Some tricks for Image Optimization WordPress Website. One of the simplest and most effective ways to take your website from good to great is Image Optimization. Not only does it help with the appearance it also helps with SEO Rankings.
With Google focusing heavily on Mobile responsive websites, images are no longer simply eye-candy, they are there to do a job within the context of extremely limited screen space. However as mobile download rates still lag behind those available on desktop, every pixel potentially counts. Users demand fast pages and research by HTTP Archive shows that images are the main cause of lagging websites and on average weigh in at 1.25MB per image. This will create a poor user experience for mobile users. The industry suggests that users expect a website to load within two seconds, however the average load time on mobile phones is around seven seconds. Google SEO requires that your page should load in one second or less.
Starting by cropping your images to remove the unnecessary excess and if you use photoshop, saving the file for websites / online will help with the compression file sizing of an image. You should be aiming for a balance between the lowest file size with the highest possible image quality. Jpgs are generally better for attaining the best result. PNG’s and GIF’s tend to lose quality pretty quickly.
We advise our clients to look at a WordPress plugin WP Smush – it is an essential and important plugin to have on your website. WP Smush strips hidden, bulky information from your images, reducing the file size without losing the quality.
Optimizing your Images for SEO is equally important to your website’s overall success. Using descriptive filenames that showcase your long tailed key phrases. Alt Tags should be non-spammy and provide a clear and brief overview.d
Also considering leveraging the power of a CDN, will also help with the optimization and performance of the website and website images overall. The faster your website loads, the more Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines will like it.
