Getting started with image optimization
This is cheap to get right at the start and expensive to retrofit. A short on-ramp to image optimization for teams who have not touched it before.
Real-world numbers from actual visitors matter more than a score produced on a fast laptop. Anything you cannot measure here, you are deciding by taste, which is fine as long as everyone knows it.
What is actually at stake
Images are usually the largest thing on a page. The teams that handle this well are rarely the ones with the biggest budgets. It is worth deciding this deliberately rather than inheriting whatever the last person set up.
Your first week
- Find out what is already in place
- Modern formats cut file size substantially at the same quality
- Change one thing and measure it
Serving a 3000px image into a 400px slot is pure waste. It is worth being explicit about, because assumptions differ quietly. It is the sort of thing that looks like polish right up until it costs you an enquiry.
How to tell if yours is fine
Speed is a feature people notice only in its absence, and then they leave rather than complain. Three things worth confirming about image optimization before you move on:
- Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
- Modern formats cut file size substantially at the same quality — and you know whether that is true here
- There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped
If you want a second opinion on how yours is set up, ask.