Compress Images | ShortPixel

Description of the Short Pixel plugin

What makes Internet users, but especially mobile users, spend less time on certain websites is quite naturally its loading speed. The latter is partly responsible for your ranking in the SERPs.  So, if you see that your site is not ranking well on the SERPs, you can only blame yourself. Besides, we all know that optimized content requires good quality images. But very often, said images weigh enough, which negatively acts on the loading speed of the pages of your website. It is therefore necessary to find good tools that can compress your images without affecting their quality as the case of the Short Pixel plugin.  Used by more than half a million SEO players, I invite you to discover its installation, its configuration and the different settings to know for a first experiment. Good reading.

Introducing Short Pixel

Short Pixel is an image optimizer that helps improve the speed of your website as well as its ranking in the SERPs of search engines. Concretely, it is a WordPress plugin that installs directly in the dashboard of your WordPress site. Thus, it accompanies you in your various image optimization operations in order to improve the performance of the website. Indeed, to improve said performance, Short Pixel resizes, compresses and serves CDN images. A CDN actually allows the rapid transfer of resources needed to load web content such as images and videos.  Anyway, the images optimized by the Short Pixel plugin are visually smaller, but remain completely similar to the original images. This seems to represent the reason why the plugin is involved in boosting your website’s page speed.  The tool generally supports the following image formats: Avif, GIF, JPG, PDF, PNG and WebP. Thus, whatever the type of images, this tool will accompany you in its compression. In principle, the different images that you include in your content to illustrate your texts to Internet users have a direct impact on the loading time of your web pages. However, if the loading time is long, you will quickly lose visitors.  So you agree with me that the best way to avoid losing visitors is to properly optimize your images. This process requires quite a lot of time that is why Short Pixel tool like some other image optimizers is often used to speed up the process. In particular, Short Pixel through its API allows automatic processing of all images that are integrated into your content. Whether these images are old or new, the plugin is an effective remedy to save extra time. Moreover, its automatic processing only takes a few seconds. Thus, you don’t have to worry anymore if you want to do batch compression of images.  As for the saving of Short Pixel compressed images, it is quite prompt and reduced. In other words, the backup does not take long at all. What makes the tool even more interesting is the fact that all files processed through its algorithm have a guarantee of confidentiality. Anyway, this plugin allows you to refine the images, ideally helping to reduce the loading time of your website. A simple way to improve your ranking in the SERPs. But how does it work?

How does the Short Pixel plugin work?

The Short Pixel tool helps you effectively reduce the weight of images to be integrated into your content. In this regard, you should know that the size of an image depends mainly on three factors: its size, its resolution and its format. Here is how to install and configure the Short Pixel plugin. Short Pixel: installation and configuration To install the Short Pixel extension, go to its website. All you have to do is register for free by typing your email address and checking the terms and conditions box of the tool.

Installation of Short Pixel

After your registration, you will receive an email from the team who will guide you through the configuration. It is a code of about twenty characters made up of letters and numbers.  This is the API key that will soon allow your site to communicate with Short Pixel for the optimization of your images. Then, in your WordPress dashboard, go to the Extensions > Add menu and search for ”Short Pixel Image Optimizer” and install the plugin. After installation, you will only have to activate it and thus access the various settings. To do this, go to Settings > Short Pixel. You remember the API key received through an email, copy and paste it into the box dedicated to this purpose, the API Key box. Then click Validate. You have just installed and activated Short Pixel. For its configuration, I give you some details below.

Configuring Short Pixel

Only after installation and activation can you configure Short Pixel. To do this, you must choose the type of compression to apply to the images in your content. It is indeed a tool that does not require a lot of adjustments and that is what makes it pleasant to use. To configure Short Pixel, you have three compression options. These allow you to define the general parameters to be used with Short Pixel. These are:

• Lossless compression;
• Glossy compression;
• Lossy compression.

General parameters of Short Pixel

To define the general parameters of Short Pixel, it is necessary to consider 4 settings which are: the types of compression, the image saving, the removal of the EXIF ​​tag from the image and the resizing of the images more large. Here is an overview of these.

1. Types of compression

This adjustment which moreover appears as the main one gives you the possibility of choosing between the three types of compression mentioned above. Thus, with Lossless compression, your images are compressed without affecting the quality of the original image. However, it remains a little heavier than desired. As for Glossy compression, your images are compressed, but this time with a slight loss of quality. Anyway , this loss of quality is not very visible. This configuration is recommended for all SEO players who most often highlight photos on their blog. Regarding the third type of configuration, Lossy compression, it is very powerful. And since it can greatly affect the quality of the images, it requires an upstream test to determine its impact on the visual rendering. That said, in case you don’t know which type of compression to choose, Short Pixel gives you the opportunity to do some tests, just to get a better idea of ​​the final rendering of the image. So you can make more informed decisions for your SEO. Either way, these three types of compression give you a balance between image quality and image compression. But this adjustment is not limited to these three compressions. You can actually decide whether or not to include thumbnails in the Short Pixel image compression process. Including thumbnails in the compression of Short Pixel will however influence the use of your image credit. However, you should know that this option contributes to the reduction of work.

1. Image 

Backup Short Pixel’s image backup is automatic to prevent loss of images or files. In principle, this setting adds all additional elements to the memory occupying all the space.  It also has the function of expanding your WordPress backups of your entire blog. But if you use the free option, you will soon run into a storage problem. In which case, you will have to pay extra for other options.

1. Removing the EXIF ​​tag from your images

This setting allows you to remove additional information included with image files to be compressed. Said deleted information concerns data relating to the model of the camera used to capture the photo or even the location of the image.

1. Resizing Large Images 

This setting is the last general Short Pixel setting. In principle, this setting allows you to save data space over a certain size. And if that size is small enough, Short Pixel will warn you.

Advanced settings of Short Pixel

In addition to its general settings, the tool has advanced settings that allow you to modify its configuration according to the needs of your SEO strategy.  This allows you to better manage the image optimization process and make good decisions. Short Pixel’s advanced settings are all under the advanced tab of its menu. These are the following 09 points:

• Additional multimedia files;
•  Automatic conversion of PNG images to JPEG images;
• CMYK to RGB conversion;
• WebP image generation;
• Optimization of retinal images;
• Optimization of other thumbs;
• PDF optimization;
• Exclusion of models;
• Excluding thumbnail sizes.

Remember that to benefit from these advanced settings, you must make a subscription. The free mode does not really take into account the advanced parameters. In short, Short Pixel is an image optimizer that uses advanced compression technology to reduce the weight of images embedded in your web pages. Easy to install and configure, it has general settings and advanced settings that allow you to better organize your SEO.  It improves the page loading speed of your websites allowing visitors to have a good user experience. It is a tool that compresses the images of your content without you noticing that they have been compressed.