3 Ways To Optimize Images for Web Performance
For businesses with a freshly-developed website, the lack of organic customers can be maddening. Google Page Speed Insights also has a tendency of flagging up warning messages.
So, if you are struggling with sluggish loading times cutting into your website’s performance, poorly optimized images may just be the source of the issue. In this piece, we’ll investigate three procedures to optimize the visual files on your site. By executing these techniques, you can see notable improvements in terms of speed, UX and SEO – making your site a prime destination for window shoppers everywhere.
The “No-Code” Way
To get your images in prime condition, one surefire means of optimizing is through formatting.
Achieving a good photo size to quality ratio is the essence of image formatting. The key is to balance both elements while striving for the most efficient file size possible without losing much quality.
Compress Photos
When beginning, determine which format suits you best. Common choices include JPG, PNG, SVG, and more modern alternatives like WebP and AVIF.
Next up, image compression is an easy way to do this. It works by encoding the same data but using a smaller number of bits than the original file.
There are two types of compression:
- Lossless: A technique used to reduce the size of an image file without sacrificing any of its quality, as each pixel remains intact and uncompromised.
- Lossy: Taking into consideration that compressing images involves omitting some data, it’s necessary to be very careful with the reduction in size of these files.
Reduce the Size
The next step is to simply reduce the size of the image. In other words, you need to cut or crop image or the specific elements of interest. Instead of uploading a file that’s 5000 px wide without taking into consideration the much smaller size which can be used, such as 4000 px, you can achieve your goal in no time by taking advantage of online platforms built for this purpose. For instance, with Watermarkly, all your files are processed directly on your device, ensuring 100% privacy for your files.
Size
To maximize page speed and efficiency, optimizing size isn’t the only approach. Leveraging a CDN is an alternative solution which helps balance the distance between end users and web servers for a speedy page loading experience.
The Programming Pathway
There are a number of ways to optimize your pictures with having to resort to coding, including:
Take Advantage of Lazy Loading
Faster page load times can be achieved by using lazy loading to defer the retrieval of resources until they are required. This process entails the browser loading only a minimal set of assets from the server with the rest being fetched as they are needed.
To apply this method, you can use the following CSS code:
element {
content-visibility: hidden;
}
Use New-Gen Image Formats
Make sure to take advantage of the latest formats, WebP and AVIF. Plus, ensure compatibility with the older browsers by having fallback support in place. Doing so can provide an improved user experience since it promotes faster loading speeds and allows for better image quality.
To include imagery into your web page, <picture> and <source> tags can be employed to define the formats and sources of visuals.
Use Asynchronous Decoding
When creating content, you can utilize asynchronous decoding to prevent slow loading. This is done by adding an async attribute to the <img> tag, allowing your browser to still show the content while the images are still being decoded in the background.
Enable Browser Caching
Enabling browser caching is an effective method to boost your website’s performance. By setting up the appropriate caching headers for the server, a visitor’s browser can locally store certain files which will speed up their subsequent visits. This is done so that the browser can keep essential image files when the user comes to the site for the first time.
Optimization for SEO
And finally, to ensure your website’s visibility, there are a few more things to consider:
Name Precisely
When publishing images to your site, ensure that each file is declared appropriately. Ahead of exporting, rename the files with descriptive words that illustrate the content correctly. It’s imperative to check for any unnecessary characters or letters beforehand.
Incorporate Image Alt Text
When it comes to optimizing web pages, it is also crucial to add image alt text. This small but essential detail helps search robots understand what is and isn’t in the image file. Aim to keep it as concise as possible – no more than 16 words or 120 characters total is recommended. Plus, remember to keep photo sizes down, for a speedy website experience. Shoot for lower than 500KB – this will help sites load faster.
The Bottom Line
As demonstrated, quality visuals that are optimized on your website is always the goal, and this is achievable by following the correct techniques. Complying with the tactics proposed in this article is a surefire way to bring positive effects on your website’s visitor satisfaction and performance.
