8 Best Image Optimization Tips for Website

Your website’s appearance and feel are just as important as its loading speed for your users. A great web design combined with high performance will ensure that every website you create is beautiful and easy to use.

Think With Google says that a page load time of one to three seconds can increase your website’s bounce rates by up to 32%. This shows how important usability is for your website’s success. Without high-quality visuals and fast loading times, visitors won’t be able to connect with your design.

Website imagery, such as photos of products, artwork, or videos from events, plays a significant role in telling a story to your visitors. However, if these visual elements are not optimized properly, they can slow down your website. These best practices will ensure that your website looks great and performs well.

8 Best Image Optimization Tips for Website

1. Upload the correct image sizes

Uploading the highest quality image is a must. This means that you need to find media and imagery that look great and can upload quickly.

To ensure efficient loading, your file should not exceed 25MB (or 15MB if you are using GIFS). To preserve the quality of your visuals, you will want to open your file uncompressed or raw. This is a file that contains all the original data and has not been compressed to reduce its byte size.

Also read: 5 Types Of Featured Images To Consider Your Content

2. In most cases, choose JPG over PNG

JPG images, the most popular format, are usually smaller than PNG images. Sometimes they can even be 10 times smaller. A JPG is a better choice than a PNG (Portable Network Graphic) because of its smaller size.

When deciding between a JPG or PNG on your site, Keep in mind that both formats can be resized differently. JPG uses algorithms that approximate the original data, but only when it is resized and transmitted over the internet.

This is known as lossy compression. It means that some of the original data has been permanently deleted or “lost.” PNGs can be resized the format uses a compression algorithm that allows original data to be perfectly reconstructed (known as loss-less compression).

A PNG is a file that preserves the image’s quality. This means that you will need to work with larger files, which can cause site performance problems.

3. Adjust the default compression of your images to improve sharpness

You’ll find that every platform has its own default settings for compressing images when you add images to your website design. The Wix editor will compress your JPEG and PNG files to a default quality of 90% after you upload them. This default setting can be adjusted to ensure your images are sharp and load quickly.

4. Don’t stress about lazy loading — it’s a good thing.

You may notice blurred images as you scroll through your website. This is because the site takes a very short time to load fully. You don’t have to worry about lazy loading. It’s simply a placeholder for the actual optimized image.

To speed up your loading time and provide information to visitors as soon as they arrive on your site, The browser displays the first version of the image in a blurred, small size. In other words, It “lazily” downloads high-quality images in order to maximize their display dimensions. As the images scroll into view, the high-resolution images are downloaded. They replace the low-quality image placeholder (LQIP).

LQIP not only improves user experience but also aids your website’s SEO. It provides search engines with indexed photos instead of a blank icon or broken image icon.

5. When to use PNG vs. SVG

SVGs (also known as Scalable Vector Graphics) are available in an XML-based format. High-quality images can be created using mathematical formulas.

SVG is vector-based content. It tells the browser what to display using a complex network made up of lines, dots and shapes. SVG is more flexible than a PNG because its size is dependent on how many elements and “nodes it contains. PNGs, which are raster-based formats rather than SVGs’ vector format, are made up of a fixed amount of pixel grids. They are of high quality but hard to resize.

SVGs are sharp at any resolution or size. even if the viewport’s dimensions change. When considering the performance impact of the image’s dimensions when using SVG, instead of PNG, unless SVG is very complicated. e.g. An SVG depicting Norway’s coastline. The element’s dimensions are smaller than the image.

6. Select the right video format

Videos allow website visitors to engage with more content by offering more angles, longer messages, animated animations, and other features. Whether promotional or purely decorative, These are the basic rules that will ensure that your videos appear at their best without slowing down the page loading speed.

Uploading videos to your website should not exceed 1GB. Check which video formats work with your website platform before you upload your video. Some of the most common formats are AVI, MPEG and MPG, MP4, MPE, MP4, MOV, and OGV. VOB. M4V. 3GP, DivX. XVID. WMV. M1V. FLV. M2TS.

Also read: Video Optimization: Definition and Benefits of Optimizing Website Videos

7. Choose the right video background color

You should consider that some parts of the video might be cut or hidden depending on which device or browser your visitors use when adding it to your website. However, the video content will appear to be covering all dimensions of the component.

Video components are calculated using the entire dimensions of the media uploaded and not just the visible parts. You may add a color space in this instance to cover the background and provide visitors with the best aesthetic experience.

Different browsers have different color spaces. This means that if you choose the same color for a page background and a background color as a movie background, they may appear different in different browsers. A transparent background can be used to eliminate color variations.

8. Choose video over GIFS (mostly)

GIFs’ simple animation can grab the attention of visitors and lift your web design. GIFs have a few limitations. You cannot control the playback of your site. This can impact performance, accessibility, and overall user experience. GIFs can only play when all content frames have been loaded. GIFs cannot be optimized for web streaming. This can cause a significant slowdown in a page’s loading speeds.

You can choose between a GIF or a video if you are unsure. Videos can support unlimited color palettes and are optimized for web streaming. You can also stream them online as soon as you have the first frame.

These cases can be used in GIFs on your website:

GIFs are best for content animations that have fewer frames and smaller dimensions (e.g 100X100). You want to preserve the readability of text content within your video.