5 Tips On How To Speed Up Your Image-Heavy Website With ShortPixel

Do you have an image-heavy website?

Perhaps, you’re a blogger who includes images to break up chunky text. I totally recommend this. It’s a great SEO tactic and good images will complement your message. Or perhaps, you’re an artist or photographer with numerous images in your portfolio. This is necessary since it showcases your skills and expertise.

So, how do you speed up your image-heavy website without sacrificing quality?

For me, I’m using ShortPixel to optimize my images. Here are some tips on how you can optimize your images with ShortPixel.

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. I will earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you, if you purchase through these links. Your support encourages me to continue blogging and help with the costs of hosting this site. Thank you!

1. Ask Yourself If The Images Are Necessary

The first thing you need to do is asking yourself whether the images are necessary. Is there a reason or purpose for including them on your website or blog?

For example, if you’re writing a how-to guide with step-by-step instructions on how to do something, screenshots are necessary so your audience can follow. If you’re an artist or photographer, the portfolio with your best works, images and photographs are necessary because they show your skills and abilities.

On the other hand, if you’re including images in your blog post to break up text but not necessarily adding to your message, you might consider removing these images or changing to other images that complement your blog article.

Photo by StockSnap on Pixabay

2. Resize & Crop Your Images

Next, ask yourself these questions

• Do you need such a huge image on your website?
• Did the image capture the necessary things only? Are there any irrelevant elements?

Always resize and crop your images to save bandwidth and storage space.

Let’s say your website’s maximum width is only 900px for blog posts. If so, you might consider resizing or cropping your images so they stay within this 900px.

If your image includes elements that don’t add to your message, you might consider cropping them out and only retaining the necessary elements.

Photo by George Milton on Pexels

3. Save As JPG, Rather Than PNG

JPGs contain less data than PNGs and thus, are usually smaller in file size. Since they take up less space, JPGs load faster on the web. Unlike JPGs, PNGs support transparent backgrounds, making them preferred for graphic design. Simply put, JPGs are better for photographs while PNGs work better for graphs and pictures with text.

If you’re an artist, you might want to show your images in their best quality and thus, save them as PNGs. As mentioned earlier, I strongly suggest that you test by saving the image as both JPG and PNG and see if the difference is huge. You might choose to save most images in JPGs and only the best artwork in PNGs.

Take me for example. I don’t use transparent backgrounds for my Pinterest graphics and I don’t really see a huge difference between JPG and PNG. Therefore, I recently changed all the featured images in my blog posts (which are Pinterest graphics) from PNG to JPG. The difference in file size is enormous!

Likewise, if you create your graphics in Canva like me, you can download both JPG and PNG and compare their file size and image quality. If the images look similar (like it did for me), you might consider choosing the image format with a smaller file size. This is especially so if you have a blog with numerous articles and you want your site to load quickly.

4. Lossy & Lossless Compression

Next, you can consider lossy or lossless compression in your ShortPixel settings.

Lossy reduces file size by permanently removing some of the original data. Lossless reduces file size by removing unnecessary metadata.

The key consideration will then be how much are you willing to sacrifice. Is file size or data quality more important to you? I strongly suggest that do both compressions and compare whether there’s any difference to the naked eye. Also, do ask yourself whether high-quality images are necessary on your website.

Check out my ShortPixel review for more information about the various compression types~

5. Create WebP & AVIF Image File Formats

The latest image file formats are WebP and AVIF. These modern file formats provide superior lossless and lossy compression for images on the web. According to Google, WebP lossless images are 26% smaller in size compared to PNGs while WebP lossy images are 25-34% smaller than JPGs.

Therefore, I strongly recommend that you create WebP and AVIF versions of your images. This can be easily done by adjusting your ShortPixel settings.

Bonus Tip: Use Your Free ShortPixel Monthly Quota First

ShortPixel provides free 100 credits per month (if you sign up for the free monthly plan). Depending on the images and your ShortPixel settings, some images might use more credits while others might use fewer credits.

With these free 100 credits, I strongly recommend that you optimize important images first. For instance, your featured image. Next, you can optimize images within your blog post.

Bonus Tip: Upgrade Your ShortPixel Plan

If the free 100 credits per month isn’t sufficient, you can consider upgrading your ShortPixel free plan to unlimited or one-time plan. Do weigh the pros and cons and see which plan is more suitable for you.

Unlimited plans are great if you upload numerous images. You just have to pay a flat monthly or yearly rate without worrying about the amount of credits used.

One-time plans are great if you upload images from time to time. They’re one-time credits but they last forever.

Photo by nattanan23 on Pixabay

Now It’s Your Turn

How was your experience optimizing images with ShortPixel? I find the WordPress plugin quite straightforward. You can easily configure the settings and bulk optimize images. Do check out my review on ShortPixel~