Optimize WordPress Images With WP Smush

If you are using WordPress and want to improve your website performance then one of the easiest ways is to optimize your images. You can scale your images manually and it is covered by this tutorial. You can further optimize your images and scale them automatically by using a WP Smush plugin.

WP Smush is a free WordPress plugin that optimize images. It helps you resize, optimize and compress any or all of your website images. It has a generous unlimited & free plan that gives you the ability to optimize all of your images up to 5MB in size at the unlimited time, which is why it has over 1+ million active installations and is not showing any signs of slowing down.

What You Can Do Wih WP Smush Plugin?

Here is exactly what you can do with this plugin: Lossless Compression: Unused data in the images removed without affecting image quality. Support All Image Types: PNG, JPEG & GIF. Bulk Smush: Optimize multiple images (up to 50 images) with 1 click.

Image resizing: Resize large images to max-width and height, so you get a smaller size as they are compressed. Directory Smush: Optimize all images even if they’re not in the media library.

Automated Optimization: Want to auto compress images you upload? The tool can do so for you. Gutenberg Block Integration: View all Smush stats in image blocks directly.

Compatible with any Media Library Plugins: If you use a different plugin to manage your WP media library, WP Smush can optimize images there as well. Incorrect Size Image Detection: If you can’t find the images that are slowing down your site, WP Smush will find them for you and highlight them

Lazy Load Built-in: So you don’t worry if you have a lot of images to display. And more. Finally, there is a reason why they have been at the top for many years now. Their unlimited free plan, coupled with their ability to compress any image type in any location and do so automatically in bulk, is like a dream come true for most bloggers.

How To Optimize Images With WP Smush

Let’s get to the nitty-gritty of how to optimize your images with WP Smush using their free plugin.

Install WP Smush

If you have been using WordPress for a while, this should be a piece of cake. But I’d like to show you the steps. Go to WordPress Dashboard > Plugins > Add New. Secondly, search for ‘WP Smush’. Click on the Install Now button. Finally, the button will change to Activate. Click on it. And you are done.

Using The WordPress Plugin To Optimize Images

After the WP Smush install, go to the Smush tab. A quick setup popup appears to help you at the start. There are 3 settings on it: Automatic Compression: If you enable this, the plugin will automatically optimize new images. And of course, we want this to enable. In addition, EXIF Metadata: Keep it enabled — you don’t want this info unless you have a photography blog for photographers who care about such data.

Lazy Load: You may consider enabling lazy loading to reduce the load on your server and speed up the page load time. Usage Data: You don’t need to enable this.

Now you quickly setup the plugin. Click on the button to remove this popup. After that, click on the “Bulk Smush Now” button. This will start bulk optimizing your images, so you don’t need to optimize old images one by one.