Despite more and more Internet users switching to broadband each year, a good portion of web users is still accessing the internet via old and slow dial-up connections.

Apart from these older internet users, Google absolutely counts fast page loading times into its Algorithm.

One surefire way to slow your page down is with large image files. So from a design point of view, it is therefore unwise to use large un-optimised images when building a new website.

Create Good Quality Images with Small Image Size

It is generally accepted that all the text on a website will load quickly even on a slow connection.

The real culprit of slow-loading website pages is mostly large images and therefore it is very important to strike a balance between using enough images to attract your users and not bogging down the overall loading time of your site.

The best way to do this is to Optimise every image on a website to make sure it loads in the least time possible.

Image Optimisation for SEO & User Metrics

When it comes to improving the performance of your website in organic search results, optimising images is one of the most powerful tools at our disposal.

Not only do optimised images look better when displayed by search engines like Google or Bing, but they also provide an opportunity to add valuable metadata that helps search engines understand what content is contained within them.

This information not only increases the chances of appearing higher in SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages), but it also provides users with additional context about what they’re seeing before clicking through – which could result in higher click-through rates (CTR).

How To Optimise Your Images

One way to do this is to use image editing software to remove unnecessary image information which has the effect of reducing the image file size without affecting its appearance.

Using Photoshop, when saving an image as a JPEG file, a dialogue box appears allowing the choice of “quality” of the JPEG image.

Normally a setting of 8 quality and then select: Image Optimized. This is good enough to preserve the quality of your image while saving it at a small file size.

Alternatively, options include saving images in PNG format to get the best quality at the least file size.

Images can also be saved in GIF format — the image editing software clips away all colour information not used in the image, hence giving the smallest file size possible.

However, it is worth noting that saving an image in GIF format will often compromise the appearance of the image itself.

If this seems too hard, may we introduce a more efficient system?

Built-in Image Optimisation With WP-Optimize

The best option for website owners is to install the latest handy Plugins that are available for download within WordPress.

Our developers even have access to some WordPress Themes that have built-in image compression software, which makes it really easy to get your images down to very fast loading sizes.

Do you need help with your current website? Hire our developers. Are you ready to start your online journey? We offer some of the most competitive website solutions for any local business.

Give us a call or get in touch via our contact form if you are interested in adding image file compression and optimisation to your website. (or have our developers do it)

It makes life for the webmaster that much easier.

We offer some of the most competitive website solutions for any local business. Don’t mess about with online web builders, get a professional team to do it for you. No headaches no hassles.

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Getting a professional to build your website, is very affordable. Beautiful websites, beautiful price, that’s what we’re about.

Check out our Portfolio and see the quality of our work and the value that you get.