Image optimization? Do you really need this?

For most of us, the images become an afterthought once they’re on the website, but they shouldn’t be.

You can have the most beautiful and valuable content in the world but if you are doing wrong with the images, your websites will fail to impress the audiences. Images are extremely important to break the content into chunks and make the whole story more readable.

Using the images correctly can capture users’ attention and keep them hold throughout the content. On the flip side, using many unoptimized images in the web page will only ruin your website by making it load slow.

Fortunately, WordPress makes it easy for you to handle image optimization by providing tons of image optimization plugins. The plugin does all the work to make sure all the images are optimized.

I have come up with a list of best image optimization plugins that work excellent to optimize bulky images and are my favorite plugins. Have a look at the list and enjoy the details.

Before we get into the list, let’s understand a few things regarding WordPress image optimization.

What Is Image Optimization?

Image optimization means working on your images to make it better in terms of specific criteria like image dimension, image size, resolution, format, and attributes.

Optimizing image help your website load faster and provide an improved user experience to the visitors.

Why Is Image Optimization Important?

By optimizing the images on your website, you will tremendously improve the user experience of your website. The main advantage of having optimized images are: 

• It improves the page load time
• Improves user experience of your site
• Good for SEO as it improves ranking
• Reduce the load on the server
• Boosts conversion 

Top 6 Image Optimization Plugin for WordPress

Imagify

Imagify allows you to achieve lighter images without losing the original quality. One of the most advanced plugins for WordPress image optimization, this tool auto optimizes the image on upload.

Why Use Imagify?

If you already have many bulky images on your website that are unoptimized, Imagify auto-optimizes all of them in just a single click. This helps you save time in optimizing the image manually.

The plugin has three levels of compression.

• Lossless compression: retains the quality 
• Aggressive compression: small loss in the image quality ( usually unnoticeable) 
• Ultra compression: Most advanced compression with some reduction in the image quality, but performs better.  

Using the plugin is free if you make up to 1GB uploads per month. If you think you are going to have more than 1 GB of image uploads in a month, you can opt for the pro plant that starts with $4.99/month

Smush

Smush is an award-winning plugin that has been tested and benchmarked for speed and quality. It is one of the most loved plugins in the WordPress community. 

Smush is the easiest way to optimize the images without visibly degrading the image quality. 

Why Use Smush?

Turn on lazy load, resize and compress image, optimize image, and significantly reduce the page loading time using this free image smusher.

• compress without a visible decline in the image quality
• Enable lazy load to create a better user experience
• Compress a bulk of images in a click (up to 50). 
•  Optimize the images that are not in the media library. This plugin smushes the directory images as well. 
• Works with Gutenberg block
• Compatible with all the popular themes. 

Smush is also a better choice in that it lets you optimize unlimited images for free. But the red flag comes in when your size exceeds 1 MB. Also, the free version offers only lossless compression.

Compress JPEG & PNG Images

The TinyPNG plugin comes with a spotless dashboard and is extremely easy to set up an optimization setting. This plugin automatically optimizes your images upon upload.

Why Use Smush?

• Automatically optimized images upon upload
• No file size limit 
• Optimize all the bulky images in your media library
• Compatible with WooCommerce
• Optimize and resize uploads with the WordPress mobile app

There is no limit to the file size and supports WooCommerce. Looks pretty captivating. You are allowed to make up to 500 uploads per month for free. 

ShortPixel Image Optimization

ShortPixel is a free easy to use image compression plugin. This is another excellent install-and-forget plugin that takes care of all the images on your website. 

ShortPixel compresses all the previously uploaded images and scales new images automatically upon upload.

The plugin is compatible with the gallery, slider, and eCommerce plugin and works well for pdf compression. 

The plugin setting dashboard have clean interface and is easy to use.

Why Use ShortPixel:

• Popular plugin with more than 200000 active installs
• Suitable for image and pdf compression
• Optimizes any images on your website, including the gallery and slider ones. 
• Can skip the images that are already optimized. 
• Works great for eCommerce websites using WooCommerce
• Cloudflare integration

You can get 100 free image uploads per month and no file size restriction for an individual image. Anything more than this will cost you 4.99 per month up to 5000 images.

WP Compress

WP Compress is an all in one optimizer. it is a complete image optimization plugin that shrinks the file size of the images to improve load time and boost conversion 

WP compress runs on autopilot. Link your website, and you are good to go.

Why Use WP Compress

• The plugin is loaded with agency features.
• local and live optimization mode availability
• delivers perfect image every time
• convert and generate WebP images
• ultrafast CDN
• automated image resizing 
• one click bulk optimization
• downloadable pdf report for agencies
• detailed compression report

OPtimole

Optimole is a next-level image optimization plugin loaded with tons of ultra-modern features. These plugins run on autopilot to fully automate the image optimization process.

Install and activate the plugin, and you are done. The plugin can help you achieve up to 80% compression without letting degrade the images’ quality. 

Why Use Optimole

Optimole is entirely cloud-based and does not create load on your server.

• Picks the right size for the visitor’s browser
• The plugins serve the image via the fast image CDN 
• Use lazy loading to display images. 
• Compatible with page builders 
• Retina images and WebP supported

All the images are generated in real-time. They are not stored in the WordPress database. 

The plugin is free to use for a website with up to 5000 monthly visitors. Beyond that, it costs you $22.52 up to 25000 monthly visitors. 

How Image Optimization Plugin Can Help Your Website Load Faster?

Well! First, let’s understand how the images can make your site load slower. Images are always more extensive than the plain text. This means they take a bit longer time to load compared to plain text. If your images are not correctly optimized, they can make your site load slow.

However, the image takes longer than text to load does not mean that you should use only text in your content and avoid images.

Instead, you should use images in such a way that they are served on your website in a much faster way. You can do this by using different image optimizing tools that are mentioned above.

How To Know If You need Image Optimization Plugin?

Before you go for an image optimization check, I suggest you check the site speed to see if your site is loading at an average pace. If your site is taking longer than the average load time, the unoptimized images can be one reason for this.

My favorite tool for checking the site speed in Gtmetrix.

You can also use the tools like Dotcom tools & Pingdom

Here I performed the Gtmetrix speed test for a blog page. The page load time here is 7.8 sec ( higher than average load time) which is not bad for which unoptimized images can be one of the reasons.

What next?

Now I will install a WordPress image compression plugin to optimize the image for the website automatically.

My favorite image optimization plugin here will be Smush.

This plugin will automatically optimize the image during the upload and optimize all the old images in bulk.

Now I performed the new speed test again( not the Re-Test ) to see if that made any impact on the page loading time

The page’s speed is now reduced to 5.8sec from 7.1 sec after the plugin was activated.

This is how the use of a plugin can help you load the WordPress website faster by optimizing images using image optimization plugins.

But, simply launching a website using WordPress doesn’t make you land on Google’s first page. You need to understand that great SEO takes lots of sweat and is not a quick game. There are hundreds of SEO checklists that require careful implementation. But, the good thing is that with WordPress, all these things become way more manageable.

What is WordPress

You should have known that WordPress powers more than 43.3% of the entire internet CMS and growing faster than ever. Let me tell you that the websites you often browse like BBC America, TechCrunch, Sony Music, MTV News, The Official Star War Blog, The New York Times, are powered with WordPress Technology. 

Earlier in 2003 launched as a blogging platform, WordPress turned more flexible and powerful with time, and by now, it has also evolved as one of the most successful e-commerce solutions. Hundreds of fully flexible WordPress eCommerce Plugins are available now to let you create an online store you can imagine.

Why WordPress is a better choice for SEO friendly Website?

• WordPress as a CMS has tons of features that stick to Best SEO practice guidelines to make your optimization journey much more comfortable.
• WordPress is designed for a content-focused website with SEO and UX in mind
• Tons of guides and resources are available to help you improve your WordPress Website SEO
• Almost all tools or plugins imaginable are available in WordPress that can really make your SEO process a cakewalk.

What is WordPress SEO?

Let me clarify that WordPress is not an SEO solution or an SEO booster in itself but a CMS that adheres to standard SEO practices to help you perform better SEO of your website. If you are not ready to put your hand dirty, don’t expect WordPress to be a magic pill. WordPress won’t work until you work.

WordPress is incredible when you don’t have the necessary technical skills, and you still want to make your SEO stand out. In this case, WordPress has easy-to-use features to help you implement growth-driving details on the platform.

The benefit of doing SEO on your WordPress website

With millions of websites competing on the web, SEO is more important than ever. Getting traffic, getting more leads, engaging brands, selling products, and reaching out to the target customers, everything can turn easy and effective with SEO. By having a proper SEO strategy for the WordPress website you can:

• Appear on the top of the search result pages in search engines like Google.
• Improve user experience and usability of your website.
• Increase trust and brand awareness. People trust organic results more compared to paid adverts.
• Remain ahead in the competition and generate more revenue.

Getting Started with WordPress SEO

Before you begin with the actual SEO implementations on your website, I suggest you make sure that you meet the basics like:

You have a dependable WordPress hosting

Ensure your hosting is dependable in terms of speed, uptime, performance, and security because these factors affect your SEO score. Spend time analyzing your hosting provider and getting enough details about the hosting you are using. 

Compare Best WordPress Hosting 2020

Your WordPress theme is SEO-friendly

Literally, there are thousands of themes for WordPress available. From the WordPress official repository to the Private marketplace, You can find great themes.

New free themes are regularly added in the WordPress Theme Repository.     

They are free to use for all. Free themes are limited to features and support. If you do not want to compromise with the features, security, and performance, I recommend you go for the premium themes. You can find a great collection of premium themes at a marketplace like Theme Forest and Envato. 

Find an awesome collection of Free WordPress Themes and Premium SEO-friendly Themes.

You have installed the necessary optimization plugins

Plugins are a real smash hit when it comes to WordPress SEO. You should install and activate an SEO plugin before you go deep down on SEO things. You can select and install one from the list below: 

SEO Yoast: Free to use but the premium version have more advanced features.

Rank Math: Free to use

All in one SEO Pack: Free to use, but the pro pack gives you more options. 

Quick question, What does the SEO plugin do? 

You should remember that a plugin will not optimize our website or solve your SEO problems: It only makes it easy for you to do optimization tasks. SEO success depends on your ability and the way you tackle it.

Performing SEO on WordPress pages and posts step by step

Optimizing the post/page title

The title of your page or post should be appealing and bold enough to grab visitor’s attention. Poorly written titles decrease the CTR (Click Through Rate) because they fail to generate curiosity among the visitors. CTR has a lot of impact on your SEO, and Optimized titles with a clear and bold message can increase the CTR to a considerable extent.

Google typically displays the first 50–60 characters of a title tag. So, it is recommended to make your title length below 60 characters. Try to include your main keyword in the title text, but only if it makes sense.

Write a clear description

The description is a paragraph or a line of text that is displayed just below the title in the search result pages. Typically, the description text is up to 160 characters long. You should write it in a way that evokes a sense of curiosity. You cannot transport your visitors if you fail to get them into your train. A great description will keep the story get going.

Find a focus keyword

A Focus keyword is a search term that you want your post to rank for. By selecting a focus keyword you are telling the search engine that your content is related to that particular term.

For this post, I have chosen the “WordPress SEO Guide” as my focus keyword. By looking at this phrase, you will be able to understand that the entire content is based on WordPress SEO.

Optimize for inbound and outbound link structure. 

Linking your post to different pages/posts of the same website is internal linking, whereas connecting your pages/posts with the other website means linking externally. Both kinds of links are crucial for better ranking. :

• the relevance of pages;
• the relationship between pages of the same website;
• The value of pages.
• And, the authority of the page

Read more on internal and external linking practices.

Break content into a subheading

No one enjoys reading your blog post in a wiki format. Make it clean and interactive by breaking it down into appropriate headings and subheadings.

Maintain your content in a hierarchical order based on H1, H2, H3…..so on. It is recommended to use keywords in your main headings but inserting them forcefully is not a good idea.

Optimize images

Optimizing images is very important for loading a website quickly and creating a better user experience. Wrongly used images can not only hamper a website’s performance but also damage the impression of the overall content. Do this to make your image optimized:

• Give an appropriate name to the image file
• Use the alt attribute with all the images. Try to include your keyword in the alt attribute and make it SEO friendly.
• Resize and compress the images to make it light weighted
• Create custom images that reflect your content the most.

Optimize your slug

Create the right slug that is easy to read. When you write a good slug it affects your SEO in different ways. A good slug should contain your main keyword and look user-friendly. Typically, it is better not to include a function word in the slug. Keep your slug text to lowercase only and make it short and sweet.

Use your keywords Appropriately.

Using the keyword in the right way is as important as using the right keyword. Your keyword should not be cluttered in a place. Distributing keywords evenly throughout the content is very crucial.

It is a good idea to include your focus keyword at the beginning of the first paragraph or, if not, somewhere in the first paragraph.

Also, use the keyword synonyms throughout the content for better keyword optimization.

Create an XML sitemap for your WordPress Website

Yoast SEO plugin automatically creates an XML sitemap for your website. Make sure the sitemap option is checked “ON”. Go To www.yourwebsite.com/sitemap_index.xml to see your Yoast-generated sitemap.

Once you have an XML sitemap you can validate your sitemap from Sitemap Validator

Sign up for Google Search Console

Signing up with Google Search Console (formerly Google webmaster tools) is very important. It helps you with some great insight into indexation, crawling, your site’s health status, and other useful metrics.

Signup for Google Search Console and look for everything out there to understand the things available in the console dashboard.

Sign up for the Google Analytics tool

With the Google Analytics tool, you can analyze your website’s visitors, metrics, and performance in detail. It is a free tool that provides sufficient insights to adjust your business or website to make it a success. 

Signup for Google Analytics now and start tracking your visitors and performance.

There are some other alternatives to Google Analytics for WordPress.

1. MonsterInsight
2. ExactMetrics
3. Jetpack

You may also want to read: How To Add Google Analytics To WordPress Without Using Plugin

Make sure your website is indexable.

You can allow Google bots to index your site or restrict them from indexing your whole site. Make sure your indexing is enabled. This is a small setting in your dashboard. 

Go to dashboard—setting—reading.

Make sure the search engine visibility option is unchecked.

Improve Your Site Speed 

Speed matters when you are on the internet. A site with a low loading speed means a higher bounce rate, lower conversions, and low search rankings. When your website loads too slowly, the audience loses patience and leaves your website to find a better-performing website that is just a click away. 

But, Worry not. 

Fortunately, WordPress offers plenty of ways to make your website load faster by optimizing the speed. 

The best ways to optimize speed for your WordPress website are by:

1. Using speed optimization plugins like WProcket, WP fastest cache, WP Minify, WP SuperCache, Lazy Load, etc. 
2. Selecting a high-quality hosting plan
3. Making sure the plugins and themes are up to date.
4. Optimizing media files
5. Using a CDN service

You can audit the current speed performance of your website using one of the following SEO tools. These tools are great to help you know how your site is performing, what things need improvements, and what also they provide you with a recommended solution to make your website faster and better.

1. Pingdom Speed Tool
2. GtMetrix
3. PageSpeed Insights

Recommended reading: how to speed up your website

Frequently Asked Question

Wrapping up the WordPress SEO Guide

It is always difficult to come up with a perfect SEO strategy. Every website is different than the other. But, the checklists described above are applicable to any WordPress site and blog in general.

Try this SEO checklist and see if it makes any difference to your WordPress Website. If you have worked on this SEO stuff at some point in time, feel free to share your experience with WordPress SEO and remember to mention any important checklist that might have missed in the post

You may also want to read:

• How to Make an eCommerce Store with WordPress
• 5 things to consider when choosing an SEO-friendly theme

So, here we need to understand that not a particular set of things is going to make your website perfectly stand on the first page in Google.

While saying that we also have to be aware of the fact that some of the ranking factors hold more weight and play a greater role in SE ranking than others.  This means every ranking factor is not equal in importance. Here are important things to consider while choosing an SEO friendly theme.

You may want to read about Free WordPress blog themes

The code

For a theme to be SEO friendly the source code of the theme should be of good quality. Although the quality of the code doesn’t directly affect the SEO, however because of the bad code the loading speed of the website can drop significantly. Now When your website loads slowly it will definitely hamper your optimization score.

Therefore it is very important to find a theme that has quality code and loads faster. You can test the loading speed of the theme by using the Pingdom speed test tool, google pageSpeed insight, or gtmetrix.

Though the code structure cannot be evaluated very easily, it is wiser to pick up the theme that loads pretty faster.

Mobile-friendliness

Before picking up a theme for your next project make sure that it is fully responsive and it adapts to your customers’ chosen device. In case your theme is not friendly to the mobile device it is not going to rank good on google.

If you are not sure about the responsiveness of your theme you can run a mobile-friendly test here and figure it out. Also, you can use MobiReady to test the website performance on mobile devices.

HTTP Requests

Some of the themes are too heavy with a lot of resources to load. You should never choose a too heavy theme with lots of resources as it will drastically increase the loading time. A theme with less than 20 requests is considered better.

Browsers spend more than 75% of their time on fetching the external components like scripts, stylesheets, and images. So when the request is minimized it makes a big impact on response time.

Cross-browser compatible

A good theme should make your website appear as close to the same as possible when viewed under all major web browsers. With the number of browsers being available today, ensuring the cross-browser compatibility with only one or two of them will definitely not help you.

you can test the compatibility for cross-browser using one of these tools.

LambdaTest

Browserstack

Browserling

Website Structure

In order to create effective and easy internal linking structures the website architecture and breadcrumbs are very essential.

The bots can crawl and index your pages only if the inner links, navigation, and contents are well structured. This will, in turn, improve the chance of ranking higher in Google search.

Not only to the search engines but also this is very important for increasing the quality of visitors experience to help them find the information more quickly

So, follow these checklists to find out the best SEO friendly theme for your next website.