Your Cheat-Sheet for Compressing Images

When you think about optimizing your content for search engines, what comes to mind? Building inbound links? Incorporating the optimal keywords? Developing authority on topics?

What about compressing your images’ file size?

According to Braden Becker, HubSpot’s Historical Optimization Lead, your images’ file size directly affects your website’s page load speed, which is one of the ten most important Google ranking factors.

“The bigger an image’s file size, the longer it takes your web browser to load that image, which increases your website’s loading time as a whole. And the longer your website’s loading time, the more likely Google will penalize you,” he says.

Compression blends similarly colored pixels into single pixels to reduce the image’s resolution, and in turn, file size. But since the human eye is more sensitive to light and dark detail than color detail, we’re not able to detect the color differences between an uncompressed and compressed image, so the perceived quality stays the same, just like the pictures below.

Uncompressed Image (236 KB)

Compressed Image (48 KB)

As you can see, the uncompressed image’s file size is almost four times bigger than the compressed image. Yet, the compressed image still has the same perceived quality as the uncompressed image, and it will load much faster.

To help you diminish your images’ file size as much as possible, boost your website's page speed, and avoid risking a penalty from Google, we’ve created a quick, easy guide to help you compress your images in only a matter of seconds. Read on to learn how.