As the old saying goes, “a picture speaks a thousand words”, a website without pertinent images may not have high user appeal. Well-Written content can be much more appealing to your viewers with high-quality images conveying your points or descriptions beautifully. Web users also tend to be more disposed to view pictures or images than bland texts. The interest is generated by enticing images or pictures that promise much more in your website’s content. So, relevant and high-quality images are a pre-requisite for your website to gain in popularity and mass appeal.
While you would ideally want to include quite a few high-quality pictures related to your content on your website, there is a serious downside of this action. High-quality images tend to slow down your website and the loading time increases substantially with the number of images. To achieve balance and use the maximum number of images on your web page, image optimization plugins provide the best solutions for your WordPress website.
Image Optimization Plugins for WordPress
These WordPress plugins resize and smash your image in such a way that the balance between quality and performance is achieved and you get the maximum resolution and performance from your WordPress website. You may find below a list of five such image optimization plugins to help you choose the best for your website.
1. Optimus
This image optimization plugin has the potential to provide much more than mere image resizing. Optimus automatically optimizes the images as they are uploaded in your website. With minimal settings, it will also take care of all the derivatives of the image created by WordPress. Some other key features of Optimus are mentioned below.
- Creates jpeg images in a progressive format
- Preserves EXIF and IPTC metadata
- Compresses all uploaded images by WordPress
- Seamless support for Windows Live and WordPress Mobile App
2. ShortPixel
This is another image optimization plugin for WordPress websites. ShortPixel requires its .api key for activation and registration is free of cost. There are two options for optimization in this plugin, lossless and with loss. The process is automatic and you may compress PDF, PNG, JPG and GIF file formats. The features mentioned below are also notable for ShortPixel.
- Stores original image with the option for easy restoration
- Support WooCommerce and bulk optimization
- There is no size limit for the compressed image
- Optimizes both the main image and the thumbnail in WordPress website
3. WordPress Smush
Smush is a popular image optimization plugin for WordPress websites. One good feature of this plugin is all the larger sized image optimization is handled by their server. You have the option of choosing desired height and length of your image for matching it with your website’s area. With free support for file size up to 1 MB, you can process 50 images at a time. Some other important features of Smush are mentioned below.
- Can offer choice between lossless and lossy image optimization
- Can handle JPG, PNG and GIF files
- Resizes images as per your specification before uploading to media library
4. Imagify
This image optimizer automatically compresses images without compromising on the quality aspect. Imagify is compatible with Nextgen Gallery and WooCommerce plugins. An account creation at imagify.io is necessary before you start usage of this plugin with the .API file. Though this plugin is a premium service, you may use Imagify if you upload images less than 25 MB per month. Some other key features of this plugin are mentioned below.
- Bulk optimization in Media Library
- No quality loss at normal optimization level
- Resizing of larger images happens automatically
5. EWWW
The significant feature of this plugin is the image converter feature. EWWW can convert PNG files into JPG format. This plugin also optimizes GIF, PNG, PDF and JPG image files. EWWW has the bulk optimization feature of optimizing a large number of images with a single click. It can also resize images and as per your preference before uploading to the WordPress media library. Few other important features of this plugin are mentioned below.
- Lossless image compression or optimization
- Conversion of JPG to PNG and vice-versa is possible with this plugin
WP Retina 2x
WP Retina 2x is not an image optimizer for WordPress like the other plugins on this list. It is in a class of its own.
WP Retina 2x is used for serving Retina images on your WordPress site. Retina images are tremendously resource intensive because they’re twice as large as normal images, so you need a plugin that will help you serve them properly.
Imsanity
Don’t be scared off by Imsanity’s freaky feature image in the WordPress Plugin Repository. This free image optimizer plugin automatically resizes images to a more “sane” size by using WordPress’ built-in image scaling functions.A nice feature of Imsanity is the ability to set a maximum width, height and quality. You can also convert BMP files to JPG so images can be scaled.
With Imsanity, you’ll be able to bulk resize images. When Imsanity scales an image, it replaces the original image.
WordPress Plugins for Image Optimization
Any of the above plugins are capable of meeting your requirements of an efficient and user-friendly image optimization plugin for your WordPress website.
An added benefit of optimizing images is that it helps in making your site search engine friendly. Try these plugins and let us know which one you found the best to suit your requirements.
