Setting up an online gallery is the best way to show your imager portfolio to the world. Portfolio websites have gained significant popularity among photographers, painters, and other artists.
However, a website with too many images can become difficult to load, especially on mobile devices. Here’s where compressing your images comes into the picture. A WordPress image compression plugin helps you compress your images with ease.
Here are seven best things about a WordPress image compression plugin.
Table of Contents
Increase Page Loading Speed
Using a WordPress image compression plugin can go a long way in boosting your page load speed. In fact, reducing the size of just one image can increase your Page Speed Score by 10 points. The more images you reduce, the more your score increases.
Moreover, by compressing your images and serving them in next-gen formats, you can increase your page load speed by up to two seconds. Google considers the Page Speed Score an essential ranking factor. Websites with compressed images have higher scores, and therefore, rank better in search engines.
Use Customisable Templates
Your lack of website-building skills shouldn’t stop you from showcasing your creativity to the world. WordPress image compression plugins come with multiple customisable templates that help you create a professional-looking online gallery or portfolio. These templates are easy to use, have a responsive design, and help you save time and money.
Moreover, most pre-made gallery plugins are SEO-ready and come with essential optimisation features to ensure your site ranks higher.
Alleviate Bounces
Bounce rate refers to the number of people who exit your website without taking any action. In simpler terms, it means they are not engaging with your website. A high bounce rate means you are not making the most of the traffic your website gets.
Slow loading speed is a reason for the high bounce rate, which boils down to heavy media on the site. Imagine a potential customer visits your website to see your imager portfolio but exits without checking it out because it was taking too long to load. A WordPress image compression plugin helps you reduce bounce rate, so you can get better value off your traffic.
Shine on Various Devices
Your customers aren’t just on laptops and desktop computers. We live in the mobile era, where more than 50% of the internet traffic comes from mobile devices. It is highly likely that a potential client will visit your site to check out your online gallery on a mobile device.
Therefore, making your website mobile-friendly is essential, and the most effective way to do that is by downsizing your images. Mobile screens are smaller, and thus, images that load effortlessly on a monitor may not appear the same on a mobile device.
An image compression plugin for WordPress makes your imager portfolio mobile-responsive, providing a better experience to mobile users.
Leverage Drag and Drop Functionality
A WordPress image compression plugin comes with drag-and-drop editor functionality, so you can give your imager portfolio the desired look without any hassles. It simplifies the process, as you can move around the elements of your portfolio even if you don’t have any web development skills. You need little to no knowledge of basic coding. Moreover, drag-and-drop functionality allows you to organise and present your information better than traditional coding.
Show All Image File Types
Three image file types are commonly used by web admins:
- JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group)
- PNG (Portable Network Graphics)
- GIF (Graphic Interchange Format)
Each graphics format has unique features. For example, JPEG uses lossy compression. If you compress an image, it loses data and quality, which can’t be restored. However, if compressed correctly, you can significantly reduce the size and still get high-quality images.
PNG uses lossless compression, which means it doesn’t lose data, and the compression can be reversed. It uses 24-bit RGB or 32-bit RGBA colours.
The process of compressing JPEG, PNG, and GIF graphics is different, and if you mix it up, you can end up with worse-looking images. A WordPress image compression plugin makes your life easier by automatically compressing images based on their format.
Get an SEO Advantage
Lastly, an image compression plugin gives you an SEO advantage. The chances are that you rely on organic traffic to attract visitors to your imager portfolio website. If you want to attract high-quality traffic, your website needs to rank higher on search results. Compressing your portfolio images can boost your SEO rankings and help you get more traffic.
Final Thoughts
Starting a website for your imager portfolio is a great step towards sharing your work with a global audience. Don’t let slow load speed and website performance issues get in your way. A WordPress image compression plugin helps you reduce the size of images in your imager portfolio without losing quality. It also improves your website’s SEO performance.