Are your images slowing down your WordPress website? If you’re running a WordPress website, you’ve probably noticed that large image files can slow things down—especially if you’re getting that dreaded “Image file size too large” warning.
Sometimes, this issue even comes up during site audits! If you’re seeing a message like “image file size too large” in your site audit, you’re not alone. Large image files can impact your site speed, SEO rankings, and user experience. But don’t worry! In this guide, I’ll show you step-by-step how to reduce image file size in WordPress and Edit and Resize Images in WordPress without losing quality.
By the end of this article, you’ll know exactly how to optimize your images to boost your website’s speed and search engine performance.
You can also read about How to discover New Keywords for Your Website
Why Reducing Image File Size in WordPress Matters
Before we jump into the how-to, let’s quickly cover why optimizing images is so important for your WordPress site:
- Site Speed: Large images take longer to load, slowing down your page. Page load time is a direct ranking factor for Google.
- SEO: Faster websites rank better on search engines. Image optimization directly impacts your SEO by improving page load time.
- User Experience: Slow websites frustrate visitors. By reducing image file sizes, you can keep users engaged.
- Site Audits: Tools like SEMrush and Screaming Frog often flag large images during site audits. Fixing these helps improve your performance score.
1. Compress Your Images Without Losing Quality through Plugins & Tools
One of the easiest ways to reduce file size is by compressing your images. You can do this automatically or manually: The easiest way to reduce image size in WordPress is by using compression plugin. Compressing images reduces file size without affecting their quality too much.
Plugins for Image Compression
Here are a few WordPress plugins that can automatically compress images when you upload them:
- Smush: One of the most popular plugins for image optimization in WordPress. It compresses images as you upload them and can bulk compress existing ones.
- ShortPixel: This plugin not only compresses your images but also converts them to WebP format, which is more efficient.
- EWWW Image Optimizer: Great for both real-time and bulk image compression, helping you reduce file size across your entire media library.
Bulk Optimize Existing Images
You can also perform bulk optimization for existing images through plugins. If you’ve already uploaded a ton of images that are too large, don’t worry—you don’t need to manually fix each one! You can bulk optimize images in your media library using these plugins.
Plugins for Bulk Image Optimization:
- Smush: Go to the Bulk Smush feature, which lets you compress all your existing images with one click.
- EWWW Image Optimizer: This plugin also offers a bulk optimization feature that scans your entire media library.
It’s a one-time process that can drastically reduce the size of your media library.
Manual Image Compression Tools
If you prefer to manually compress images before uploading them to WordPress, try these tools:
- TinyPNG: Upload your image and compress it instantly.
- ImageOptim: Batch compress multiple images at once, which is handy if you’re optimizing a lot of files.
2. Resize Images Before Uploading
Many people upload images that are much larger than needed, which causes slow load times. If your blog layout shows images at 1200px wide, uploading a 4000px image is unnecessary and wastes bandwidth.
Ideal Image Sizes for WordPress:
- Full-width images: 1920px wide
- Blog post images: 1200px wide
- Thumbnails: 300px wide
Before uploading, resize images using tools like Canva, Photoshop, or even your phone’s image editor. Resizing will significantly reduce the file size without sacrificing quality.
3. Convert Images to WebP Format for Faster Loading
WebP is a newer image format developed by Google, and it provides much smaller file sizes compared to JPEG and PNG without compromising image quality.
How to Convert Images to WebP in WordPress:
- Use a Plugin: Plugins like ShortPixel or Imagify can automatically convert your images to WebP when you upload them.
- Manual Conversion: If you prefer to convert them manually, you can use tools like Squoosh or CloudConvert to turn your images into WebP format before uploading.
4. Enable Lazy Loading for Better Performance
Lazy loading ensures that images are only loaded when they are about to enter the user’s viewport. This prevents your website from loading all images at once, improving page load time.
How to Enable Lazy Loading in WordPress:
- Built-in Lazy Loading: WordPress has native lazy loading enabled by default since version 5.5.
- Advanced Control: If you want more control over lazy loading, you can use plugins like a3 Lazy Load to customize the behavior.
5. Set Proper Image Dimensions in WordPress
WordPress creates multiple versions of every image you upload, and sometimes those extra images take up unnecessary space. It’s a good idea to set proper image dimensions for your website.
Steps to Set Image Dimensions:
- Go to Settings > Media in your WordPress dashboard.
- Set your maximum image dimensions, like:
- Large: 1200px wide
- Medium: 600px wide
- Thumbnails: 150px wide
This prevents WordPress from storing oversized versions of your images that slow down your site.
6. Use a Site Audit to Find Oversized Images
It’s always a good idea to regularly run a site audit using tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Screaming Frog. These audits can flag any images that are too large or causing slow load times. Fixing these issues is key to improving your website’s overall performance and SEO.
How to Run a Site Audit for Image Optimization:
- Run a site crawl using your preferred audit tool.
- Check for flags or warnings related to image size.
- Fix any flagged images by compressing, resizing, or converting them to WebP.
Reducing image size is an essential step in optimizing your WordPress website for speed, SEO, and user experience. Here’s a quick recap of the steps:
- Compress your images using plugins or manual tools.
- Resize images before uploading to match your website’s layout.
- Convert images to WebP for better compression.
- Enable lazy loading to improve load times.
- Set proper image dimensions in WordPress settings.
- Bulk optimize existing images in your media library.
- Run regular site audits to find and fix oversized images.
By following these steps, you’ll not only reduce image file size but also boost your website’s speed and SEO performance, leading to happier visitors and higher search rankings.
Got any questions or need help with this? Feel free to reach out, and I’ll be happy to assist!
