Be it web design or web development, and image optimization is an essential factor that just cannot be overlooked by any website development company in Sydney. The quality of images on your website can dramatically change the overall look and feel.
In layman’s terms, it is the process of generating high-quality images of proper format, dimensions, resolution while keeping file size smaller.
However, the question raised here is why do we need to optimize images in the first place?
Often when image sizes are too large for uploading on your website or when files formats are incorrect, you need to optimize them, or else they can slow down your page load speed which has adverse effects on your website’s performance in search engines. On the flipside, optimized images can help you attain more visitors. For example, optimizing image alt text with appropriate keywords educates crawlers on the image. That way, it places you higher in SERPs for related user queries.
Further, Google recommends page load speed should ideally be half a second, but three seconds is considered a threshold. Since 21% of the website’s weight is due to images, achieving this speed is challenging. That’s the reason we need to optimize images.
There are various ways to optimize an image. However, you need to bear two things in mind, i.e., file format and compression type. So let’s look into each.
Types of file formats
- PNG
Generate high-quality pictures and are commonly used for achieving transparent backgrounds. However, it is not SEO-friendly.
- JPEG
More SEO-friendly, with the ability to alter quality as needed.
- GIF
A lossless compression format with a 256-colour palette for animated visuals.
- WEBP
WEBP and other formats like JPEG XR and JPEG 2000 works with all the browsers.
Types of compression
- Lossy
Such a method of compression lowers the quality of the image. It dramatically decreases file size, but you must do this with caution; otherwise, your image will lose beauty. You may use Adobe Photoshop and Affinity to reduce the file size as required.
- Lossless
Lossless compressions minimize picture size while maintaining image quality. Photoshop, FileOptimizer, or ImageOptim can be used to do this.
For any website designing company in Sydney, image optimization is crucial for reasons now known to you.
