How to Optimize Images in WordPress for SEO & Accessibility

I’m going to show you how to optimize your images in WordPress for SEO and accessibility. Optimizing images for SEO (search engine optimization) contributes towards the SEO of your page and site. Optimizing images for accessibility makes it easier for the visually impaired to understand the images you’re using even though they can’t see them.

Here’s a brief video. Below that is a detailed description of how and why to optimize images.

It’s important to reduce the file size of images because 40% of people abandon a website that takes more than three seconds to load (Search Engine Journal), and a slow website could lower your Google ranking (Search Engine Land).

To resize an image is to change its dimensions (width and height). To compress an image is to remove data from the image to reduce its file size without changing its dimensions.

Which dimensions and sizes are right for your images will depend on how you’re using them. We often use 1024 px × 1024 px for images that will be within post and page content, and aim for a maximum file size of 200 KB. You may need larger images if they need to be higher quality, such as product photos or as part of your site’s design. If you’re concerned about high-density displays, you may want to use 2048 px.

There are many tools for resizing and compressing. Photoshop can resize and compress. On Windows, look at Paint.NET and RIOT. On Mac OS X, look at Preview and ImageOptim.

There are also WordPress plugins that will do this for you automatically. Check out Imsanity plugin automatically resizes, compresses images.