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How to Optimize Imagesfor Internet Performance without losing Quality

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

When the time comes to start a new blog most beginners upload their images without optimizing them for the web. These huge image files make your site slow.

It is possible to fix this issue by applying image optimizationbest techniques as part of your normal blog routine.

With this article, we'll help you learn how to optimize your images to increase internet performance without losing quality. We'll also show you automatic images optimization extensions for WordPress that can simplify your work.

Because this is a complete guide on image optimization for the web so we've put together an easy to follow table of contents:

• What is image optimization? (optimized as opposed to unoptimized)
• What makes image optimization important? What are the benefits?
• How can I save and optimize images for web performance?
• Best image optimization tools and programs
• The best photo optimization software for WordPress

What is Image Optimization? (Optimized vs Unoptimized Images)

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

While it may sound like a complex process however, it's really quite simple to do these days. You can use one of the numerous image optimization tools and plugins to automate the compression of images by more than 80% and without any noticeable loss of image quality.

Here's an example of an optimized vs unoptimized image:

It is evident that if optimized properly the same image can be 75 percent smaller than the original without any loss of quality.

What is Image Optimization work?

In simple terms simply put, image optimization is achieved by using compression technologies such as "Lossy" and "Lossless" which can reduce overall size of the file, without noticeable loss in quality.

What is it to Optimize Images?

If you've ever been given the suggestion to optimize your images through your WordPress hosting support or by the speed test tool the only thing it suggests is that you have to cut down 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 images, here are the top ones to be aware of:

• Website speed faster
• Improved SEO rankings
• The higher conversion rate overall for sales and leads
• Storage and bandwidth are reduced (which can reduce hosting and CDN cost)
• Faster backups to websites (also reduces the cost of backup storage)

Apart from video, images are the next largest item on a page. According to HTTP archive, photos account for approximately 21% of a total webpage's weight.

As we have seen that faster websites are more popular in search engines (SEO) and also have higher conversions in terms of image optimization is a necessity for every business website must perform when they want to achieve success online.

Now , you may be asking what kind of difference could image optimization can really create?

According to a Strangeloop study, one-second delay in website loading could result in a loss of 7% of sales, 11% fewer pages viewed, and 16% lower satisfaction with customers.

If these aren't enough reasons to speed up the loading time of your site, then you should know that search engines like Google also give preferential SEO treatment to websites that load faster.

By optimizing your photos for the web you will be able to improve speed on your site and improve WordPress SEO rankings.

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 finding the ideal balance between the most compact file size and acceptable image quality.

Three things which play a major role in 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 reduce your image's size by as much as 80%.

Let's look at each one in more specifics.

1. Image File Format

For the majority of website owners, the only three image formats that really count can be described as JPEG, PNG, and GIF. Picking the right type of file can be crucial to image optimization.

To simplify things, you want to use JPEGs for photos and images with lots of colors. PNGs to create simple images, or when you need transparent images. You can also use GIF for animated images only.

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

However, JPEG is a compressed file format which slightly reduces image quality in order to make it much smaller size file.

While GIF has 256 colors, GIF uses only 256 together with lossless compression, which makes it the most suitable option in animated image.

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

2. Compression

The next thing is image compression that plays an essential part in image optimization.

There are various types and levels of compression available. The settings for each differ based on the image compressing tool you select.

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

You can also save images as normal and then utilize a web tool like TinyPNG , or JPEG Mini for easier image compression.

Though it's a little manual These two methods permit you to compress images before uploading images to WordPress that's the method we use on WPBeginner.

There are also several popular WordPress plugins like Optimole, EWWW Image Optimizer and many more that automatically compress images once you upload them. A lot of novices and even big corporations use these images optimization plugins because they are simple and quick.

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

3. Image Dimensions

Normally when you import a picture from your phone , or digital camera an extremely high resolution as well as massive file dimensions (height and wide).

In general, these photos have a resolution of 300 DPI with dimensions starting from 2000 pixels and up. These high-quality photographs are great for desktop or print printing. They are not appropriate for use on websites.

Sizing down the dimensions of files to something acceptable can dramatically reduce the size of the image file. Simply resize images using an image editor software on your computer.

We optimized, for instance, our photo to 1.8 MB original file size and 300 DPI resolution, and image dimensions of 4900x3200 pixels.

The format we chose was jpeg for higher compression and changed dimensions to 1200x795 pixels. Additionally, it decreased the image file size to 103 KB. That's 94% less than the size of the original file.

If you're aware of the three essential elements of image optimization, let's take a look at different image optimization tools for owners of websites.

Best ImageOptimization Tools and Programs

As we mentioned earlier, the majority of image editing software comes that have image optimization and compress settings.

Beyond the image editing software, there are also several efficient and cost-effective image optimization tools that you could utilize to make your images more attractive for the web use (with only one or two clicks).

We recommend making use of these tools for optimizing images before you upload them to WordPress particularly if are a perfectionist.

This strategy helps you save the disk space of your WordPress hosting account and also guarantees the fastest image with the finest quality because you manually go through each image.

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop is a premium software with the capability of saving images optimized for the web. Simply open your image and click on"File" and then select the "File >> Save for Web" option.

This will open up a new dialog box. On the right, you will be able to set various image formats. For JPEG format, you'll be able to select different quality options. When you pick your option the program will show you the file size at the bottom left.

GIMP

GIMP is a free and open source alternative to Adobe Photoshop. It is a tool to optimize your images for use on the web. However, it is not as easy to use as other solutions on this list.

The first step is to open the image in GIMP before you can select the File > Export as option. This will display the dialog box for saving your file. Create a new name, and then click"Export Now.

This will present options for exporting images. For JPEG images, you can choose the compression option to reduce file size. Finally, click on an export option to download the image you have optimized.

TinyPNG

TinyPNG is a web-based application that employs a clever lossy compression method to reduce the size of your PNG files. All you need to do is visit their site and upload your images (simple drag and drop).

They will compress the image, and send you a download URL. It is possible to use their companion webpage, TinyJPG in order to get JPEG picture compression.

They also have the extension Adobe Photoshop which is what we use to complete our image editing process because it brings together the best features of TinyPNG and TinyJPG inside Photoshop.

For developers, they've got an API that converts images automatically, and for beginners they have the WordPress plugin that will automatically complete the task for you (more on this later).

JPEG Mini

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

You can download their web version for free or buy the program for your computer. They also have a pay API to automate processes of your web server.

ImageOptim

ImageOptim is an Mac program that allows users to compress images without losing any quality by finding the optimal compression parameters and eliminating color profiles that are not needed.

Windows Alternate to this Trimage.

Best Image Optimization Plugins for WordPress

We believe that the most effective method to optimize your images is by doing it before uploading images to WordPress. If, however, you operate an author-based site or require an automation solution then it is possible to use a WordPress plugin for image compression.

Below is a list of the top WordPress compressors for images:

1. Optimole one of the most well-known plugins created by The company 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 popular WP Rocket plugin team.
5. ShortPixel Image Optimizer
6. WP Smush
7. reSmush.it

Using any or all of the WordPress image optimization plugin will help you speed up your website.

Final Thoughts and Best Practices for Image Optimization

If you aren't saving images that are optimized for the web, it's time to do it immediately. This will make a major difference on your site speed and your visitors will be grateful for it.

Furthermore, speedier websites are great for SEO and you will likely see an increase in your search engine rankings.

Use this tool to convert to png