This search engine optimization tip goes way back to the early 90s – back when I first started building websites. In the 90s, it was essential to build websites that were quick and optimized because people still had dial-up internet connections. In order to build a fast loading website, you had to be very careful not to use too many large images. If you did include bigger image files, then it would take forever for the website to load, and we all know that we only have a fleeting amount of time to capture somebody’s attention.
What does Compressor.io do?
With Compressor.io, you can easily upload your images in a variety of formats – including PNG, GIF, & JPEG – and this program will try to condense them without losing too much quality. As you can see from the featured image of this post, I was able to capture an image of myself taking a picture in my car’s rearview mirror that was over 8 megabytes and compress it down to a much smaller size. The image has maintained it’s quality without causing my site’s load speed to slow down every time a visitor clicks on this page.
Whenever you upload your images to Facebook, Instagram, and other sites, they automatically apply compression to your images to make them load faster for a better user experience. When you run your own website though, WordPress doesn’t automatically include compression functionality out of the box. There are different plugins that you can use to help compress your images when you upload them to the media library, however, I like to compress the images before I upload them by using Compressor.io.
How do you use Compressor.io to condense images?
It starts out with you getting your original image from your camera. Then, once you have it downloaded on your device, you can upload it to your website. Then, after Compressor.io compresses your image, you can download it onto your local machine again. Once it is on your local machine, then you go into your WordPress media library and upload it. It’s as simple as that!
How does this application impact my website’s SEO?
Compressor.io works to condense your website images to help them load faster. In turn, this ends up increasing the load speed of your entire website. With no bulky image files eating up bandwidth, your pages can refresh quickly for visitors, greatly increasing user experience. Perhaps most importantly, it will improve your website’s SEO. Because page speed is such an important factor for the algorithms that rank your web pages, your site will reach closer to the top search result when load time is optimized Using Compressor.io is a simple change that can work wonders for your website’s performance.
Whether you’re looking for ways to improve your site’s exposure or you want to build a site from scratch, David Martin Design can help. I’ve spent decades building, editing, and optimizing websites, and I’d be more than happy to support you in your business ventures. Feel free to reach out to me to learn more about what I offer.