What Is Image Optimisation?

What is image optimisation all about? Optimising images and graphics is the process of lowering the file size as much as possible without sacrificing quality. This keeps page load times low. Optimisation also increases the seo potential for user visibility and higher traffic.

Many factors go into having a really good website, with visually appealing being at the top of the list.

But having amazing image quality using high-definition pictures and videos could cost you.

Using high-quality imagery comes with massive files. Your website will have to load and access large files every time someone accesses your website.

Unfortunately, this increases the website load time. Definitely a bad thing.

What Does It Mean To Optimise An Image?

Image optimisation is the process of adapting an image for use at its maximum potential at its best quality.

This involves various forms of formatting, adding and changing properties, and aligning those to the purpose in which the image is to be utilised.

Image optimisation techniques include the below three processes:

Image Compression

Image size optimisation is the reduction of the image detail ensuring it still retains a good form of quality.

The process involves grouping similar parts in the image to create an end result that has fewer redundancies. This ensures the image will become smaller in size.

Image Sizing

Avoid visitors to your site downloading excessively large images.

Resizing to smaller sizes saves download times ensuring faster loading speeds.

The key is to try and get the images to smaller sizes preferably 100 kilobytes or less.

Another factor is the file type: the most commonly used format is JPG. One can reduce the file size without compromising the quality of this file format.

Other file types can still be resized but at a lesser ratio of size to quality.

File Naming

Naming the image appropriately is important. Describing what the image shows and suitably incorporating keywords that will up the SEO value.

Think of how you would describe it in the Google search bar and then use that.

Rules:

• Keep the name short and do not use articles (any word that does not add or describe the image).
• Separate your words with a hyphen (-). eg. spot-the-dog

Related Article: Why Is A Domain Name Important?

Image Optimisation For Websites

Optimising your website is an essential exercise.

Image optimisation is part of having an enjoyable visit to a website. A good user experience is influenced by having good quality visuals.

Some of the disadvantages of not optimising your images are:

Increases Your Hosting Storage

Larger image files will mean they will occupy more space, taking up more disk space. This will leave less space for other website components.

Not having enough space in your hosting account may lead to some functions not working efficiently or running at all.

Decreases Website Loading Speed

Accessing large files as you load the page slows down the loading speed of the website.

Text generally loads first leaving blank areas for the pictures to load later.

This is called cumulative shift. A page moves as the reader is looking at it when different aspects load at differing times.

This instantly decreases a visitor’s faith in you and your services.

Incorrect Image Sizing Disrupts Page Layouts

Having incorrectly sized images can cause problems on your pages.

Having a large image size (800 x 600) placed on the page that only shows the image at 400 x 300 can create issues.

Incorrect loading of the image displaces text and other media, especially if it is placed in the content.

This misalignment can make your website look very unprofessional and not credible.

Bounce Rate Increases

Bounce rate is the percentage of website visitors that do not click on another page.

Low-quality Traffic

This leads to a lower ranking in SEO.

Google associates your domain with low-quality sites. The signals received by Google from your visitors’ search habits either push you up or drop your rankings.

If your website is showing any of the issues mentioned above, visitor time will decrease dramatically.

Instead, they will quickly revert back to their searches.

Generally, a bad experience means no returning visitors and a decline in your search traffic.

Why Is Image Optimisation Important?

What is image optimisation seo and what are the advantages?

Decreases Server Capacity

Hosting storage space is quite pricey

Making sure that your image files are smaller would allow you to have more images for less space. This keeps your disk space quota use at a minimum.

Better Equips The Website For Adaptability

Access is not restricted to laptops and computers anymore. One’s website should be adaptive to mobiles, tablets, and other various screens.

Mobile compatibility is crucial in today’s world. This is where e-commerce thrives.

Hence having your images optimised for any screen specs ensures good picture quality and sizes on any device that accesses the site.

Increases Load Speed

Most internet users will wait no more than 5 seconds for a page to load. They will happily return to their search results and find the next link that takes way less time to load.

Greater Chances Of Customer Conversions

An effective website works as a tool to bring you more customers. Users of a website that loads faster and has great quality pictures tend to become returning visitors.

This in turn means more chance of converting them into paying customers of your services or products.

Increases SEO Scores

There is a greater chance of your website popping up higher up in relevant searches.

Higher rankings increase the number of visitors to your website. This translates to a greater presence on the internet and word-of-mouth referrals.

Relevant Names Increase Traffic

Proper naming of images will lead back to the site.

If images are named correctly they will rank. If a user clicks on an image in search they will be brought back to your website.

This allows visitors to visit the image galleries and then move on to see other information on the site.

Conclusion

The process of image optimisation may be tedious. But it helps greatly in boosting your SEO score and loading speed.

Another step that can be taken, that can help the site load even faster is the use of a CDN (Content Delivery Network).

By caching your images on a CDN, the access speed increases.

As one accesses the site, one is directed to the geographically closest server with the contents. This is much faster than accessing a server in Iceland from, say Brazil.

Distance and transfer times are greatly reduced with a closer server being accessed.