The visual aspect of a website has assumed greater importance over the years. The visual appeal of a page is helpful in grabbing the attention of visitors. Bloggers and other website owners regularly insert images within their content to enhance the readability of the material. Pictorial representation also helps in easily explaining a complex topic. Moreover, watching a picture does not take as much time as reading a post. Visual-based content, therefore, is a handy tool in boosting user engagement. However, photos and other similar elements can bloat a website and affect its loading speed. A list of the best WordPress image optimization plugins is presented here. These tools will automatically optimize every picture that you upload on your interfaces. They will make sure that the image quality is not compromised and the loading speed remains unaffected.
1. Smush
Boasting of active installation figures of over 1 million, Smush is one of the most popular optimization solutions available to WordPress users. This powerful plugin will enable you to optimize up to 50 pictures with a single click. You can automate the entire process and the tool will take care of things even if the pictures are not located in the media library. It also has the useful lazy loading feature which ensures that a photo will load only when a user scrolls down and reaches its location.
2. Imagify
Another advanced solution that you can use to make lighter images without losing quality is Imagify. It auto-optimizes all pictures including thumbnails on an interface. The plugin has a backup facility so that you can restore an item to its previous version at any time. Subscribers are allowed to process up to 25 MB of photos every month without paying any fee. The product is compatible with other WordPress plugins like WooCommerce and NextGen Gallery.
3. EWWW Image Optimizer
Did you convert HTML to WordPress theme to start a blog? Then you must try the EWWW Image Optimizer plugin. The tool conducts pixel-perfect optimization of new as well as already-uploaded snaps. It automatically converts the item into a file format which will generate the smallest file size. The tool is available for free but you will need to pay if you want to use a cloud-based server for the process.
4. ShortPixel Image Optimizer
ShortPixel Image Optimizer is one of the best WordPress image optimization plugins that you can use. This efficient tool works perfectly in all kinds of hosting environments whether VPS, shared, cloud-based or dedicated. It can compress JPG, PNG, WebP, and GIF (still and animated) files as well as PDF documents. The product can be used for processing featured images as well as thumbnails. This GDPR-compliant tool supports gallery plugins like NextGEN and Foo Gallery.
5. reSmush.it
This optimizer plugin uses reSmush.it API to reduce picture sizes. The API can work with PNG, JPG, and GIF files up to 5 MB. You can configure its settings to perform bulk processing in just a couple of clicks. The default optimization level of the tool is set at 92 but users can reduce this level. They can also choose to exclude items from the optimization process.
6. Compress JPEG & PNG images By TinyPNG
Another tool that can be used to automate the compression process is Compress JPEG & PNG images By TinyPNG. The plugin uses the image compression services, TinyJPG and TinyPNG to do the job. It preserves important original information like creation date, copyright metadata, and GPS location during the process. You can use the solution to compress animated PNG files. All the color profiles are automatically transferred by the plugin into standard RGB color.
7. WP Compress
Users who regularly upload a large number of images must try the WP Compress. They can activate its autopilot mode so that the plugin automatically checks for new files every hour and processes them. The first 100 images are compressed for free and users will have to sign up for a membership plan to continue using the tool. It comes with three compression levels, two of which are lossy while one is lossless.
8. Optimole
Optimole uses a cloud-based system to conduct optimization in real-time. The product can be set up in a single click and generates high-quality pictures fit for all kinds of devices. It replaces the original image URLs with cloud-based URLs. Whenever a picture is requested, the service applies the necessary modification and delivers an image sized appropriately for the user’s device. Its free package will let you process 1 GB of files per month and provide access to CDN and 10GB of monthly viewing bandwidth.
9. Imsanity
Imsanity is an open-source tool that lets you define the maximum width, height, and quality of an image. Any uploaded item which exceeds the configuration will be scaled down to the defined value. You can use it to bulk-resize multiple pictures and optionally convert BMP files to JPG. Once you have activated the tool and made the settings configurations, the plugin will do the job without needing any effort from you.
Conclusion
The tools mentioned here will enable you to automate the process of compressing and resizing your website images. People who have hired WordPress website development professionals to create their interface must ask the developers to include a tool in their projects. This will help in acquiring a website which is geared up for the purpose right from the beginning.