How much time do you spend daily on Instagram or Pinterest? How many photos do you take with your phone? I think we no longer imagine a world without images. and this means that images are crucial for every website or blog. They will lure readers in and also help organize content on a page.
Images, especially oversized images, can significantly reduce the loading speed of your website, thus increasing bounce rates. Therefore, when you are optimizing the loading speed of your website, images should be your first priority. They should be of perfect size, not too small, not too large. In the technical jargon, this means serving scaled images.
Fortunately, WordPress has some amazing plugins that you can use to optimize images and scale images automatically. Similarly, if you want more precision, you can always manually scale images on WordPress yourself. You cannot have blurry images on your website because it does not look visually appealing and will negatively impact your website’s performance.
Why You Need to Serve Scaled Images on Your WordPress Site
One of the most important reasons why you need to serve scaled images on your WordPress site is that raw images lead to slow page loading speed. These slow pages drive the visitors away, thus increasing bounce rate, as visitors become frustrated and leave your site.
Optimized images, on the other hand, can make your site more lightweight and increase the loading speed. According to Kissmetrics, pages that take longer than 3 seconds to load have higher bounce rates as users abandon that website and go somewhere else. Therefore, optimizing images improves loading time and your SEO, meaning you can rank higher, and people will stay on your site longer.
How to Properly Scale Images on WordPress Websites
When it comes to image WordPress optimization, you can use a plugin for scaling images, or you can manually compress the graphics in your WordPress media library or by using a photo editor like Photoshop. Another option is to use an AI photo enhancer tool like Picsart to enhance your images and improve their quality without increasing their file size.
You can always use a WordPress native feature called srcset. It converts your graphics, i.e., images, into responsive files so they can be automatically optimized for various devices and screen sizes. If you don’t want to use a plugin for scaling images, then follow these three different ways to compress and resize image files in WordPress:
Method 1: Use your WordPress Media Library to Crop Images
The first step is to crop the images media library. To do that, go to the back end of your WordPress site, click on the photo and select Edit image. It will open a popup window. From there, proceed to WordPress’s Media Library, and choose the image that you want to edit. Once done select the Edit Image link.
It will take you to a window with an image and its current dimensions. In the Scale image option, type in the new dimensions, and that’s it, your image is scaled.
Method 2: Scale Images Via Settings
You can also scale images directly by going to the Settings buttons on the toolbar and then choosing Media. It will open the Media Setting page, where you can select the image sizes. You will be given three image size options: Thumbnail size, Medium size, and Large size. You can set the height and width of these image sizes separately. Now, you can select the desired size for your WordPress site, and it will automatically scale images using these dimensions.
Method 3: Make Use of a Photo Editor (Like Photoshop)
For maximum precision, you can use an image editor like Photoshop to scale your images for WordPress. This is the best and error-free method available. Simply open your image in Photoshop, go to the toolbar at the top and choose Image, and click on Image size. When you select it, a popup window will appear, where you can see image dimensions.
Here, you can choose the width and height of the image and scale it according to your wishes before you upload it. In Photoshop, you can also change image resolution according to your needs.
Five Plugins to Help You Serve Scaled Images in WordPress
If you don’t want to scale images on WordPress manually, you can always use one of these five plugins to serve scaled images in WordPress.
Optimole is a handy WordPress plugin for images and is perfect for resizing your images for different devices. It automatically scales images to the optimal size based on different devices. It is also very easy to use and is best for high-quality scaled images.
Semrush is another WordPress plugin that you can use to serve scaled images on your website. It scales images by scanning them and stripping away all the unnecessary data to set it to an ideal size. It also saves scaled images on your Media Library, so you can use them whenever you want. With Semrush, you can optimize 50 images at the same time.
With Imagify, you can optimize and scale your images with one click. This plugin scales your images without affecting image quality, and it works directly in WordPress. You can also use this tool to convert WebP images to speed up your website and serve scaled images on WordPress. You can use this plugin directly from your WordPress website and also restore media to its original form whenever you need to.
ShortPixel is a great plugin for quality image compression. With ShortPixel, you can optimize JPEG, PNG, GIF images, and even PDFs. It’s very simple and easy to use, and you can optimize up to 100 images/ month for free with its free version. The paid version lets you optimize 5,000 images per month at $4.99/ month.
TinyPNG is another useful WordPress plugin for scaling images. It can optimize both PNG and JPEG images. TinyPNG and TinyJPG automatically optimize images while you are uploading them on WordPress and also optimize the existing images on the media library. It can scale images without affecting image quality.
Takeaway – Optimize Your Images for Maximum Performance
If your WordPress website is running slow, then you might want to scale your images effectively. This way, you can have maximum loading speed and optimal performance. You can manually scale images by following one of the methods as discussed above, or you can use one of the plugins to scale your images. No matter what option you choose, with scaled images, you can have a lighting fast website speed. And if you encounter upload or HTTP errors along the way, make sure to follow this checklist and make the necessary fixes.
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Muhammad Shoaib
Shoaib is an experienced content writer. His educational background in the technical field and business studies helps him in tackling topics ranging from career and business productivity to web development and digital marketing. He occasionally writes articles for Dynamologic Solutions.
