Dec 13
Why You Should Optimise Your Images for the Web
As a web host we deal with lots of web designers. One thing that never fails to amaze us is the number of them who pay absolutely no attention to image optimisation - one of the core fundamentals of website design.
In the early days of the internet it was absolutely crucial to optimise your images because everyone was dialling up with painfully slow modems. Even the best optimised images seemed to take an age to load. These days more and more people have broadband with connection speeds unimaginable back then. Large images, audio and video can be downloaded at mind-bending speeds. So does this mean we can all forget about image optimisation? Perhaps not.
Don’t forget the little people
Whilst many of us may be able to enjoy 8 meg broadband (and faster) there are plenty of people who don’t. Maybe they live in a remote area where it isn’t available, perhaps they simply don’t want the expense. I have 2 family members who flatly refuse to upgrade to broadband simply because they are old and set in their ways! According to UK Government Statistics 16% of households do not yet have broadband.
So what good is a graphic-heavy, poorly optimised website to these users? Not much. Nobody wants to sit there waiting while each image loads line by line.
The internet is supposed to be inclusive, not exclusive. If you must have this kind of broadband-ready content give everyone else a low-bandwidth alternative or at the very least optimise your images properly.
Slash your hosting bills
Bandwidth costs money, plain and simple. The better optimised your images are the less bandwidth and disk space you are going to use. This could mean your hosting bills are cheaper, particularly if you have a high traffic website. We have seen customers slash their bandwidth usage by up to 75% simply by optimising their images properly.
Image Optimisation Tools
For your PC
- GIMP: a freeware image manipulation program for Windows and Mac.
For your web application
- Mambo/Joomla: Image Resizer
- osCommerce: Auto Thumbnailer
- Drupal: Image Picker
- Many more on the web.
I am employed by Net Explorers who provide Joomla! Hosting services.
If you liked this article why not subscribe to our RSS Feed?
All material in this post is copyright © Net Explorers Ltd. The views expressed are the individual author’s and not necessarily shared by the company.
