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Why Do Websites Need Optimized Images?

Optimized Images on a Website

When people search online, whether it is for an item to buy or information to help with their work, they will likely come across an image as part of the search results. These images are important, because they can make the difference between someone clicking on your site and them clicking away to another site. However, they also require some optimization if you want to ensure your images look their best when the user arrives at your site. 

Related Blog: Using Images in your Blog

This guide will explain what image optimization is and why it is so important for your website:

What is Image Optimization?

An image is worth a thousand words, right? Well, then, shouldn't it be optimized? 

Image optimization refers to resizing and compressing digital photos to make them take up less space and load faster. When someone lands on your site, the first thing they will see is your images. So you want to optimize them so that they will render more quickly. This will give you a huge advantage over your competition that may not have this streamlined process in place for their own images. 

Luckily, ensuring that your media files are correctly optimized for fast loading times and optimum browsing experience does not take long. 

Importance of Optimizing Images  

Adding images to your website can make it more visually appealing and interesting. But, if the images you use are not optimized properly, they can also cause some major problems. 

The most common reasons to properly optimize the images on your site include:

Improves Page Load Speed

It is important to optimize your images, because of the dramatic impact they can have on a site's page loading speed. The typical page load time for a well-optimized website is less than two seconds, but it could take up to four seconds for an unoptimized site. 

All businesses want to find a way to improve their conversion rates, and some believe that optimizing their images can help get them closer to their goal. Page load speed is the most highly correlated factor with conversion rates; studies show that people are far more likely to convert on websites that load in three seconds or less, but if the website exceeds three in loading time, they are significantly less likely to buy. In fact, half of all potential customers will abandon the purchase process if they have to wait longer than that!

By optimizing your images, you will notice faster loading speeds from your site, meaning more time for customers to spend looking at what you have to offer them. If a potential customer is waiting impatiently while your site loads, they may leave without taking the opportunity to learn more about what you have to offer. 

Improves SEO Ranking

In the competitive world of inbound marketing, search engine algorithms prioritize those sites with fast load times. These sites are usually developed on responsive frameworks to make it easier for a visitor to interact with any screen size and utilize visual content which can be quickly loaded on both computers and mobile devices. To remain competitive in this area, businesses will often optimize their images for each page on their website.

Images optimized for the web allow Google to crawl and index them more easily; this will help increase visibility in the search engine results pages (SERPs). It also makes it possible for potential visitors to locate what they are looking for faster than if the images were not optimized. 

Enhance User Engagement

You have found the perfect image and want to add it to your website, but it is not as high quality as you want. Should you still use it? You might be tempted to make it smaller or find another already at a lower resolution, but keep user engagement in mind before doing so. 

If a visitor lands on your page and spends time downloading a low-quality picture that takes a long time to view, they will probably lose interest and leave the site. On the other hand, adding a high-quality image to your website will only increase your visitor's interest in reading more of your content. If they want to see your image better, they will simply click on it and allow it to load faster. Then, when they land back on your page, you have their full attention once again.

How to optimize images for your website?

Optimizing an image on your site is simple enough. 

First, when uploading an image to a webpage, it is important to upload the correct file type and size. Choosing the right file types and sizes can make all the difference in how well your images load, how many errors you will have with them, and how fast they will appear on the page.

Compressing an image will also help it load faster and use less data (as more information is taken out) while preserving the visual quality. There are many free tools available online that allow you to resize any image with just one click (such as TinyPNG ). Whatever tool you choose, the best way to ensure maximum optimization is by using lossless compression, which preserves all of the original data from the file without degrading its quality.

Conclusion

As an Internet marketer, you are probably well aware of the critical role that images play in your content marketing efforts. Images enhance user experience, and they help to convey more information than just the text itself can provide. However, since the visual information they provide is so important, it is also vital to ensure that your images are optimized as much as possible to get the most out of them. 

Contact Print And Web Designer (PWD) today!

Print And Web Designer's staff of website/print design experts is dedicated to building and maintaining websites that help businesses succeed in reaching their goals. In addition to creating aesthetically pleasing, fully responsive, and search engine-friendly sites, our team offers comprehensive online marketing services that give you an edge over your competition. This includes web design, content marketing, brand design, brochure design, and magazine design. Call us at (336) 684-6505 or fill out this online form to learn more about our services!

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