Images are an essential part of any website, adding visual appeal and enhancing user experience. However, improperly managing image uploads on WordPress can lead to performance issues that negatively affect website speed, user experience, and even SEO rankings.
Many website owners unknowingly upload large image files that can overload their web servers, slow down their sites, and impact their performance. This guide will walk you through the best practices for uploading image files to WordPress while maintaining site performance and server health.
1) Resize Images Before Uploading
One of the most common mistakes is uploading images straight from the camera or stock photography sources without resizing. Often, these images are much larger than needed for display on the web. For instance, a 16MB image with a resolution of 5038×8048 pixels at 300 DPI is far beyond what’s required for online display. Such a large file creates a significant strain on your server’s CPU as it attempts to process and serve these oversized files.
Best Practice:
- Aim to resize images to a maximum width of 1000 pixels for most typical web uses.
- Set the resolution to 72 DPI, which is optimal for web displays. High DPI (300 DPI) is necessary for print but not for the web.
- For web images you should be shooting for the smallest size that still looks good for your intended use. For most cases you should be shooting for 100-200kb on the high end and on average beloww 100kb for a web image. (1000Kb is 1MB for reference).
By resizing your images before uploading, you’ll reduce file size dramatically, improving website performance and reducing load on your web server.
2) Optimize Image File Format
Choosing the right image format can make a big difference in both quality and file size. Common formats for web images include JPEG, PNG, and WebP.
- JPEG: Great for photographs, offering good quality with smaller file sizes.
- PNG: Best for images requiring transparency or sharper details, though it tends to result in larger files.
- WebP: A modern format that delivers superior compression without compromising quality, helping reduce file sizes even further.
3) Use Image Compression Tools
After resizing, further optimize your images using compression tools to reduce file size without sacrificing noticeable quality. Tools like TinyPNG, ShortPixel, or WordPress plugins like Smush can automatically compress your images during upload, ensuring smaller file sizes.
4) Avoid Uploading Directly from Cloud Storage
If you’re dragging and dropping files directly from Dropbox or Google Drive into WordPress, you may encounter issues. The best approach is to download the image files to your local computer first, resize and optimize them, and then upload them to your WordPress site. This minimizes potential upload failures and ensures that your files are correctly processed.
5) Check Your Internet Connection
A stable, uninterrupted internet connection is crucial when uploading images or large amounts of data. If your connection drops, uploads may fail, leaving partial data on the server, which can lead to other problems down the line. Always make sure you have a reliable connection before working with large media files.
6) Save Your Work Frequently
Web servers are designed to manage multiple requests at once, similar to how a checkout counter serves customers. However, servers have time limits for each connection to prevent inactive sessions from consuming resources. If you don’t save your work or update the server within a set period (often around 30 to 60 seconds, depending on server configuration), the server may terminate your session.
This is particularly important when working with large content entries or complex projects. If a session is terminated, unsaved changes may be lost, and you will need to start the upload process again.
Best Practice: Save your work frequently when dealing with large uploads or multiple content variations. If you are working on a project with many components, such as variations of product listings or pages with multiple images, save each one individually rather than trying to complete everything in a single update.
Tip: By saving smaller batches of work, you reduce the risk of overloading the server and minimize the chances of connection timeouts. This keeps the server operating smoothly while protecting your progress.
7) Limit Bulk Image Uploads
Uploading too many files at once can overwhelm your web server. Even after resizing and compressing images, avoid uploading more than a few files simultaneously, especially if they are large or if you’re working on a shared hosting environment where server resources are limited.
Best Practice:
Upload images in small batches and save each set before proceeding with the next. This ensures the server isn’t overwhelmed and helps prevent upload failures.
8) Add Alt Descriptions to Your Images
When uploading images, don’t forget to add descriptive and relevant alt text. Alt descriptions not only improve the accessibility of your website but also provide search engines with information about your images, which can help improve your search rankings.
Best Practice:
Use alt descriptions that are consistent with the keywords you are targeting. This helps search engines understand the context of your images and boosts your SEO efforts.
For example, if you’re trying to rank for “Mississauga web design,” an image alt text could be: “professional website design services in Mississauga.”
Final Thoughts
Optimizing image uploads on WordPress is a simple yet effective way to maintain fast website speeds and avoid performance issues. By resizing, compressing, and uploading images in small batches, you ensure that your site remains efficient, user-friendly, and high-performing.
If you’re unsure about optimizing your images or need help improving your website’s speed, contact us at iGo Sales and Marketing. We specialize in helping businesses maximize their web performance.
