Most organizations feature a number of visual aids, information, and flair on their professional websites in the modern age of the internet.
Many organizations aren’t aware of the role that images play in their site’s average loading time. Larger image files take more time to load.
In order to speed this process up for your online audience, image optimization should be a standard procedure implemented with every new graphic on your site.
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What Is Image Optimization?
Image optimization is a process where full-size web images are compressed in terms of data while maintaining the same quality or perceptually close enough quality so that you cannot tell the difference.
The process is similar to recoding CD-quality commercial audio files to a lossless file format, which usually cuts the file size in half or more for the sake of storage.
Why Reduce File Sizes on Your Website?
Every website has what SEO experts refer to as a “bounce rate.” The bounce rate is the rate at which people leave your site without exploring pages. Sometimes, this is due to an unintended visit, not finding what visitors came looking for on the page, or simply due to a longer loading time.
The larger your image files are, the longer your site takes to load. Generally speaking, bounce rates go up on sites that take longer to load, which can lead to your organization losing potential business. It pays if you reduce the media file size wherever possible.
How to Reduce File Sizes?
Standard Image Files
You can use a number of tools to reduce the file sizes of JPG and PNG image files. Suppose you are using WordPress or a similar open-source content management system. In that case, some plugins can be added that automatically resize your images in web-friendly formats like Google’s WEBP format.
Additionally, many free online services will also reduce the file size of any image you wish.
PDFs
While many PDFs are of small file size to start, they can get large depending on how they were initially constructed or if they have a large number of source image files.
Adobe Acrobat itself can save files in a reduced size format if need be. Also, Acrobat’s “Organize Pages” option allows a user to split up a multi-page document if needed.
However, Adobe allows for automated PDF split service right on their website for those who do not have a Creative Cloud subscription.
Keeping Tabs on Your Loading Time
Make sure to check your general website analytical data both before and after you optimize your media files. If you go through your site for the first time to optimize everything at once, you might see a significant load time difference in analytics afterward and, quite possibly, a change in overall bounce rate.
In addition, anywhere where site code itself can be simplified or even call out to less external sources for javascript or stylesheets can also shave time off the loading time of your site.
Also Read: 13 Useful WordPress Plugins You Should Use?
