, you will be presented with options to export images. For jpeg files, you can select the compression setting to reduce the size of the file. Click on the export button to save the optimized image file.

TinyPNG

TinyPNG is a totally free web app that uses a smart lossy compression technique that can reduce the size of your PNG files. All you need to do is go to their website and upload your pictures (simple drag & drop).

They will compress the image and give you the download URL. You can also use their sister site, TinyJPG and TinyJPG for JPEG picture compression.

They also have one extension that works with Adobe Photoshop that we use to complete our image editing process since it brings together the best features of TinyPNG and TinyJPG in Photoshop.

For developers, they've an API for converting images automatically, and for beginners , they have a WordPress plugin that will automatically accomplish the task (more on this later).

JPEG Mini

JPEGmini utilizes lossless compression process that drastically reduces the size of images , without having an impact on their visual quality. You can also check the quality of the original image with the compression image.

It is possible to use their online version for free or you can purchase the program for your computer. Additionally, they offer a paid API to automate processes to your servers.

ImageOptim

ImageOptim is a Mac program that allows users for compression without losing any quality. It does this by finding the most effective compression parameters as well as taking out unnecessary color profiles.

Windows Alternate to this Trimage.

Best Image Optimization Plugins for WordPress

We believe that the most efficient way to make your images more efficient is to do it prior to uploading images to WordPress. However, if you manage multi-author websites or require an easy solution then you may want to consider an WordPress image compression plugin.

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

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

Using any from these WordPress image optimization plugins will allow you to speed up the performance of your website.

Final Thoughts and Best Practices for Image Optimization

If you're not saving images optimised for web, you should begin doing the task today. It's going to make a big difference on your site speed, and your users will appreciate it.

Furthermore, speedier websites are great for SEO, and you'll likely notice an increase in your search engine rankings.

Use this tool to convert to png