21/06/2021
The best image optimization tips for WordPress
There are several ways you could optimize your images for better performance and usability. WordPress is not a champ regarding image manipulation; although you can tweak images once uploaded you can’t control the process, and there are several automated things that are not ideal and should be modified.
Today I’m going to explore the most important aspects of image optimization for WordPress:
How to optimize image sizes,
How to create your own resizes,
How to optimize the standard WordPress gallery for better presentation, and
How to apply a CDN.
These techniques will speed up your image loading, and they will also improve the quality of your blog by putting the control of the process back in your hands.
Use an Image Compression Plugin
Images uploaded to your site will not be optimized. WordPress has a standard mechanism for image compression that repacks the image to a default compression, but it will not strip away useless data usually inside each JPG/PNG file. There are several cloud services that offer such functionality, but they are all paid solutions that could increase the cost of your site.
There is still a plugin that is free and that offers such functionality by striping away useless data, not charging for it as it’s done in your own hosting with your CPU. This plugin is EWWW Image Optimizer (not to be confused with Image Optimizer Cloud which is the paid service).