Image optimization is a crucial part of website performance optimization. To ensure a faster, more efficient, and user-friendly online experience, web developers and content creators should make image optimization a routine practice.
A slow website can result in a higher bounce rate, which means that visitors leave after only viewing one page. Image optimization can help your website load faster and therefore, reduce bounce rates.
Here are ways to optimize your images
Using a smaller image format
There are several image file formats, each with its own set of advantages and disadvantages. JPEG, PNG, and GIF are some of the most popular image formats for web use.
JPEG is ideal for photographs or images with a lot of color variation, whereas PNG is ideal for images with transparency, like logos and icons or with text or sharp edges. GIF is an excellent format for animated images.
Then there is WebP, this is a modern image format that supports both lossy and lossless compression, resulting in smaller file sizes with minimal quality loss. When compared to PNG or JPEG, WebP provides better compression, resulting in faster downloads and less data usage.
Reducing the image resolution
Image resolution is the number of pixels per inch (PPI). A higher resolution image will be sharper, but it will also have a bigger file size. You can lower the resolution to save server space and have a faster loading time if you don’t need the best possible image quality.
Resizing the image
Using the right-sized images. Uploading large images and then using HTML or CSS to resize them is not recommended,create and use images instead in the exact sizes required for their display.
Compressing the image
Compression reduces image file sizes by removing unnecessary data while maintaining image quality. There are two types of compression:
Lossless compression decreases file sizes without compromising the quality of the images. This works well with text, simple graphics, and images with sharp edges.
Lossy compression decreases file sizes by simply deleting some image data, which results in slight quality loss. This is suitable for pictures and images where a little bit of quality loss is acceptable.
There are a lot of image compression tools available that can reduce the size of an image’s file without affecting its quality.
Most Content Management Systems (CMS), like WordPress, that have built-in optimization features or image optimization plugins that can help you automatically optimize images upon upload.
Here are more tips to improve page speed.
Lazy Loading
Lazy load images so that they only load when they are visible in the user’s viewport. This reduces initial loading time and bandwidth usage.
Image Delivery via Content Delivery Networks (CDNs)
CDNs can distribute your optimized images to servers that are geographically closer to your website’s visitors, reducing the time it takes for images to load.
Testing and Monitoring
Test the speed of your website on a regular basis with tools like Google PageSpeed Insights, Pingdom Tools, or GTmetrix to know which areas that you can improve loading times with image optimization.