Heavy images slow your site down, how to fix it
If your site loads slowly, look at the images first. Cameras and phones take photos at a resolution of several thousand pixels and a weight of several megabytes. Uploaded "as is", they force the visitor to download an enormous amount of data, on a phone with a weak signal that is an eternity.
Three things that make a difference
- The right size: if a photo displays at 800 pixels wide, there is no point uploading it at 5000. Scale it before uploading.
- The modern WebP format: it gives the same quality as JPEG at a much lower weight. Most browsers support it.
- Lazy-load: images off-screen load only when you scroll to them, so the first view appears faster.
Compression without visible quality loss
The human eye will not notice the difference between a "full quality" photo and a sensibly compressed one, and the weight can drop by 60-80%. Tools and plugins do this automatically on upload, so you do not have to remember it for every photo.
A simple test: open the site on a phone in data-saver mode. If the images "load in" piece by piece over several seconds, you have an image-weight problem.
Why it pays off
A faster site means a lower bounce rate (people do not flee before it loads), better Google rankings and simply a more pleasant experience. Image optimisation is usually the cheapest way to a big improvement.
We will do it once: it will always work
We set up automatic conversion to WebP, compression on upload and lazy-load, so every future photo is lightweight without your involvement. On top of that, we trim the existing, overly heavy images.
Want a faster site? Reach out, we will start with what gives the biggest effect.