Top 5 Image Optimization Plugins for WordPress

SEO is sometimes also called SEO copyrighting because most of the techniques that are used to promote sites in search engines deal with text and images. Videos, images, and infographics are best ways to generate more social networking with your brand or product.

Also Read: Top 8 Free Image Compression Tools

Optimising images for the web is a tricky business. You have to get the right balance between filesize and picture quality. It is an essential step though. Look at any webpage, and you will see that most of its load time comes from images. Your website will be needlessly slow if you don’t drop the sizes of these images.

There are 3 key areas where bytes can be shaved off your graphics: bit depth (number of colours), resolution, and dimension. You don’t need expensive graphics editors to compress the sizes of your images, as there are plenty of free utilities and shareware that will do the job for you.

Below we’ve listed out the top 5 WordPress Plugins for Image Optimization:

1. Optimus – WordPress Image Optimizer by KeyCDN

Optimus Plugin reduces the file size of uploaded media files automatically. Depending on the image and format, reductions in size of up to 70% are possible.

Latest version (As per tested on 10-September-2018) – 1.6.0

System Requirements –

PHP >=5.6
WordPress >=4.6
Allow outbound connections

There are 3 different version of Optimus plugins are available:

Optimus (Free) as base version with limitations (e.g. max of 100kb)
Optimus HQ (Premium) with expanded functionality for personal projects
Optimus HQ PRO (Premium) as professional solution for customer websites

Features:

Progressive JPEGs
Reduction of file size during the upload
Optimization of all preview images of a photo
No adjustments to code necessary
Optional: no removal of EXIF and IPTC metadata
Optional: HTTPS connection for the image transfer (Optimus HQ)
Optional: conversion to the WebP image format (Optimus HQ)
Optional: Disable automatic optimization during upload process
Optimized for WordPress Mobile Apps and Windows Live Writer
More advantageous PageSpeed, influencing the Ranking Factor
Faster load times for blog pages
Support for WooCommerce
WordPress multisite-support
Bulk optimization (optimize existing images)
Optimize images generated by WP Retina 2x (incl. conversion to WebP)

2. Compress JPEG & PNG Images by TinyPNG

With Compress JPEG & PNG Images plugin, it optimizes all your images by integrating with the popular image compression services like TinyJPG and TinyPNG.

Latest Version (As per tested on 10-September-2018) – 3.0.1

Features –

Automatically optimize new images on upload.
Advanced background optimization to speed up your workflow.
Optimize individual images already in your media library.
Easy bulk optimization of your existing media library.
Resize large original images by setting a maximum width and/or height.
Display JPEG images more quickly with progressive JPEG encoding.
Preserve copyright metadata, creation date and GPS location in the original images.
Supports compression of animated PNG.
Select which thumbnail sizes of an image may be optimized.
Multisite support with a single API key.
WooCommerce compatible.
WP Retina 2x compatible.
WP Offload S3 compatible.
See your usage from the media settings and during bulk optimization.
Color profiles are automatically translated to the standard RGB color space.
Convert CMYK to RGB to save more space and maximize compatibility.
Optimize and resize uploads with the WordPress mobile app.
Dashboard widget with your total savings.
No file size limits.

3. ShortPixel Image Optimizer by ShortPixel

ShortPixel is an easy to use, lightweight, install-and-forget-about-it image optimization plugin that can compress all your past images and PDF documents with a single click. New images are automatically resized/rescaled and optimized on the fly, in the background.

Latest Version (As per tested on 10-September-2018) – 4.11.2

Both lossy and lossless image compression is available for the most common image types (JPG, PNG, GIF and WebP) plus PDF files.

Features –

popular plugin with over 80,000 active installations according to WordPress
compress JPG, PNG, GIF (still or animated) images and also PDF documents
option to automatically convert PNG to JPG if that will result in smaller images. Ideal for large images in PNG format.
no file size limit
option to freely convert any JPEG, PNG or GIF (even animated ones!) to WebP for more Google love. How to enable WebP?
option to include the generated WebP images into the front-end pages by using the <picture> tag instead of <img>
compatible with WP Retina 2x – all retina images are automatically compressed. How to benefit from Retina displays?
optimize thumbnails as well as featured images. You can also select individual thumbnails to exclude from optimization.
ability to optimize any image on your site including images in NextGEN Gallery and any other image galleries or sliders
integrates with Gravity Forms post_image field type optimizing the images upon upload
featured images can be automatically resized before being optimized with 2 different options. No need for additional plugins like Imsanity
CMYK to RGB conversion
easily test lossy/lossless versions of the images with a single click in your Media Library
great for photographers: keep or remove EXIF data from your images, compress images with lossless option
works well with both HTTPS and HTTP websites
uses progressive JPEG for larger images in order to speed up the image display
you can run ShortPixel plugin on multiple websites or on a multisite with a single API Key
it is safe to test and use the plugin: all the original images can be restored with a click, either one by one or in bulk
works great for eCommerce websites using WooCommerce or other plugins
works great with NextGEN gallery, Foo Gallery and any other galleries and sliders
compatible with WP Engine hosted websites and all the major hosting providers
compatible with WPML and WPML Media plugins
skip already optimized images
compatible with watermarking plugins
option to deactivate auto-optimizing images on upload
images that are optimized less that 5% are bonus

4. EWWW Image Optimizer by Shane Bishop

The EWWW Image Optimizer plugin will increase your page speeds by way of image optimization. Increased page speeds can result in better search engine rankings, and will also improve conversion rates (increased sales and signups).

Latest Version (As per tested on 10-September-2018) – 4.3.2

It will also save you storage space and bandwidth. While EWWW I.O. will automatically optimize new images that you upload, it can also optimize all the images that you have already uploaded, and optionally convert your images to the best file format. You can choose pixel perfect compression or high compression options that are visually lossless.

Features –

No Speed Limits and unlimited file size. Using automatic Background Optimization and optional Parallel Optimization, get rid of upload delays and get back to doing what you love.
Smooth Handling with pixel-perfect optimization using industry-leading tools and progressive rendering.
High Torque as we bring you the best compression/quality ratio available with our lossy options for JPG, PNG, and PDF files.
Adaptive Steering with intelligent conversion options to get the right image format for the job (JPG, PNG, or GIF).
Free Parking The core plugin is free and always will be. Additionally, if you choose the API, you never pay for an image we can’t compress, you are never billed for a month you do not use the API, and pre-paid credits never expire. Plus, get WebP image generation at no extra cost: any JPG or PNG can be converted to Google’s next-generation image format.
Comprehensive Coverage: no image gets left behind, optimize everything on your site, beyond just the WordPress Media Library.
Safety First: all communications are secured with top SSL encryption.
Roadside Assistance: top-notch support is in our DNA. While API customers get top priority, we answer every single support question with care.
Pack a Spare: free image backups store your original images for 30 days.

5. Smush Image Compression and Optimization by WPMU DEV

Smush has been benchmarked and tested number one for speed and quality and is the award-winning, back-to-back proven crowd favorite image optimization plugin for WordPress. WP Smush uses WPMU DEV’s super servers to quickly smush every single one of your images and cuts all the unnecessary data without slowing down your site.

Latest Version (As per tested on 10-September-2018) – 2.8.1

Features –

Optimize your images using advanced lossless compression techniques.
Set maximum width and height and large images will automatically scale before being added to your media library.
Process JPEG, GIF and PNG image files.
Optimize any image in any directory.
Asynchronously auto-smush your attachments for super fast compression on upload.
Manually smush your attachments individually in the media library, or in bulk 50 attachments at a time.
Smush all standard web-sized images 1MB or smaller.
Smush images with no slowdown using WPMU DEV’s fast, reliable Smush API.
Global and individual settings for Multisite.
View advanced compression stats per-attachment and library totals.

For those who comfortable with command line tools, we have a new option using WP CLI –

https://github.com/TypistTech/image-optimize-command

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