Until now the most neglected aspect of website development image use and its optimization has recently gained importance. This has happened more so because of Google’s stress on image quality and its impact on website downloads. The image should be in the right format, right dimension and resolution.
Most web developers now use the latest formats and work on their images in the right direction. Images comprise 28% of the weight of the website. Well-optimized images accord the best performance and thus impact the well-being of the site. There are many other techniques beyond the alt text that webmasters use while optimizing images.
Resize Images
The first and foremost action is to resize oversized images. Resizing is done by changing the pixel information. You can use Photo editors like Photoshop that discard unneeded pixels. This will help increase the downloading speed of the website besides fitting properly into the website elements. The images should be resized to their maximum display dimensions. Scale images using CSS. For Word Press sites use plugins and for other templates use tools like Canva and many other tools that are available online.
Naming An Image
Name images properly. Thus never embed an image with a default file name rather use relevant keywords in the URL or any other descriptive word.
Implement Lazy Loading
Lazy loading is a technique where in the image loads at a designated point in the website. Thus the images are not loaded until needed this is a way of managing the weight of the website.
Leverage Browser Caching
In this case, images are loaded into the browser’s cache for the visitor. Thus they are used when the visitor visits the site the next time.
Create an Image Site Map
Image site maps indicate the search engine the images on the website. It also enables the visitors to have a look at the images contained.
CDN Hosting
Your images are stored across multiple servers and delivered to visitors from one that is nearest to them. This loads the file faster than any other type of hosting service.
Image optimization workflow is easiest to implement and all webmasters should pay attention to this important development technique.