When we design websites for clients, we nearly always ask them to sign up for a service from a company called Shortpixel. (Don't go running off there, yet, we can save you money if you decide to use this after reading this article)
If we are currently designing your site, and we sent you to this page, please read on so that you know what this is and why you need it. If you already have a site and are looking to add image compression, you will also find this article useful, and you can always ask us to add this to your site for you.
Shortpixel provides your WordPress site with a plugin that will compress all the images on your site to the smallest size they can be without any loss in quality to the human eye.
After setting up the plugin, all the current images and thumbnails on your site will be compressed. Once this is done, any images you may upload in the future will be automatically compressed without any extra action required by you. The plugin itself can be downloaded here and installed on any WordPress site.
Why do you need this?
1. Page speed for search engines. I am sure we do not have to tell you that page speed is VITAL these days. If you want your site to do well in search engines, it HAS to be fast. Lots of large images can slow down your site’s pages and negatively affect your page load times.
2. Page speed for customers. This is a proven and well-researched FACT, if your pages take much more than 2 seconds to load you start losing visitors before they even see your site. This is lost sales, lost sign-ups, lost income.
3. Webspace. Like all websites, you have to pay for your webspace, so why waste it on images that could be much smaller?
Image Sizes
Now just to be clear here there are TWO types of sizes when it comes to images. There is the physical size EG 800×600 pixels, then there is the FILE size EG 1Mb.
For physical size, you should never really be uploading images that are more than 1200 pixels wide unless you need ultra-high-quality images. For example, a photographer may use larger image sizes.
Regarding the filesize read on…..
What Will This Plugin Do To My Images?
Shortpixel will drastically reduce the FILE SIZE of your image without altering the dimensions or the quality of the photography. This is called lossless compression.
Couldn’t I Do This With A Program On My Computer?
Yes you could but that is time-consuming to do correctly, in addition, most compression software will degrade the quality of your images.
Is There Any Cost?
This depends on how many images you upload. Shortpixel offers 100 images free every month after that they DO charge, but the charges are more than reasonable here are the options they offer:
One time credits:
These do not expire they sit in your shortpixel account until used, when you run out you buy more. You can buy a credit pack for $9.99 that will give you 10,000 image compressions that are 0.0009c each. The time this will save you alone makes it a no-brainer.
Bear in mind that when you upload a single image to WordPress, it often creates 5 different sizes. So, in reality, the pack will probably do just 2000 images
Unlimited Monthly Account:
You can get an unlimited account for $9.99 a month that will give you unlimited image compressions and access to their image CDN with traffic of 500 GB per month
OUR SUPER DEAL!!!
We can provide you with that same unlimited account for just £9.99 per year. At 20p per week, that is a real no-brainer. You can order that here. We will install and set it up for you.
What About The Images That Are Already On My Site?
You can compress those too if you wish once the plugin is installed. As your host, we would advise you to optimize ALL your images. Again, weigh up the cost against repeatedly losing sales to slow pages.
