New business owners often disregard image optimization as unworthy of their time. However, a seasoned web developer will tell you that image optimization is just as important as excellent user experience, catchy content, and impeccable design.

Images are a strong ally when it comes to grabbing attention and adding hidden keywords to your content. Quality images are a must for SEO success, but at the same time, they can ruin your efforts due to their large size and slow loading speed. Of course, no one likes waiting for an image to load for ages. On the other hand, “ages” nowadays is considered anything that surpasses 3 seconds, so your margin is not that high.

Naturally, optimizing your images should be a top priority. You don’t need a website with low-quality images, just like you don’t need a website that loads in 5 or more seconds. You need perfection, and when it comes to image optimization, ShortPixel will deliver precisely that.

So, let’s talk a bit more about why we love ShortPixel so much and why choosing it as your image optimization tool will enhance your overall HostArmada hosting experience.

What Is ShortPixel

ShortPixel is a free image compression plugin and optimization tool. As such, it can be easily integrated into your WordPress website and manage your website images. Of course, the free image compression is limited, but you can always buy additional credits or unlimited optimization options.  

The best part about ShortPixel is that it is versatile, lightweight, and extremely stable. It offers outstanding results, which, in practice, are optimized images that are indistinguishable from the original. Yet the files are between 70 to 90 percent smaller.

Naturally, this small and handy plugin can help you immensely reduce your bounce rate, increase customer satisfaction and retention, and, most importantly, boost your overall SEO score. Unsurprisingly, ShortPixel is used by more than one million websites and has more than 650 five-star reviews.

How Does It Work?

Most image compression tools reduce the image file size by downgrading its quality. In some cases, the end result is so horrific that it can actually harm your SEO score rather than help it. Well, ShortPixel doesn’t touch the image quality at all. Instead of reducing the size and pixel numbers, it strips away unnecessary metadata, such as EXIF (which specifies geolocation and camera settings). These metadata reduce the file size while retaining the original image’s visual integrity. That’s how ShortPixel manages to reduce the overall file size significantly without ever hindering the image’s quality.

In cases where quality needs to be reduced, the end result is once again practically indistinguishable from the original with the naked eye.  

One of ShortPixel’s standout features is its cloud-based optimization process. When you upload images to your WordPress Media Library, ShortPixel automatically transfers them to its cloud servers. There, ShortPixel compresses and optimizes the images according to pre-set configurations. This allows you to adjust settings, such as whether to keep or remove EXIF data. The cloud-based nature of the tool minimizes the use of your server’s CPU or RAM, ensuring that the optimization process doesn’t slow down your website.

Additionally, ShortPixel offers bulk processing, which scans all images on a site to find opportunities for compression without reducing image quality. This feature allows for quick optimization of entire image libraries, replacing larger files with compressed versions, thus improving site speed and performance without manual intervention.

As you can see, ShortPixel is a great solution for any business owner, regardless of how important the images are. For example, a plumber’s website’s pictures don’t need to be as high quality as a photographer’s. Still, ShortPixel converts your image precisely based on your needs. There is no one-size-fits-all solution here.

Why We Love ShortPixel

Of course, any image reduction is quite welcome, but ShortPixel goes beyond what other plugins normally do. In fact, one of the main reasons we love them is that they don’t put the entire processing strain on our server CPUs; instead, they use their own cloud. But this is just the beginning. There are at least seven outstanding reasons why we love this plugin so much.

Makes Our Websites Even Faster

HostArmada is pretty prolific at ensuring that the websites it hosts are up to speed. Actually, we pride ourselves on the lightning-fast speed at which HostArmada-powered websites load. Still, an additional boost is always welcome, especially for heavy websites with many heavy files and documents.

That’s why ShortPixel is the perfect supplement to your HostArmada web hosting. They help your website speed go even higher by significantly reducing the heaviest elements in your website – the images.

At the end of 2023, the average website loading time was 2.5 seconds for desktop and 8.6 seconds for mobile. However, these averages are hardly your goal. You need to focus on a website loading speed faster than 1.65 seconds. That’s the average for websites that rank on the first pages of Google.

Moreover, about 40% of users will abandon a website that takes more than three seconds to load. So it’s quite obvious that a faster website brings a lot of benefits. In this regard, thanks to ShortPixel (and HostArmada, of course), you can easily and effectively increase your SEO score, conversion rate, and overall customer satisfaction. What’s not to love?

It Has Built-in CDN

Another great aspect of ShortPixel is that it offers a built-in CDN. Now, content delivery networks are not mandatory, especially if your target audience is predominantly positioned in a single geographical location. So, local online stores and brands won’t feel the immense benefits of this feature. However, if you operate globally and expect just as much attention from users in the United States as you do from those in New Zealand, the built-in CDN will be a genuine game changer.

You see, whenever someone tries to enter your website, their browser sends a request to your server to download the information and show it on the user’s screen. The entire process is a bit more complicated, and you can learn more about it in this article. During this process, the information travels in milliseconds. However, if the browser is located in India and the server is in Texas, these milliseconds begin stacking. This is where Content Delivery Networks, or CDNs, come into play.

This network of servers cashes your website’s files on local servers so browsers can reach them faster and spare these milliseconds. When it comes to images, this can literally save you several seconds.

So, ShortPixel’s built-in CDN solution will increase your website speed even further, allowing you to retain much of your image’s initial quality. This is how you get both fast loading speed and high-quality images.

It Offers Various Compression Types

Arguably, the best thing about ShortPixel is its diversity in compression methods. They offer three types of image compression, each one accommodating different target groups.

The Lossy method is the default option with the highest compression rate. To be honest, most people are reluctant to give their image optimization tool this freedom to compress, as it often messes up their images. However, with ShortPixel, there are no visible differences. Only people who sell their images may have a problem with this option, as it reduces the image’s resolution. Still, when looking at the website, there are no visible changes to the image. It’s perfect for websites that use their visuals to attract attention but don’t need their full-resolution capabilities.

The Glossy type is the preferred compression method for most photography websites. This method removes minor details from the image that can only be seen under a microscope. So, naturally, it retains the image’s high resolution and focuses on reducing its size through other means. As you probably already guessed, these image files will be slightly larger than those compressed with the Lossy method.

The Lossless method offers the least amount of compression. This type of compression is usually based on deleting useless metadata rather than tempering the image itself. The method is perfect for those who obsess over image quality.

As you can see, there is a compressing solution for every need and whim. That’s rarely the case with other image optimizers. It’s even rarer for the end result of the biggest compression method to have no visible distinctions from the original.

Optimizes GIF, PDF, WebP, and Other Less Conventional File Formats

The Lossless and Lossy types have one additional benefit we’ve never seen elsewhere. It can actually optimize PDF files, along with JPG, JPEG XR, JPEG, JPEG 2000, GIF, WebP, and others. Moreover, you can set ShortPixel to automatically convert PNG files into JPEG files with a transparent background. This will significantly reduce the file size from the very start.

Another great benefit is the conversion options. You can change your file format to JPEG, PNG, GIF, or WebP. For example, if you want all images on your homepage to be WebP format, just tag them as <picture> rather than <img>. There are many conversion options, depending on what you need. If you are a small business owner needing a faster website, you don’t need to go into so much detail. Actually, that’s another thing that makes us love ShortPixel.

You Can Forget About It

One of our favorite features of the ShortPixel plugin is the automated optimization process. All you need to do is upload your images to your Media Library, and the optimizer will take over. In other words, you can forget about the plugin’s existence, and it will still do its job perfectly. As you can imagine, this will take one otherwise very tedious task off your shoulders. If you are a small business owner with little to no time to take care of their website, the ShortPixel plugin is a godsend. Just make sure to configure the plugin properly before you leave it to do the job in the background.

No File Size Limits

Most image optimizers have strict file size limitations on which they can work. Not ShortPixel. No file is too big for this optimizer, making it your best friend if you insist on high-quality, heavy images.

Bulk Image Optimization

Finally, the feature that stole our hearts is the bulk optimization option. This is extremely handy if you already have a vast collection of content that needs optimizing. For example, if you have a blog dating back several years, going through every image one by one would take ages.

ShortPixel has a solution. It not only detects all the images that need optimization but also resizes them all in one swift move. In the end, it will even show you optimization statistics and a before-and-after comparison of your images. This way, you will be sure that the quality of your images will remain untouched.

To make it even better, you won’t lose the original image. It will be safely stored on the server. So, if you need the picture in its original glory, you can restore it with a click of a button. Just make sure to check the “Save and keep a backup of your original image in a separate folder” option in the settings.

FastPixel – Website Accelerator From The Minds Behind ShortPixel

Ever wanted a good score on PageSpeed Insights and GTMetrix without breaking a sweat or hiring expensive consultants? That’s where FastPixel comes in. Built by the same folks behind ShortPixel, it’s designed to turbocharge your website’s speed, handling all the technical heavy lifting in the background.

With FastPixel, you just install it, hit activate, and watch your website start loading faster almost instantly. It handles page caching, CSS/JS minification, and ShortPixel’s image optimization automatically. And it’s all cloud-based, so there’s no extra strain on your server.

Do You Really Need ShortPixel?

Yes. There is no doubt about that. It’s by far the best image optimizer on the market and it has some pretty affordable prices as well. It has stellar support and works perfectly with all modern gallery plugins. Moreover, it’s one of the few optimizers that actually work with WebP and AVIF files.

It’s the perfect solution for both brand and community websites, as it can also automatically optimize images uploaded by users via the front end of your website.

ShortPixel will give your HostArmada-powered website an additional speed boost, securing you an immense competitive edge over your competitors. So, if you are wondering how to make your website even better, ShortPixel is the perfect solution.