If you want to get the best optimization out of your website, look at how big your images are.
Images are usually the biggest things on your webpage, therefore they slow the page down when it is loading in. Google wants our webpages to load in less than 1.2 seconds and this will be very difficult to achieve if you have big images files on your website.
There is a physical size to your computer screen and your images and it’s measured in pixels (px). Images taken from your phone, or a camera are typically set at a high resolution meaning the pixel size is very high. Often making the image pixel size bigger than the computer screen size.
The only way to view this image on your website so it looks correct is to resize the image will a styling file. A styling files is a bit of code that is ran every time an image needs resizing. So, your page not only has to load in this massive file (taking up time) it also has to run the styling code (taking up more time). All of this adds up to a high loading time – or slow page speed time.
Why is a high loading time bad?
Google have found that people using their search engine do not want to hang around for websites to load. Therefore, Google added this into its algorithm to make sure it is giving the best service to the people searching. It allows them to rank website and typically website with a fast page load speed rank higher in Google than those who don’t.
Can’t I just use a plugin or the edit function in WordPress?
Of course, you can and its better than nothing. BUT plugins and the WordPress editor will keep the original file as well as creating the new smaller image file. And with some plugins create multiple sizes for each image. Whilst this isn’t bad for your individual pages as you will have a smaller image showing. It is bad for your hosting server.
Hosting Server?
Your website files are kept on a hosting server which allows them to be published to the internet. And just like any other computer it works more efficiently if there are less files in it. If you add multiple copies of every image to your server, you will fill it up and slow it down.
That’s why if you edit the image size BEFORE you upload it, you will have an image that looks good on your website and not clog up your sever. Or slow down the page speed by needing to resize the image with a styling file.
Okay so how do I do it? Optimize Your image size BEFORE you upload them to your website
It’s not as difficult as you think! I use a free image editing software call GIMP https://www.gimp.org/downloads/
Video Course Available
I have a Video Course available to show you how to edit your images using GIMP. The course goes through the image sizes you should use and how to save and export the images in the best file type for the web .webp.
My course is usually £30 but I’m going to give you £10 off with the discount code: FAB. Just enter the code into the basket to get:
The Easy Way To: Optimize Images For Your Website – Video Course for just £20!
If you need any help along the way, just drop me an email, I’m here to help!
Let me know!
Thank you for reading this week’s blog – Optimize Your image size BEFORE you upload them to your website. Pop over to my Facebook group and let me know if you have any questions.
Until next time, happiness is fleeting, strive for contentment. Gowns on!
Kelly (Your WordPress Queen) x
Kellys Web Designs - 07894 112 567
p.s If you haven’t joined my Facebook group – The Dressing Gown Guild, head on over for more business, web design tips and lots of fun.
