Image Optimization

Are you the type of person who takes pictures of your products and uploads them directly to your site, or you simply don't care to look at the image details before uploading them? Well, you might be surprised when WordPress tells you that the file you have uploaded exceeds the acceptable limit. The only thing you need to do about this is to optimize each image you use on your site so your page loading time doesn't become affected. That means your images should have the smallest possible file size without reducing the overall quality.

But how do you do that?

Reduce the file size of your images before uploading them

This involves resizing the dimensions of your images and adjusting the quality through compression. Not only does this reduce the amount of time taken to load your pages, but it'll also reduce the bandwidth and Change image format for website

Choosing the right file format plays a crucial role in image optimization. To keep things simple, you might want to use JPEG for images with many colors, PNG for plain images, or when you want transparent images and GIF for animated images.

Use multiple servers

Content Delivery Network (CDN) is a system that conveys content based on the user's geographic location. It enables storage of the original version of an image on multiple servers worldwide. That way, users get high-quality images from the server that is closest to them.

Images make up to 21% of total webpage weight, according to HTTP Archive. So right after video content, images are the second thing you should optimize for better performance of your site. Here are reasons why optimizing your image-heavy website is critical:

• A faster website has happier visitors because slow load times frustrate users. Visitors are more likely to remain on a website that loads quickly, allowing them to navigate and find what they need more easily.
• When a website loads fast and functions appropriately, it ranks higher on the search engine. Search engine crawlers like Google frequently allure that site speed is a ranking factor, thereby giving preference to faster websites and penalizing those that take a lifetime to load.
• Optimizing images makes them less heavy, which means the whole site gets lighter. Lighter images take up less space on your server, reduce the data transferred when visitors browse your site and increase your pages' loading speed.
• Better performance usually means better user experience. That translates to higher conversion rates and more money in your pocket.

Ironically, image optimization is among the easiest things to implement, yet many website owners overlook it. Utilizing image optimization best practices not only improve your website loading speed but also help you get the most out of blogging, including improved SEO ranking and a higher overall conversion rate for leads and sales.