No one has time for a website that takes forever to load! And one major factor that can slow down your website is unoptimized media—images and videos that are too large or not properly compressed.
Optimizing your media isn’t just a nice-to-have, it’s a must for keeping your site fast and responsive, getting on Google’s good side, and making sure your visitors stay engaged.
In this post, we’ll explore why optimizing images and videos is important, the ideal sizes you should aim for, and some great tools to help you get the job done.
Why You Need to Optimize Images and Videos
Faster Load Times
Large, unoptimized media files can drag down your website’s loading speed. If your pages take too long to load, visitors might leave before they even see your content. Google reports that 53% of mobile users will abandon a site that takes longer than three seconds to load.
Better SEO
Search engines favor fast-loading websites. A quicker site is more likely to rank higher in search results, which means more organic traffic for you. Google even uses page speed as a direct ranking factor, so optimizing your images and videos can give your SEO a nice boost.
Improved User Experience
When your site loads quickly and smoothly, visitors are more likely to stick around, explore, and take action—whether that’s signing up for a newsletter, making a purchase, or getting in touch. Optimized media ensures your images and videos look great without causing annoying delays.
Optimal Sizes for Images and Videos
Alright, now that you are convinced, let’s talk about the sizes you should aim for to keep your site running smoothly.
Images
- File Format: Use JPEG for most photos since it offers good compression with minimal quality loss. PNG is great for images with transparent backgrounds or simple graphics, and SVG is perfect for scalable vector graphics.
- Resolution: For the web, 72 DPI (dots per inch) is sufficient.
- Size: Keep your images below 100KB when possible. Full-width images should generally be no wider than 1920px, while thumbnails and smaller images can be around 300-500px.
Videos
- File Format: MP4 is the go-to format for most web videos because it provides high quality with smaller file sizes.
- Resolution: 720p is usually enough for standard web videos. If you need higher quality, 1080p works too, but make sure the file is optimized for the web.
- Size: Aim to keep videos under 5MB for short clips. For longer videos, consider embedding from platforms like YouTube or Vimeo to avoid hosting large files directly on your site.
Tools for Optimizing Images and Videos
Image Optimization Tools
- Image Resizer Easily resize and compress your images without losing quality. Perfect for both individual and bulk image resizing.You can also change file format through it.
- Image Compressor Reduce your image file sizes while keeping the original quality intact. Great for speeding up your site with minimal effort.
- Squoosh A handy tool that lets you compare your original and compressed images side-by-side. Supports formats like JPEG, PNG, and WebP.
Video Optimization Tools
- Zamzar A versatile tool for converting video formats quickly and easily. Perfect for resizing or converting video files to make them web-friendly.
- Clideo An easy online tool to compress video files without significantly affecting their quality. Perfect for quick optimizations.
- VEED.IO Compress and edit your videos online. Resize for different platforms or reduce file sizes to speed up your website.
Best Practices for Media Optimization
- Choose the Right Format: Selecting the appropriate format for your images and videos ensures you get the best balance between quality and file size. For example, WebP offers better compression for images compared to JPEG and PNG.
- Resize and compress: Before uploading any images or videos, make sure to resize them to the appropriate dimensions and compress them to reduce file size.
- Use Lazy Loading: This technique delays the loading of images and videos until they’re needed, which can significantly improve your site’s initial load time.
- Always Test: Use tools like GTMetrix to check your site’s performance before and after optimization. This helps ensure your changes are making a positive impact.
Final Thoughts
Ok! Now you know not to put unoptimized images and video on your website and you’ve got the tools to ensure everything runs smoothly.
Need help optimizing your website’s media? Reach out to us at Black Cat Web Studio — we’re here to help make your website the best it can be!