What Image compression means
Oversized images are one of the most common reasons business websites are slow. Compressing, resizing and serving modern formats can shrink files dramatically with little visible change. It is often the cheapest speed fix available.
Why it matters for your website
Images are often the heaviest part of a page, so large files slow down your site and frustrate visitors on phones. Compression can shrink file sizes without a visible loss in quality. Faster pages tend to keep visitors around longer and support better Core Web Vitals.
Example
A landscaping company uploads gallery photos straight from a camera. Resizing and compressing them makes the gallery page load much faster on mobile.
Tips
- Resize images to the largest size they will actually display.
- Use modern formats like WebP or AVIF where supported.
- Lazy load images below the fold, but not the main hero image.
Common mistakes
- Uploading huge original photos and letting the browser shrink them.
- Compressing so hard that product photos look blurry.
Questions about Image compression
What is Image compression?
Reducing image file size while keeping visual quality acceptable.
What is the difference between lossy and lossless compression?
Lossy compression removes some detail to get much smaller files. Lossless keeps every detail but saves less space.
Does image compression help SEO?
Indirectly. Smaller images speed up pages, which helps user experience and Core Web Vitals like Largest Contentful Paint.
