You must compress images while uploading to your website. It will give the huge impact on your website performance. While compressing images, you must consider its quality. Some methods will reduce image quality while shortening. In this guide, I am going to show you How I compress Images for my WordPress website without losing quality.
You need not waste time while using online and offline compression tools or any other desktop software. Because many free and premium WordPress plugins are available to optimize images automatically while uploading your image.
Why should I compress images?
If you are new to blogging, you might have this doubt. The size of your web page is one of the factors which effects on your page load speed. The web page contains text, scripts, and images. Among these three things, images take massive size. For example, if you have 5 images of 100 KB each. So 5 images will add 500 KB. And let us assume other scripts will give another 500 KB. So one post size is 1 MB. Let us consider this 1 MB post takes 2 Sec to load.
If you compress images up to 50%, 5 images size will be 250KB, so total post size will be 750 KB. Your page load speed must be improved. It may load within 1.5 Sec.
Now I think you understood the use of image compression. I use Shortpixel Image Optimizer (50% Extra Image Credits Link) plugin to compress my images automatically.
Why Shortpixel?
I need to mention that, before using Shortpixel I have used EWWW Image Optimizer which is a premium plugin to compress my images. It was working very well, but expensive compared to Shortpixel and I did not find any difference in image quality after compression. After using Shortpixel, I must say it is the best. Best features of Shortpixel are given below.
Reduce image size up to 80%: Don’t think that it is just a statement. I have seen this many times. I have uploaded 190 KB image, after compression, its size became 30 KB.
Image Quality is excellent: Shortpixel manages the real quality of the picture. You don’t find quality reduction ever after compression.
Pro features for Free: Shortpixel is different from other premium plugins. It gives 100 free image credits every month. You will get same pro features for free images also. Even if you buy image credits, they will be used only for your free 100 images. That means you will get 100 images every month.
One time purchase plans: It gives you monthly plan as well as one-time purchase plan. I recommend you to go with a one-time purchase plan. Because that will be cheaper, compare to monthly plans. Your credits will never expire.
A single license on multiple websites: Whether you use free credits or purchased images credits, you can use them on unlimited sites.
Cheap & Best: It is very cheap compared to other premium plugins. You will get at most 1700 image credits for $1. But you need to go with one-time purchase plans.
You can also read my Complete review about Shortpixel Image optimizer for full features list.
How to Compress Images using Shortpixel
You need not spend money to startup with ShortPixel.
You can SignUp to ShortPixel for free. You will receive license code in your mail.
Open your WordPress dashboard. Go to Plugins -> Add New. Search with word ShortPixel. You will see ShortPixel Image Optimizer shows that in below screenshot.
Install and Activate ShortPixel Image Optimizer plugin. You will see ShortPixel option under Settings.
Go to Settings -> ShortPixel. You will be in General tab. You need to make some changes in settings.
First, copy your API key from your mail and paste in the API key field and click Validate.
Select Lossy option under Compression type. You will get good compression levels with this option. Even if it is lossy compression, you will see a negligible reduction in image quality.
Apply compression to thumbnails. If you want a backup of your original files, Check Image backup option. Check next two options also. If you want you can check last option, i.e., resize large images. I resize images on the desktop before uploading, so I don’t use this option.
Save Changes.
Now just write your articles and upload images as usual. When you Save your post, it will start compressing all uploaded images automatically. You can see status at the top of your dashboard.
Bulk Optimize all your Images:
Now you have setup everything. Use Bulk optimization tool to optimize existing images on your website. You can bulk edit from your General settings area. Or Go to Media -> Bulk ShortPixel.
Before doing this, you need to buy some image credits. Because you have only 100 free images credits per month. You might have more than 100 images on your websites.
Note: If you have checked Also include thumbnails option in settings, one image may consume 4 to 5 image credits sometimes it is even more. So don’t think that you can compress 100 images with 100 image credits. You may compress only 20 to 30 images with 100 image credits. Because it considers your thumbnail images as a separate image. Not only Shortpixel works like this, but Every image optimizer plugins also works like this.
So it is better to have some image credits.
How to Buy Image Credits from ShortPixel?
Login into your ShortPixel account. You will see all available plans. Otherwise select Plans&Pricing option in left menu.
Select any plan. I recommend don’t go with monthly plans. Go with the one-time plan. Choose maximum plan. Because you will get the discount with big plans. I bought 170000 image credits plan for $99. That means I got 1700 image credits for $1. I think no other premium plugin is cheaper than this. Other than this credits, you will get 100 free image credits in every month. Shortpixel uses your credits only after free credits.
Note: BlogVwant readers will get special discount i.e., 255000 image credits for $99 through this special discounted link.
You can see my present image credits and free image credits usage at the left bottom in above screenshot.
You can use same API key on countless blogs. Just install ShortPixel on another blog, paste same API key. I am using it on my two websites.
Conclusion:
After trying many methods and plugins, Now I am sticking to ShortPixel because it is very cheap and best image optimization service. I can say it is a must have a plugin for every WordPress website.
I hope this article helped you to compress images for your WordPress website. If you like it, please share it with your friends. Want more WordPress tips, follow BlogVwant on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter.
- Next Topics to Read: Don’t You Resize Image for Website? You Must do! Read Why?
- 2 Ways to Leverage Browser Caching to improve website speed
Leave a Reply