When we analyze the speed of a website with Google Page Speed or GTmetrix, one of the main problems that we usually find lies in the increased loading time for images, either by quantity, weight or size. Therefore, in this article we want to show you what are the best practices and plugins to optimize images in WordPress.
Why should you optimize images in WordPress?
When we upload images to WordPress, the platform creates copies of images of different sizes. The idea is that depending on the size of the image that appears on the page, you use the smallest image in dimensions (and therefore lightest) possible. All of these images can take up a lot of space on your web server without you realizing it.
On the other hand, when we load the original image, if it is too “heavy”, it will slow down the loading of our web page and Google will understand that our page is “slow”, so it will lower the positioning of the page.
After some time analyzing and optimizing the loading speed of different websites, we have seen that there are 3 main problems with images:
Weight
A very common point is to find images that, either due to their format, quality or size, their weight is higher than optimal. In this case, the loading time is affected by the increased weight of the page and this slows down its loading.
Size
On many occasions, images are uploaded without taking into account the size at which they will be displayed on the web. As a consequence, when a user loads that page, the weight is higher and CSS code is also loaded that automatically adapts the size of the image to the available space.
number of images
The more images a page has, the more requests the server has to make for it to be visible. Therefore, with the increase in requests, the loading time is increased.
Types of Plugins to Optimize Images in WordPress
Reduce the size of your original images before uploading them to your WordPress site is a very good measure. However, to enhance your existing media library and automate the compression of new imagesusing a plugin is the most effective solution.
There are several ways to do it, but we wanted to show you the simplest one that will cause the least problems in the future on your website: plugins. With plugins, you just have to choose which one best suits your needs and install it.
Here we present a list with plugins With which you will be able to solve the 3 main problems that the images produce and that worsen your load time:
- Plugins to optimize the weight of images in WordPress.
- Plugins for the size of the images on your page.
- Plugins to postpone the loading of images in WordPress.
Plugins to optimize the weight of images in WordPress
The plugins that you will find below have as their main task to reduce and compress the weight of images in WordPress:
1.Imagify
is one of the best plugins to optimize images in WordPress and proof of this is its more than 200,000 installations and an average score of 4.6 ⭐. It is a plugin developed by the creators of , so it is a guaranteed plugin and a great option for the future.
With Imagify you can massively reduce the weight of your images with just one click. The free version allows compression of up to 25MB per month free. In this version, the conversion of images to format is also included. WebP.
Among the options that you can find in Imagify to optimize the images of your WordPress, you will find:
- regular optimization: with this option you can compress your images without losing quality.
- aggressive optimization: With this compression option through a lossy algorithm, you will be able to optimize your WordPress images with a small loss of quality.
- ultra optimization: is the most aggressive option. It also uses the lossy algorithm, but in this case the loss of image quality is more noticeable.
With Imagify you will not only be able to optimize the weight of images, but you will also be able to resize them to the size that your website needs.
All the features it has and the fact that it is free (up to 25MB/month) makes it one of the best plugins to optimize images in WordPress.
2. WP Smush.it
It is one of the most used and well-known image optimization plugins in the history of WordPress. Proof of their success is reflected in their over 1 million installs and one average rating of 4.8 ⭐. It is a plugin that continually receives updates and improvements. A safe bet!
When you install WP Smush.it on WordPress, you will have access to many features that will allow you to optimize images in a simple and fast way. The main functions are:
- Image Weight Compression without loss of quality. The free version has no limit regarding the number of images, but the maximum weight that the file can have is 5MB.
- Compress and optimize images in PNG, JPG and GIF.
- It detects the incorrect size of the images and allows to resize them.
- Allows you to postpone the loading of images, which is known as LazyLoad.
Thanks to this plugin, you will be able to optimize the images in WordPress in such a way that you not only reduce the weight of your web page, but also the time it takes to load. What is known as a 3 in 1 plugin.
3. Optimizer.io
is one of the most recent plugins on the market to optimize images in WordPress and unlike previous plugins it “only” reduces the weight of images. Has been developed by web companybut it’s free.
Optimizer.io is a particularly interesting plugin for compressing images, since the entire process is not carried out on your server (as it happens in the rest of the plugins), but is carried out in the background in the web company servers. You are the first to perform this service for free!
Some statistics and data that make Optimizer.io a plugin ideal for optimizing images in WordPress they are:
- Reduce the weight of imageson average, between 20 and 70% without losing quality.
- Reduce charging timeon average, between 15 and 25% after optimization.
- Every time you upload a new image to WordPress, the plugin will automatically optimize it.
The weight of images is one of the most common problems and Optimizer.io is a fast, easy to use and reliable plugin to solve this problem.
4.WWW Image Optimizer
is a mythical plugin to optimize images in WordPress. Proof of their success are their more than 700,000 installations and the average rating of 4.4 ⭐ given by users.
This is a particularly interesting plugin for minimize the weight of images, thanks to its perfect compression function, that is, it compresses the weight of the image without losing quality. With EWWW Image Optimizer you will also be able to resize the size of your images.
Some of the main features of EWWW IO are:
- There is no limit to the weight of the file you want to optimize.
- You can compress any file that is in format JPG, PNG, GIF or PDF.
- All original images they will be available for 30 days in case you want to restore the original version.
Definitely EWWW Image Optimizer It is a very good plugin to eliminate the excessive weight and size of images that slow down the loading time of a website.
Plugin to optimize the size of images in WordPress
The main task of the plugin that you will find below is to resize the size of the images in WordPress:
1. Imsanity
It is one of the plugins that cannot be missing in your WordPress when it comes to optimizing images. Proof of this are his more than 300,000 installations and one average mark of 4.9 ⭐
Its main function is resize images and serve them at a much smaller size than the original. This function that seems so simple is one of the most common problems that slows down the loading time of a website.
Some main features of Imsanity are:
- Automatically resize the size of the images to a tighter one, always depending on the user’s device.
- Allows you to set a maximum height and width for which to optimize images.
- It has a function of massive image scaling.
As you can see, it is a very interesting and useful plugin to optimize images in WordPress. In addition it is very easy to usejust by installing it, it will start to improve the speed of your website.
Plugin to postpone the loading of images in WordPress
The main task of the plugin that you will find below is to postpone the loading of the images until they are visible to the user.
1. A3 Lazy Load
is the best free plugin to postpone loading images in WordPress. Perhaps it is not the most recognized plugin, it has more than 100,000 installationsbut it does its job very well and for this reason it has a mean rating of 4.3 ⭐.
The main function of A3 Lazy Load, and for what is in this list of plugins to optimize images in WordPress, is that postpone loading images and videos until they are visible to the user. WordPress generically loads all the content first and then displays it, which slows down load time quite a bit.
Some features of A3 Lazy Load are:
- Lazy loading of images applies to all types of content and locations: pages, entries, sidebar, footer or gravatars.
- Lazy load any embedded video from YouTube, Vimeo or HTML5.
- It’s a plugin 100% compatible with Woocommerce, WordPress AMP and caching plugins like WP Super Cache or Total Cache.
Conclusion on plugins to optimize images in WordPress
In conclusion, it is a very useful plugin specialized in optimizing the performance of images in WordPress so that the user get a better experienceas it can reduce the load time of a website in seconds.
As you can see there are many WordPress plugins to optimize images. Before telling you about one, check the speed of your website and see what optimizations are available. Whether it is the weight, size or both. Based on this you will have to decide which plugin best suits your needs. In we take into account the optimization of images when it comes to improving web speed. If you want more information about our service Do not hesitate to contact us.
And you, with what plugins do you optimize images in WordPress? Do you have any suggestion? Leave us a comment with her.
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