How to Optimize Images for Your Website the Easy Way!

27 Comments / Images, Planning / By

I’m Waiting!

Have you ever visited a website only to sit and wait? It’s almost as if the image on the page is being drawn on line by line. Depending on your familiarity with the website and/or person associated with said website, you may stay and wait or you may click the back button, onto a website that doesn’t make you wait. We are all very, very busy and always in a hurry! (I live in Jersey where people just may race to their own funerals!)

Why So Slow?

So why do some images load so. darn. slow. ly…? Well, I can give you two very common reasons, one of which I will go over in this blog post, the other I’ll save for another day.
First, web hosts. That will be your Bluehost, GoDaddy, WPEngine, Network Solutions, or my favorite, Siteground. They are NOT all the same! (Yes I do lecture a bit about this so we will save that for another post.)
Second, and what I’ll be talking about here, is image size. The problem comes when someone has a picture that is large enough to fill your flat screen TV in your family room, but they are using it in a blog post on your computer screen – or worse yet, your mobile device! That’s like lifting a 50-pound watermelon every time you want a slice!

So What Do I Do?

First, you’re going to Re-Size the image. There is no reason you need that image to be 4000 pixels wide! Also, remember, your host is most likely NOT giving you an unlimited amount of space to store these images on their servers. At some point they will start to charge you more money. Think of it as a storage locker – the larger lockers are, understandably, more expensive than the small ones.
Check out BulkResizePhotos.com – it’s online, free and easy to use! Check out all the different options they have.

Next, you’re going to Optimize the smaller image. Yes, it’s great that you made it smaller – hopefully very close to the size that you will be using on your website, but that file size can still get smaller!
This is my go-to for this, they even have a plugin for your website, but I prefer to optimize the images myself before uploading to my, or my clients’, websites. TinyPNG.com

See For Yourself

In this video I show you how to use both of the tools I have just mentioned. In my example I resize and optimize one photo, but both these sites make it easy for you to do this in bulk, saving you tons of time!

Now Go Try it Out!

I really hope you give this a shot! Have you been optimizing your images already? If so, I’d love to hear what you have been doing. And if you haven’t, are you going to start?

Please share below.

Thanks!

Mindy

27 thoughts on “How to Optimize Images for Your Website the Easy Way!”

  3. Tamuria

    This was such useful information Mindy and I love how your video took us step by step through the process. I upload most of my pics to Canva to resize (I often add text as well) but also have an image optimizer plugin on my site.

    Reply
    1. Mindy

      Thank you, Tamuria. That’s great – I’m so glad you are already taking those steps. Depending on which plugin you are using, you may not be getting the best optimization if you are doing it that way. TinyPNG has a plugin that, in my tests, works better than the other plugins I’ve tried. Maybe that will be my next post!

      Reply
  4. Kristen Wilson

    Super video and points… and you are WELCOME for finding the bulk resizer.. yaay.. we are a GREAT team! 😉 All awesome points… I was doing most of it.. but not finishing them.. now I am. YAY!

    Reply
  6. April Williams

    Thank goodness Squarespace does all my image resizing for me as this would be a nightmare to figure out but you have done a great job giving a how-to with this post that even I could follow lol. I know this will be valuable for a lot of people.

    Reply
  7. Apolline Adiju

    I was a very nice tutorial. I am so guilty of this especially after writing a blog post. Most of the time I am already tired and too lazy to resize the photos. Thanks for the reminder.

    Reply
  11. Anne

    Thanks Mindy for these great tips! I’ve often noticed some of my images behaving this way so I will be sure to note this when writing my next post.

    Reply
  13. Joyce Hansen

    Mindy, I really appreciate that you shared this information. I wasn’t aware how important this was until recently. I’ve been using Smush, but will be checking into what you recommend. Thanks, again for making my online life easier.

    Reply
    1. Mindy

      Great! Joyce, I am glad that you have been using something to help with image optimization. I think you will really like these tools I have mentioned.

      Reply
  15. Catherine Tatum

    Love your step by step video! I’m now using Tiny PNG and optimizing new photos…..is there a way to bulk optimize older photos that are on the website or do I have to do those one by one and replace each one?

    Reply
    1. Mindy

      Thank you, Catherine! I am so glad you are using this – you are going to be so happy once they are all done! Yes, TinyPNG has a WordPress plugin that will optimize the photos that are already on your website.

      Reply
  16. Jennifer Quisenberry

    This is incredibly helpful, particularly since my niche uses a LOT of photos. And we like the photos to be large in lifestyle posts.

    What I’m using now is WP Smush and it takes my images down to about that 800x1200ish range already. Do I still need to do this in addition to that, or is this getting the job done for me well enough?

    Reply
    1. Mindy

      Jennifer, I would do a test with that. Use WP Smush and see what file size it brings the image down to, then use tinypng.com and compare file sizes. If they are close, then you’re good. If not, you may want to switch to tinypng.

      Reply

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