WordPress compresses and resizes your images by default to make your site load faster. Image quality suffers as a result of this process. Here are some suggestions for improving image quality.
- Avoid using images that are blurry or pixelated. Instead, take or obtain high-quality, high-resolution photographs.
- Before uploading images to WordPress, resize them to the required dimensions whenever possible. A list of image dimensions can be found at the bottom of most theme tutorials.
- Use the RGB (screen) colour space regardless of file format. The CMYK colour space is intended for use in print media.
- The SimpleJPEGQuality plugin raises WordPress’ default JPEG image compression limit.
- Sharpen Resized Images is a plugin that allows you to change the sharpness of resized images.
Optimizing your images for WordPress
Test images on your website as soon as possible.
You can quickly check your site’s speed and performance before you begin working on optimisation. Using any of the tools on the list, you’ll quickly learn how the images on your site are shaped.
Hosting Australia uses GTmetrix, which will even show you which images are slowing down your site.
Before uploading images to WordPress, optimise them.
Typically, people would take a photo with their camera or smartphone, download one from the Internet, or create one with computer software.
They don’t consider formats, image dimensions, or file names. They just assume that if the image looks good, it’s ready for the Internet. If you don’t double-check your images, you’re setting yourself up for failure.
Resize Images
Upload images to your WordPress website only after measuring their width and height. If you display images at a maximum width of 700px, for example, there’s no need to upload a larger image. If you do this, you will have a larger file, which will slow down your site, but the output will be the same. WordPress will generate extra space, but that is no excuse not to prepare the images before uploading.
Image resizing is quick and simple. There are numerous free tools available, such as Microsoft Paint, to assist you with this. Colorcinch, for example, is a free online tool for resizing images.
The image dimensions will differ depending on the theme. If you’re not sure which one to use, inspect the images in your WordPress theme, look for documentation, or contact support for assistance.
Update Quality
After changing the dimensions, you should think about changing the image quality. There are various methods for modifying image quality depending on the software. Photoshop, for example, allows you to save images for the web. This option allows you to save images at a lower quality while still optimising them for your site.
In addition, if you choose to save a picture as JPEG, Photoshop will prompt you to select a quality level. In this case, lowering the quality from 12 to 8 will significantly reduce the size of an image while making little difference in quality.
If you’re still not using software to improve the quality of your images, you can try the free Tiny PNG tool online. Simply upload a picture and see what a difference it makes.
Select the appropriate format.
Even after changing the size and quality, you should think about changing the format. For starters, simply choosing the right format can save a few kilobytes, if not more, from an image.
The general rule is straightforward. If you have a photograph, save it in JPEG format. Choose PNG if you have a logo, vector image, or a very simple computer-generated graphic. You can use GIF if you have a very small image with no gradients or if you want to show a simple animation like the one shown above. PNG images are generally larger than JPEG images, and you can benefit from changing the format.
In many cases, reformatting images will not result in significant quality differences, but you can expect a size difference. Next time you upload a PNG photograph, try saving it as a JPEG instead to see the difference.
Appropriate filenames
While the filename may appear unimportant, it is something you should be very aware of. The name of your image file contains important information for SEO. You should give your image a proper name if you want others to be able to find it on Google and other search engines.
We recommend that you name your images without using spaces. If you want the page and the image to rank, don’t forget to include keywords. If you’re uploading a photo of a Hosting Australia, for example, the file name should be “hosting-australia.jpg.” If you use a WordPress SEO plugin, you’re already aware that it looks for keywords in your alt tags. Yes, having a proper image name is that important.
Using WordPress Plugins
There are numerous WordPress plugins available to help you optimise images on your site. Scroll down to see the best WordPress plugins for image optimization.
Conclusion
Improving your image quality will help your website run more smoothly, be more responsive, and provide a better user experience, all of which will improve SEO and drive more traffic to your site. Making minor changes, such as compressing the image or changing the file names, can make a significant difference.