Images account for roughly 50% of the total file size of an average webpage. If your site is sluggish, unoptimized images are likely the culprit.
Why Speed Matters for SEO
Google uses "Core Web Vitals" as a ranking factor. One of these metrics, LCP (Largest Contentful Paint), often depends on how fast your main image loads. If it takes more than 2.5 seconds, your search ranking can suffer. Furthermore, Amazon found that every 100ms of latency cost them 1% in sales. Speed equals revenue.
Technique 1: Proper Dimensions
The most common mistake is uploading a 4000x3000 pixel image (straight from a phone) into a slot that is only displayed at 500x500 pixels. The browser still has to download the massive file and then shrink it down. Always resize your image to the maximum display width before uploading.
Technique 2: Modern Formats
Stop using PNGs for photographs. It is an inefficient format for complex imagery. By converting your PNGs to WebP, you can often reduce the file size by 50-70% instantly.
Technique 3: Aggressive Compression
You can often reduce image quality to 80% without the human eye noticing the difference. This "lossy" compression strips out metadata and color depth nuances that aren't visible on a screen but take up valuable kilobytes.
The Workflow
Using UtilityKit, you can tackle all three techniques at once: upload your large file, resize it to 1200px width, select WebP format, and download the optimized version.
Speed Up Your Site
Optimize your images now to boost your Google PageSpeed score.
Conclusion
Image optimization is the "low hanging fruit" of web performance. It requires minimal effort but delivers maximum impact on your site speed and SEO rankings.