Image optimization is the key part of the search engine optimization process. The large image files can lead us to large page size and hence more loading time. If your website takes it forever to load then it will provide a very bad experience and the visitor will not return to your website again. Even with a second delay in loading time can cost you huge drop in the traffic. There are also some fast loading WordPress themes that you can check here.
However, webmasters also want to use high-quality images on their website as quality visual content gets more attention and social media shares. But high-quality images are always in large file sizes.
If you are using WordPress as CMS then there is a solution for this as you can compress the image size without losing much of the quality.There are some amazing plugins that can do this job. If you have already established the website, even then you can install one of these image optimization plugins and compress the existing images on your website in bulk with a single click.
Compress JPEG & PNG images
Compress JEPG and PNG images is an incredible image optimization plugin that which can reduce the size of the images to an outstanding limit without losing the quality of the images. This plugin basically uses the popular services like TinyPNG and TinyJPEG for image compression. For some images, you can reduce the size up to 80% and that without losing the quality. This is tremendous lossless compression and this plugin automatically compress the newly uploaded images.
If you have an established website with a number of large size images, even then you can install this plugin now and compress the images individually and in bulk from the dashboard panel. Another handy feature of this plugin in resizing the large image files. You can set a height and width and plugin will do the resizing job for you.
This amazing image compress plugin provides the support for the animated PNG files and compresses them losslessly. You can see all the stats of image compression in the admin panel of the plugin, actual size and the total savings.
BJ Lazy Load
Another way to make your website faster is using the lazy loading for the images. BJ Lazy Load Plugin makes your images load faster and saves bandwidth. All the images, thumbnails, gravatar, featured images, and content iframes are replaced by a placeholder with the help of this plugin. Now when a user scrolls down, the plugin loads the images as the user move down in browser. This saves the bandwidth and loads the website faster.
As this plugin works with iframes so it does the same job for YouTube and other video website’s videos. So, in case of low internet speed or heavy images, your visitors don’t see a blank page as all the images and videos are replaced with a custom designed placeholder.
WP Smush
WP Smush is another amazing image compression WordPress plugin with great user ratings. It is one of the favorite image compression plugins used by the developers. You can effortlessly compress all the images on your website using this absolutely free image optimization plugin. This plugin will not compromise the quality of the images while compression.
You can also resize the large images by defining a height and width for the resizing purpose. Now your website will not slow down while loading because of quality images with the large sized files. WP Smush provides support for multiple image directories and hosting providers when it comes to the image resizing.
Optimus
Optimus is also an image resizing WordPress plugin which can reduce the size the images up to 70% depending on the type and size of the images. While in the process of compression, the quality of the images is maintained. The newly uploaded images are automatically optimized at the time of upload.
The process of compression is very simple in the case of Optimus. The images are sent to the Optimus server and after the compression, then sent back to the original directory.
EWWW Image Optimizer
EWWW Image Optimizer is another amazing image optimization plugin which reduces the size of the images on your website and makes your website load much faster. The fast loading website will give you an edge over your competitors and better search engine rankings. Not only the rankings, it will also save your hosting disc space and the bandwidth.
Your existing images are optimized at the time of activation of this plugin and newly uploaded images are optimized when they are uploaded. The image resizing feature is also available in this plugin. You can also optionally choose to save the images in best compatible format.
The plugin is also compatible with other compulsory image optimization plugins and services like CDNs to give you the best result and make your website faster than ever before.
CW Image Optimizer
CW Image Optimizer is cool image compression plugin that compresses your images without compromising their quality. The unique feature of this plugin is that unlike all other compression plugins, your images never leave your server while the process of compression.
All other features are standard like other plugins like automatically optimizing new coming images and compressing already uploaded images.
Hammy
Hammy is image compression plugin which can reduce the size of your images up to 80%. The only limitation of this plugin is that it only works with standard post types and pages and it does not work with the custom post types. This image optimization plugin fully supports the retina images. You can reduce the size of images multiple times but the dimensions are reduced only once.
PB Responsive Images
PB Responsive Images Plugin not only compresses or resizes the images but also it reformats all the images in one format that is recommended for the responsive images by w3.org. You can provide a default size and all the images are then resized into that dimensions.
The plugin also provides the shortcodes for different types of queries which determine which image to show for a particular screen size.
SEO Friendly Images
SEO Friendly Images WordPress plugin is used to optimize the website images for the purpose of search engine optimization. This handy plugin automatically updates the images with proper ALT and Title attributes. If images on your website are missing the proper Alt and Title tags then this plugin can easily handle this job for you.
You just have to set options and the plugin will optimize all the images on your website. Alt and Title tags for the images play a vital role in search engine optimization and also it improves the rankings of images in Google Image results. Search engines display images having a matching Alt attribute with the search query.
ShortPixel Image Optimizer
If you want to win the race in SEO over your competitors, then your website should be loading very fast. ShortPixel Image Optimizer does this job for you. It helps you to optimize the images and PDF files on your website. This useful plugin can optimize all your past images and PDF files with a just single click. New images are automatically resized and rescaled once they are uploaded.
Both lossy and lossless compression types are provided by this plugin for popular image formats like JPEG, PNG, and GIF. The edge that this plugin has over other image optimization plugins is the optimizing PDF files.
Responsive Images by Pixtulate
Responsive Images by Pixtulate is another image optimization WordPress plugin which resizes and rescales images on demand and improves the speed of the website. Your website will load much faster than before after the images optimization done by this handy plugin.
Conclusion
It all depends on your website needs that which plugin suits your website. For example, if your prime objective is the lossless compression of the images then WP Smush & Compress JPEN & PNG Images should be the choices for you. If your pages use tons of the images then you must try lazy load plugin as it will reduce your bandwidth. When it comes to optimization and most of your images are lacking proper Alt and Title tags then you must consider SEO Friendly Images plugin to quickly optimize your images.
If your website is full of PDF files then you need to optimize the PDF files to achieve a better loading speed for your website. ShortPixel Image Optimizer will do this job for you.
If you know some other plugins for image optimization then don’t forget to mention them in comments below.