Optimized Images Speed Up WordPress Websites

I know you’d agree that images in your pages are one of the largest assets on your website. So it’s just right that you should be smart on what you upload and use in your page. Use your images sparingly, optimized images speed up WordPress Websites. I’ll teach you how. Ready?

Optimization of Images in WordPress

Optimization techniques in images can help your website. Probably, you are already doing some of them.

Manual Image Optimization

I like controlling the images of my website, I focus on functionality. Let’s optimize your images manually. I recommend these two:

1. 
   JPEGmini – it’s an excellent application that optimizes your JPEGs with an intelligent and “lossy” optimization algorithm. It doesn’t have any settings (which is a bummer) but it does a really good job reducing file sizes (at least 30%). It comes in Windows and Mac apps and is also available online.


2. 
   RIOT (Radical Image Optimization Tool) – this is an old but very effective optimization tool for Windows. It can process JPEGs, PNGs and GIFs with various algorithms.

 

Automatic Image Optimization With WordPress Plugins

If you don’t like the manual labor, there are easy-peasy automatic solutions. We’ll focus on two useful plugins for everyday use.

1. 
   WP Smush.it: Being the most popular image optimization plugin for WordPress, WP Smush.it automatically runs every image you upload through Smush.it’s API and compresses your images with a lossy algorithm. You can also bulk-optimize your existing images, which is a huge plus.


2. 
   EWWW Image Optimizer: If you like something that you have full control of, this plugin is for you. All of the algorithms it uses (jpegtran, optipng, pngout and gifsicle) are lossless algorithms. It won’t change any pixels but will reduce the sizes of your images by re-coding and cleaning up the files.

But wait… use WordPress With ‘Common Sense’

Taking all of the these advice won’t make your website any faster, of course. Let me elaborate:

Choosing a Decent Hosting Provider

Optimize your website all you want; but if your server’s performance is poor, your website’s performance will be poor. That’s why you need to choose wisely.

Choosing (Or Making) a Quality WordPress Theme

WordPress themes make huge impacts. Good looking but poorly coded WordPress themes may be one of the main culprits of a slow WordPress website. If you can’t make your own theme, choose themes according to performance.

Cutting Back on Plugins

Very simple: if you don’t really need it, get rid of it.

Keep Everything Secure and Up to Date

Staying updated may speed up your website because core, plugin, and theme developers work constantly to make their code more efficient. Note that keeping your website secure won’t speed up your website, but it can maintain your website’s speed if (or when) your website is under attack.

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Article: Optimized Images Speed Up WordPress Websites

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Optimized Images Speed Up WordPress Websites