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Detailed Review of Optimus WordPress Image Optimizer – Reduce Image File Size Without Compromising on Quality
If you want people to share and link to your content, only writing blog posts won’t do the job. You will have to give them something more than a plain text article.
Adding images to posts will highly increase your social shares and potential backlinks from other sites. Even if it sounds a bit obvious, it’s often ignored by website owners.
However, if you do add media files inside your posts and pages, then I am sure you’ve noticed a significant increase in page load speed, which will probably increase over time.
Do you see the dilemma here? You can’t go without adding images, but when you add some, your site starts loading slow.
Luckily, there is a solution for this issue, a WordPress plugin that will solve the case. Let me introduce Optimus – WordPress Image Optimizer:
An effective WordPress plugin that can reduce image file sizes with up to 70% which will increase the performance and increase the user experience of your site.
In this detailed review, I will pinpoint the main features this plugin has to offer, along with steps to configure it.
Let’s begin:
What does this plugin actually do?
Optimus WordPress image optimizer reduces image file size during the actual upload, which will positively affect the overall performance of your website.
The best part of the whole process is that it happens automatically and the quality of the images remains the same.
Who is this plugin for? And is it for you?
You can probably go without this plugin if you are adding an image per article. If not, I would highly recommend installing and using this online image compressor. Not only because it’s really easy to setup, but also because it really gets the job done.
This WordPress plugin is extremely recommended for professional photographers, wedding agencies and also portfolio sites which expectingly have plenty of high-resolution images uploaded.
Installing Optimus WordPress Image Optimizer
Optimus has 3 different packages, one of which free. More about this later, though.
Even if you decide to go with the premium license (which I advise), the installation process still begins by downloading the free version from inside your WordPress admin section:
Click on Plugins > Add New:
Search for Optimus WordPress image optimizer. Once the page loads, install the corresponding plugin developer by KeyCDN:
After successfully installing and activating the plugin, small notice will appear, saying that you are currently using the free version and will give some additional info about the premium license:
Activating Premium License
Let me show you how to unlock the real potential of Optimus. Purchasing the premium version of Optimus comes with a lot of extra features which will additionally increase your site performance.
If you already sign up for the premium license, you will need to validate your license key. You can do so, by following the steps below:
Go to Plugins > Installed Plugin > Activate Optimus HQ > Add your key > Activate:
Options Panel
You can find the settings of the plugin inside Settings > Optimus. The plugin doesn’t require initial configuration. By default, everything is set to reduce the size of the new images you want to upload.
Still there are a couple of things you should be aware of:
- Original images – You can disable the compression of original images and only reduce the size of the Thumbnails.
- Image metadata – By default Optimus will remove all meta info from the image, to ensure best possible optimization. If you decide to keep the metadata, click on – No deletion of image metadata. What exactly is this metadata? When you take a photo with a camera or use image editing program, it contains a set of meta information such as exposure time, device properties, copyright information and so on. It is recommended to remove this information from all the images.
- WebP files – WebP files are superior image formats, but it has high resource and time requirements. WebP image files are considerably smaller, which is a clear advantage for website performance. Important – Use this feature only if you are 100% aware of what you are trying to achieve. Read more about WebP format here: Convert to WebP.
- HTTPS connection – Transfer images securely over TLS encryption.
- Optimize during upload – You can stop the automatic optimization of images during uploading. Later on, you can still reduce the size if needed.
How Will Optimus Help you Reduce Image File Size
Let’s first go through the main features and functions coming along after installing the plugin. These are only a few of the benefits you are getting when using Optimus:
- Lossless Compression – Clever image compression which reduces the size without any quality loss. Optimus will slim down the original image, along with the thumbnails.
- Improve website speed and performance – Typically, images are around 60 % of your website page weight. Just image how much faster your site can load if you reduce the size of all media files with up to 70%. Optimus makes that automatically during the upload.
- Bulk Image Optimization – If you are just starting a site and you don’t have a single image, all your new images will be optimized after activating Optimus. But what if I already have tons of images uploaded? Can I still reduce their size? You bet! This WordPress image optimizer allows you to reduce the size all of your existing images with a push of a button.
- Progressive JPEGs – To save you all the technical stuff, I will only say that this feature will additionally speed up image loading on your site. Which will affect the overall performance of your site in a positive way.
- Improve SEO and user experience – It’s proven that people will leave your site and probably never return if it takes too long to load. Additionally, Google officially announced that fast sites are ranked better in search results.
Getting Started with Optimus WordPress Image Optimizer
Although activating the plugin won’t compress your current images immediately, the process is really simple and straightforward.
Reducing the size of the present media files, without lowering the quality is something you can do in two different ways.
Compress images online; Option 1:
Installing Optimus adds new tab inside your Settings panel. Besides the available options (we already discussed), on the top of the page there is Optimus bulk optimizer button:
Also, there is one more section in your WordPress admin area, where you can optimize your images. Go to the Tools > Optimize All Images:
This will automatically calculate how many of your images require optimization. Click on the button once you are ready to reduce the size.
Compress images online. Option 2:
Another way to lower the size of your media files is present in the core Media folder. Go to Media > Library
Make sure to select the list view instead of the grid by pressing the little button on the left side:
Once this is done, select the images you want to optimize (you can also bulk select) and from the drop-down menu choose Optimize Images > Apply:
Keep in mind that this might take a while to be completed. The time largely depends on the number of images you are optimizing.
Free vs. Premium – Main Differences
Free plugin. The right choice for small sites or people just starting. See what you are getting:
- Image formats – JPEG and PNG
- Max file size – 100 KB
- Amount of images – Unlimited
- Progressive JPEGs
Premium plugin. Best for sites with a lot of large images. Photographers, travelers, galleries and etc.
- Max file size – 5 MB
- HTTPS connection
- WebP conversion
- Developer API
- One license for all of your projects.
Optimus also has a package for agencies. The only difference here is that your license is good for all of your clients sites.
Pricing
I’ve already described in details the different packages, now is time to see the actual costs.
Optimus – Free. You can download the free version of the plugin from the official page in WordPress.org repository here: WordPress Image Optimizer.
Optimus HQ – 29 $ per year. At the time I am writing this review, they have a special offer for this package – only 19$ per year. Get your discount visiting the official site: Special Optimus License Price.
Optimus HQ Pro – Regular price 149 $ per year, current price: 99$ per year: Special Optimus License Price.
Pros and cons of Optimus WordPress Image Optimizer
Pros
- Improve site speed and PageSpeed Score
- Optimize images without loss in quantity
- Automatic file size reduction
- Great for your site SEO and readers
Cons
- The free version only optimizes images up to 100 KB.
Final Thoughts
With the future development of your project, you will see a lot of images piling up. Which will potentially lead to lowering your website speed.
Only reducing the size won’t do the work, you will also want to keep the quality of the image, right? Optimus WordPress image optimizer is a great solution for website owners using WordPress.
The media files you upload to your WordPress site will still look the same, but this time, load much faster.
Test the difference downloading the free version of the product and easily switch to the premium package when you see the amazing results.
What are you doing on your WordPress site to lower the size of the images?[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/4″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_btn title=”Download + Full Demo” style=”flat” color=”peacoc” align=”center” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Foptimus.io%2Fen%2F|title:Optimus%20-%20WordPress%20Image%20Optimizer|target:%20_blank” button_block=”true”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][/vc_column][/vc_row]