Best image compression software: A friendly comparison of Photoshop, Canva, Preview and Tinify (TinyPNG)

When it comes to image compression, most people are introduced to this concept through familiar apps they use daily – for example, Photoshop, Canva, or even Preview. These apps offer image optimization features, aiming to reduce file sizes without sacrificing image quality. 

However, they often fall short of offering a seamless experience. 

While reducing the file size of only one picture with traditional image editing software is as easy as it sounds, the same can’t be said when you have to do it dozens or hundreds of times. This is usually the turning point for our users, who end up on Tinify’s website when searching online for better solutions out of frustration. If this is you right now, keep on reading – let’s explore why Tinify might be a better choice for compressing your images.

What is image compression?

In simple terms, image compression is the process of reducing the size of an image file without sacrificing its visual quality. The goal here is to strike a balance between file size and image quality to ensure your website loads quickly and smoothly.

Picture this: you stumble upon a website that takes forever to load. Frustrating, right? Slow-loading websites can be a major turn-off for users, resulting in high bounce rates and losing potential customers. This is where image compression comes to the rescue! By reducing the file size of your images, you can significantly speed up your website’s loading time, making your visitors happier and more likely to stick around.

4 reasons image compression is important

  1. Faster loading speed: Compressed images are smaller in size, which means they require less bandwidth to load. This translates into lightning-fast loading times and a seamless browsing experience for your users.
  2. Improved user experience: A website that loads quickly is a website that keeps users engaged. By optimizing your images, you ensure that your audience can access your content without any frustrating delays or interruptions.
  3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) boost: Did you know that search engines take website speed into account when ranking search results? By compressing your images, you’re not only pleasing your visitors but also giving your SEO efforts a nudge in the right direction.
  4. Reduced bandwidth usage and hosting costs: Smaller image files mean less data consumption, making your website more cost-effective to host. This is especially important if you have a high-traffic website or if you’re on a limited hosting plan, as well as if your users access your website through mobile data. 

How TinyPNG compares with traditional image editing software

TinyPNG vs. Canva

Canva is a great graphic design platform for people with little design experience. At Tinify, we’re fans of its simplicity in creating social media graphics. While the free subscription offers a vast array of options, image compression is only available to paid users. 

The image compression option works both for PNG and JPG images. For PNGs, it is only a matter of ticking off a box, but users have the option to choose the level of compression of JPEGs. The compression algorithm works well; however, it is a tiresome process, as they don’t provide any indication of how much one can compress each image without any visible loss in quality. All we are left with is to guess, pick a percentage, download the image, check it, and repeat the process once again until we find the optimal degree of compression. 

Screenshot-image-compression-Canva

Photo by Elena Loshina on Unsplash

Alternative to Photoshop to reduce image files

This is why we heard from some Tinify users that they first create their graphics on Canva and later use Tinify/TinyPNG’s website to quickly compress their images. Our drag-and-drop feature allows them to cut on time because our algorithm automatically picks the best optimization level. All they have to do is drag and drop their images on our website and wait to download them. As one user said:

“It’s great, I don’t have to do anything – just drag and drop and that’s it. We did try using Canva’s compression feature but it’s okayish. Instead, with Tinify we can get a reduction of 50-60% in image size.”

Jaroslaw Rozanski, Founder of Wide Angle Analytics

TinyPNG vs. Preview

Apple’s Preview is an image and PDF viewer with editing capabilities. MacOS users have the option to compress their JPEG, HEIC, and JPEG-2000 (a next-gen image format), as well as convert their images. In the same way as Canva, users can choose the level of compression, from “least” to “best”. Although the changes are immediate, Preview still requires a certain amount of guessing. 

Screenshot-image-compression-with-Preview

In addition, while Preview offers a batch compression option, it doesn’t work when you’re trying to compress different image types. Furthermore, this option requires you to apply the same compression level to every picture, lacking the ability to personalize the optimization level for each individual image.

Alternative to Preview to reduce image files

With Tinify, you don’t have to worry about spending unnecessary time picking the best compression levels. Our unmatched compression algorithm ensures each image is meticulously analyzed to determine the best optimization level. Unlike other tools such as Preview, which are powerful in their own right, Tinify takes a web-focused approach, making sure each image is the smallest size possible to load faster on webpages, increasing web speed and, consequently, SEO rankings and conversions.

Moreover, what sets Tinify apart is its ability to handle large volumes of images effortlessly.  The tools presented require manual adjustments to optimize images for online platforms, making them less efficient for batch compression tasks. Alternatively, with Tinify’s bulk compression feature, you can upload multiple images at once, saving you valuable time with just a few clicks.

TinyPNG vs. Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop is a comprehensive graphics editing software that offers a wide range of features. It is a professional-grade tool used by graphic designers, photographers, and artists for tasks such as photo editing and graphic design. As an image editing software, it also provides the ability to compress images.

Just like Canva, you have the flexibility to adjust the compression level for JPEGs to optimize image file sizes. However, when it comes to PNGs, the only option available is to select “smaller file (8-bit)” which reduces the number of colors and consequently decreases the file size. It’s worth noting though, that some users have reported that this option may not always work effectively for transparent backgrounds, so keep that in mind.

Screenshot-image-compression-with-Photoshop

Alternative to Photoshop to compress images in bulk

Photoshop also has a batch option available under “File > Scripts > Image Processor”. However, this feature requires you to choose a single compression level for all the images, which means it may not provide the maximum file size savings. So why waste time with manual adjustments when you can rely on TinyPNG’s user-friendly interface and efficient batch compression? Try Tinify today and see the difference it can make for your website’s performance!

“Image compression is something I need to pay attention to because designer portfolios always have a ton of images, and we have to juggle between resolution and size. I used the Preview app as well as Photoshop but the files were still really big. Someone recommended Tinify and I was like “This is what I needed the whole time”.

Raven Mo, Designer

Why Tinify is the best image compression tool

Key features of TinyPNG 

One of Tinify’s greatest strengths is its simplicity and user-friendly interface. With a few clicks, you can easily upload your images and let Tinify work its magic, allowing you to optimize images quickly and effortlessly.

  • Efficient compression: Tinify employs smart compression techniques to reduce file sizes while preserving image quality.
  • Ease of use: Tinify/TinyPNG’s website is straightforward, allowing users to simply upload their images and download the compressed versions without the need for complex configurations.
  • Web-focused optimization: The tool is specifically geared towards web developers and designers who want to enhance website performance by minimizing image file sizes.
Tinify's image compression website

You can easily compress and convert your images for free using Tinify’s web interface. It’s the ideal solution for new business owners who are building their websites from scratch or people who have a blog on the side. With Tinify, you can compress up to 20 images for free in one go, saving you time and effort.

“Tinify was exactly what I needed – simple and straightforward. Unlike other image optimization services that seemed dubious and complicated, Tinify’s drag-and-drop tool was a perfect fit. It helped compress our web images by over 70%, resulting in faster load times.”

Ahmed Saleh, Founder of Rupt

If you’re a bit more tech-savvy, you can also subscribe to Tinify’s free image compressor API and enjoy up to 500 free monthly compressions. This is especially useful for WordPress users, as Tinify integrates seamlessly with it. By downloading the TinyPNG WordPress Plugin, you can automate the image compression process during uploads. Unlike Tinify’s API, other tools like Photoshop, Canva, and Preview lack this direct integration, requiring manual exporting and optimization of images before uploading them to your website.

Conclusion

When it comes to image compression, Tinify/TinyPNG stands out as the top choice among Photoshop, Canva, and Preview. Tinify is the go-to tool for web developers and designers with its specialized compression algorithm, user-friendly interface, ability to compress images in bulk, and web-focused optimization. By choosing Tinify, you’ll not only streamline your workflow but also enhance the overall user experience on your website by reducing loading times and optimizing bandwidth.

How to resize images to make them smaller for a faster website: dimensions vs. file size

How to resize images? Isn’t it the same as compressing them? We’ve noticed that many of you have questions about reducing the size of your images. We understand that this is especially common among e-commerce users, like those using Shopify. E-commerce stores often have a maximum pixel limit for images, which can cause confusion when compressing images doesn’t solve error messages such as the “Exceeds 20 Megapixels” in Shopify. That’s why we’ve written this blog post to help clarify things for you.

When it comes to optimizing images for the web, there’s a fundamental difference between reducing file size and altering pixel dimensions. 

Let’s break it down for you. 

Reducing file size, which is what tools like Tinify focus on, means compressing images to save storage space (measured in MB, or megabytes). On the other hand, altering pixel dimensions means changing the actual number of pixels in an image (measured in MP). 

In simpler terms, Tinify reduces the file size of images in terms of storage (MB), not in terms of dimensions. It tackles the weight of the image file, not its size in pixels.

If you want your images to have a smaller size in terms of megapixels, you’ll need to resize them before using Tinify. By reducing both the pixel dimensions and the file size, you can significantly enhance the performance of your website.

Now, let’s dive into image resizing and how it can benefit your e-commerce business.

How to resize images: change dimensions

Image resizing refers to adjusting the dimensions of an image (MP), not its file size in terms of storage (MB). While resizing an image impacts its file size, the main objective is to consider the website’s design and enhance user experience. So, if your website doesn’t actually require large images, it’s best to avoid using them. For instance, the best Shopify product image size is 2048 x 2048 pixels. This means that your images don’t need to be larger than these dimensions.

Resize images

And what happens when you don’t resize your images?

You score low on web performance, particularly in the Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), one of the three Google Core Web Vitals metrics. LCP indicates the time it takes for the most significant element on a web page to fully appear. Usually, this element is an image and that’s why resizing large images is crucial. When images are excessively large, they require more data to be downloaded, resulting in slower page rendering. However, by resizing images appropriately, you can reduce the file size and optimize the delivery of visual content. This, in turn, leads to faster LCP and overall improved website performance. 

According to Google, the LCP should be below 2.5 seconds (within the green threshold). Screenshot of PageSpeed Insights for tinypng.com.

Benefits of dimension-based image resizing for e-commerce:

  • Reduced image file sizes translate to faster load times.
  • Smoother browsing experience for visitors.
  • Optimized images contribute to better search engine rankings.
  • Smaller image sizes potentially reduce storage costs.

Now that we’ve covered the benefits of dimension-based image resizing, let’s talk about how to resize your images.

How to resize images on your laptop

Most operating systems come with built-in image editing tools that can help you resize your images effortlessly. Whether you’re using Windows or macOS, you can use these tools to adjust the dimensions of your images. Here’s a simple guide for both:

For Windows users:

1. Open the image you want to resize using Paint, which is usually pre-installed on your computer.

2. Click on the “Resize” option under the “Home” tab.

3. Enter the desired dimensions or percentage for the image.

4. Save the resized image with a new name or overwrite the original image after making a backup copy.

For macOS users:

1. Open the image you want to resize using the Preview application, which comes pre-installed on your Mac.

2. Click on the “Tools” tab in the menu bar and select “Adjust Size.”

3. Enter the desired dimensions for the image.

4. Save the resized image with a new name or overwrite the original image after making a backup copy.

Remember to always keep a backup copy of the original image before making any changes. This way, you can revert to the original version if needed.

Now that you understand image resizing, let’s move on to image compression and how it can further optimize your resized images.

How to compress images: maximum size reduction 

Once you resize your images, you can further optimize them by using an image compression tool like Tinify. Image compression focuses on reducing the file size of your images (in terms of megabytes) by compressing the data, without altering the dimensions.

Different compression algorithms are used to achieve a reduction in file size while maintaining visual quality. For example, Tinify uses smart lossy compression techniques to reduce the file size of WebP, JPEG, and PNG files. By selectively decreasing the number of colors in the image, fewer bytes are required to store the data. The effect is invisible to the naked eye but it makes a big difference in file size.

Image compressor API: original images are heavier in size and slow down websites

Photo by Pascal Müller on Unsplash

Benefits of image compression for e-commerce:

  • Faster loading speeds for improved user experience.
  • Enhanced SEO through faster page loading times.
  • Mobile optimization for better performance on smartphones.
  • Bandwidth conservation, vital for areas with limited connectivity.
  • Cost efficiency by reducing storage and bandwidth needs.

Both original and compressed images have the same dimensions, but the compressed versions are lighter. For instance, the first picture (also shown below) was compressed almost 70% with no loss in quality. Screenshot of tinypng.com

How to compress images using Tinify: online and API

To optimize your resized images with Tinify, visit Tinify’s website or integrate Tinify’s API within your development environment:

  • If you prefer a user-friendly web interface, head to Tinify’s website. Drag and drop your images directly to compress them. 
  • For developers seeking a smooth integration, Tinify offers an image compressor API that can be directly incorporated into your development workflow.

In both instances, Tinify’s advanced compression algorithms will automatically analyze and compress your images while preserving their visual quality.

After using Tinify, replace the original images on your website with the resized and optimized versions. Smaller image file sizes contribute to faster loading speeds, improved user experience, and reduced bandwidth usage. Ultimately, this leads to higher visitor engagement and increased conversion rates.

How to make your images even smaller: convert to WebP

There are some nifty tricks and tips you can implement to make your images even smaller. One way is by using “next-gen” images, which are newer file types designed to render faster on the web. These include formats like WebP, AVIF, HEIF, and JPEG 2000. Among them, WebP has gained popularity due to its wider browser support.

WebP, developed by Google, is an innovative image format that offers the best of both worlds – superior image quality and smaller file sizes compared to JPEG or PNG formats.

Photo by Lukas W. on Unsplash

Advantages of Using WebP

  • Reduced file size: WebP images can be up to 34% smaller than equivalent JPEGs and 26% smaller than PNGs, without compromising image quality. This means faster page load times and a smoother browsing experience for your visitors.
  • Transparency support: WebP supports alpha channel transparency, making it an excellent alternative to PNG for graphics and logos with transparent backgrounds.
  • Browser compatibility: WebP is supported by major web browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge. For browsers that do not support WebP, such as Internet Explorer, fallback options can be implemented to ensure a seamless experience for all users.

How to convert to WebP

If you’re using Shopify, you’re in luck! Shopify automatically serves WebP images to supported browsers and falls back to the original formats for unsupported browsers. However, for websites that don’t support this feature, you’ll need to find a way to convert your existing images to the WebP format. 

Remember to always check if your CMS supports WebP – e.g. e-commerce Squarespace still can’t host WebP format. This can have an impact on your SEO rankings since Google is pushing for next-gen images as shown in PageSpeed. For example, some website owners have reported a significant dip in their website performance and SEO rankings just because they weren’t able to adopt WebP yet.

Luckily if your website supports WebP, you don’t need to get lost in a sea of online tools and libraries to convert your images. Tinify now offers a new feature that allows you to convert images using our web interface or automating the process through our API. With Tinify, you can convert WebP, JPEG, and PNG pictures hassle-free. One of the greatest benefits of using Tinify’s image converter is that it not only converts your images but also compresses them, resulting in the smallest possible file size.

Converting the same JPEG images to WebP resulted in even smaller file sizes without noticeable changes in image quality. Screenshot of tinypng.com

Conclusion

To clarify, Tinify focuses on reducing the file size of images in terms of storage (MB) rather than dimensions (pixels). If you want your images to have a smaller size in terms of megapixels, you can resize them before using Tinify. Resizing your images can further decrease the file size, benefiting your website.

To achieve the best results, follow this order: first, resize your image by reducing its pixels, then compressing it with Tinify. Lastly, consider converting it to WebP and finally upload it to your website.

Use an image compressor API for better and faster website load time

An Developer API is a quick solution to compress a lot of images on your website in no time. Instead of manually uploading all your photos within an online compression tool, an API can do it all at once. It saves you a lot of time and besides, compressed images make your page speed way faster. It has a positive influence on how long users will stay on your webpage. But what is an API and how can you compress images with it?

Tinify’s image converter: Effortlessly convert images online with new tool

👏 Introducing Tinify’s Beta image converter tool!

Did you know that the idea for Tinify started on a train? It was one of those light-bulb moments when a web developer was tasked with creating a heavy-image website that simply wouldn’t load on mobile data for him. By the time the website finally loaded, his commute was over – well, perhaps it wasn’t as bad, but you get the idea. So, this got his team thinking: How can we make images load faster? It was from this point that Tinify, also known as TinyPNG, was born.

That was 10 years ago. Now, things have changed. New kinds of image files make websites load faster. People are using a format called WebP, which is smaller than the old ones like JPEG and PNG. While compressing images is still one of the quickest and most efficient fixes for slow websites, choosing the best image format and opting for next-gen formats are becoming equally important. To keep up with this trend, we’re introducing a new feature: Tinify’s image converter online tool.

Why is Tinify the best image converter tool?

Converting images online isn’t new – a quick search on Google will lead you to dozens of websites that convert images in multiple formats to JPEG or even WebP. But Tinify gives you a two-in-one tool by letting you do more than just convert images; you can also make them smaller with no quality loss all in one go. 

With Tinify’s image converter tool, you can now drag-and-drop your images and convert them from and to WebP, PNG and JPEG. Free and Web Pro users can convert three images per session. In the near future, users looking for limitless conversions can sign-up for Web Ultra, a new tier that includes both unlimited image conversions and compressions. Plus, every converted image gets automatically compressed, ensuring your website loads faster with the smallest file sizes.

How to convert images online with Tinify

Tinify’s image converter helps you find the best image version for optimal performance. You can choose from all available formats (JPEG, PNG, and WebP) and select the one with the smallest file size.

Whether you need to convert a high-resolution image to JPEG or you want to jump on the WebP trend, all you have to do is slide the converter button to the right, select the image format output, and you’re good to go! The interface is as simple as possible so you don’t waste time in complex configurations:

How to pick the best image format – from JPEG and PNG to the trendy WebP

Keep in mind that each image format has a distinct impact on your image size and, consequently, your website’s performance.

Since PNGs are generally larger than JPEGs, use them only for web graphics, logos, charts, and illustrations, especially when transparent backgrounds are required. JPEGs work best for photographs, but these days users are embracing the WebP trend.

Replacing PNG and JPEG images with WebP can further reduce loading times. In fact, Google introduced WebP precisely to serve as a superior alternative to these traditional image formats. Tinify users have been using WebP increasingly, with a growth of over 80% compared to 2022. In the picture below, you can see that WebP performs better than other formats: 

Developers also have the option to convert and compress images using Tinify’s API developer subscription, with the first 500 compressions/conversions available for free. Soon, online users will be able to sign up for unlimited conversions. For more updates on Tinify’s latest features, follow us on Twitter or LinkedIn.

TL;DR

Web image formats have evolved, with WebP emerging as a smaller alternative to older formats like JPEG and PNG. Compressing images remains important, but choosing the right format is equally crucial for faster website performance. Tinify has unveiled a new feature – an online image converter tool that not only converts images but also compresses them seamlessly without quality loss. Try out our beta version on Tinify’s homepage.

Customer story: Learning platform LearnWorlds improved blog speed with Tinify’s API

“By having a lossless solution to optimize the images, we are usually reducing the image load of articles to under 1 MB, improving the speed and the Web Vitals”.

Nick Malekos, SEO Manager at LearnWorlds

LearnWorlds is an online learning platform and learning management system (LMS) that enables individuals, businesses, and organizations to create and deliver courses, training materials, and educational content to learners. It is designed to facilitate the creation of engaging and interactive online courses with various multimedia elements such as videos, quizzes, discussions, and assignments. 

Their website is filled with resources, templates, and articles to help users elevate their online courses. With this, one of their main concerns was to make sure that the number of images uploaded to illustrate their content did not translate into slow-loading pages. To overcome this challenge, their web development team recommended Tinify as a top solution for compressing images automatically on their blog. In this case study, we delve into LearnWorlds’ experience with Tinify’s service and the benefits they gained.

LearnWorlds' Website

Background

Before using Tinify, LearnWorlds employed various online free tools to optimize images on their blog, including converting them to WebP format or resizing them. According to Nick Malekos, SEO Manager at LearnWorlds, this was necessary when dealing with high-resolution images received from their design department:

Picture of Nick Malekos, SEO Manager at LearnWorlds

“In many cases, we are getting very high-resolution images from our design department to upload to the blog. This would mean articles with >3 MB of images if we were to use those.”

Nick Malekos, SEO Manager at LearnWorlds

Resizing images to fit the specific dimensions of a blog is one of the first steps to decrease their file size and cut on loading time. Next to this, adopting next-gen image formats such as WebP is a new way to make images smaller to speed up websites.

Unfortunately, free online solutions often resulted in quality issues and did not yield the desired performance improvements, says Nick. At the same time, optimizing images with no automation tools can become time-consuming, especially for a company like LearnWorlds that uploads several informative articles for their users.


LearnWorlds' website

LearnWorlds discovers Tinify

In their quest for an improved solution, the LearnWorlds’ web development team came across Tinify’s API Developer subscription as a way to automate image compression for their blog. Nick explains that this shift was a “big hands-off improvement” and adds:

“By having a lossless solution to optimize the images, we are usually reducing the image load of articles to under 1 MB, improving the speed and the Web Vitals”.

Nick Malekos, SEO Manager at LearnWorlds

Once they subscribed to Tinify’s API Developer plan, LearnWorlds automated the optimization of blog images, streamlining the process and enhancing web performance and Google Web Vitals, a set of metrics that measures the likelihood of a great user experience. 

From an internal perspective, this allowed their team to spend less time tweaking the file size of their images. Compared to the free image optimization tools they used previously, Tinify provided a significant improvement in image quality and overall performance. LearnWorlds found Tinify to be highly user-friendly. Their developers seamlessly integrated the service into their workflow, making it an effortless and efficient solution for optimizing images on their platform. Furthermore, with a monthly usage ranging from 500 to 1000 image compressions, Tinify’s service proved to be a cost-effective addition. 

Ultimately, as Nick mentioned, it improved their blog’s SEO by compressing images, reducing their size, and thereby contributing to faster loading speeds which helps LearnWorld rank higher on search engines.


Conclusion

LearnWorlds faced a challenge when dealing with high-resolution images received from their design department. Without proper optimization, these images would have led to articles with over 3 MB in image load. By utilizing Tinify’s lossless compression, LearnWorlds reduced the image load of articles to under 1 MB, significantly improving website speed and overall Web Vitals. The seamless integration and user-friendliness of Tinify’s API service made it the ideal choice for the LearnWorlds’ web development team in ways that free online tools couldn’t make it. 

Do you want to improve the load times of your company’s blog? Read more about Tinify’s API Developer here.

Tinify’s easy recipe for SEO basics and image compression

It’s probably safe to assume that any website owner reading this knows about SEO, which is about improving your website’s ranking on search engines to increase traffic. That should be doable, right? But on second thought, how exactly does that work?

In this blog post, we’ll help you with this by going through SEO basics. Think of your SEO as a three-course meal and the search engine as a fancy Michelin inspector: to get that star, you must excel equally on the three dishes. For your website, these are: on-page (content), off-page (authority), and technical. Let’s don that chef’s hat!

By the end of this post, you’ll know…

  • Exactly what to focus on to make your content more SEO-friendly.
  • Some actions you can take outside of your website to improve its popularity.
  • Basic technical improvements with little tech expertise – like compressing your images.
  • Further links on SEO if you want to learn more about this topic.

Time to prepare the food!

How to improve your on-page SEO?

On-page SEO is all about content. It includes tasks such as optimizing text, title and header tags, internal links, and URLs. 

  • URLs: When creating URLs, make sure to make them short, and include one or two keywords that represent your page best.
  • Title and header tags: The title and heading tags of your page (e.g. H1, H2, and H3 tags) should also include keywords. By following these tips, you can improve the chances of your content appearing in featured snippets on Google.
  • In addition, sub-sections bring structure and help users and search bots to easily read your content. Backlinko suggests website owners write question-based tags. After conducting a study with over 5 million Google search results, they found that question-based title tags have an above-average click-through-rate (so, more visitors).
  • Internal links: This refers to linking to pages within your own website. Make sure to incorporate relevant links so visitors can explore other pages.
  • Meta description: This is the description that shows up in search results below the page title. Make it brief, engaging, and informative. Semrush recommends keeping it under 120 characters, so mobile and desktop users can skim through the full summary of the page.
On-page SEO basics: A short meta description.

Lastly, quality text! After all, this is the backbone of your website. For pages that you’d like to optimize for SEO purposes, the recommended length is 1500 words. Besides, remember to include your keyword in the first 100 words of your first paragraph. 

Of course, not all pages need to be visible in search engines, so these tips apply to formats such as blog posts and product landing pages. If you’re a WordPress user, you can find free plugins (we use RankMath) that guide you through all these steps.

For ideas on what to write, conduct keyword research. Mailchimp compiled a basic guide on how to do this, but overall, track your analytics to understand what words visitors use to find you. Tools like Google Search Console can give you a good overview of keywords that are performing well on your website. 

In addition, if you’re new to SEO, you can target long-tail keywords – i.e. searches with three or more words – which are usually more specific but have lower competition. For instance, an example of a short tail would be “hotel”, and a long one “Amsterdam hotel twin room”. When looking at keywords, try to find what is the intent of your users behind those words. It’s all about getting into their shoes and figuring out what they are looking for.

How to improve your off-page SEO?

Off-page optimization is about all the actions taken outside of your website to improve its search engine rankings. This includes social media activity, directory listings and most important, backlinks. The latter refers to a link from one website to another one. When this happens, it’s like giving that website a vote of confidence, telling search engines that the content on the linked website is relevant and valuable.

All in all, the cornerstone of off-page SEO is authority building. Ahrefs refers to it as the “strength” of a particular domain to rank high in search engines. 

It is worth noting that SEO experts can’t reach an agreement on how important this is for SEO. While some point it out as playing a big role, others say that there is no proof that search engines like Google evaluate authority. Search bots are like black boxes, which means no one can ever say for certain how they work. Nonetheless, website popularity is a good indicator of how well your website is performing. Bluehost put it this way: a website referring back to yours is like word-of-mouth marketing.

If you want to check how your domain rates in authority, you can use MOZ’s domain authority checker, which tells you how likely your website is to appear in search engine result pages. In addition, Semrush also provides a backlink analytics tool, which also gives you an authority score.

Off-page SEO basics: Check how your domain authority.

Once you analyze your score, you can start by:

  • Building high-quality backlinks: Focus on building high-quality backlinks from reputable websites relevant to your industry or niche. You can use techniques like writing guest posts, asking websites that mention your brand to link to your website, as well as finding broken links related to your content and suggesting your website as a replacement. This will help you rank your website higher.
  • Focusing on social media: Social media platforms can be a great way to build brand awareness, increase engagement, and drive traffic to your website. Make sure to optimize your social media profiles and share high-quality content regularly.
  • Improving online reputation: Your online reputation can affect your SEO rankings. Encourage happy customers to leave positive reviews and address negative feedback right away.
  • Optimizing local SEO: If your business has a physical location, optimizing your website for local SEO can help improve your rankings in local search results. Claim your business on Google My Business, and make sure your NAP (name, address, phone number) is consistent across all directories.

How to improve your technical SEO?

The third and last thing to improve is your website’s technical SEO, which involves optimizing technical aspects to help search engines crawl, index, and rank it more effectively. In other words, the idea behind this is to make it easier for search bots to find your web pages, understand what they are about, and finally return the page that matches what users are searching for. 

One key element of technical SEO is website speed. A good rule of thumb is to make sure your website doesn’t take longer than 3 seconds to load as 40% of users will quit it. You can use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to identify areas of improvement and optimize your website for faster loading. In this stage, you might find that your images are too heavy – this is one of the top reasons for a slow website. Fortunately, you can quickly fix this!

Firstly, you can check how much loading time you can save by compressing your images through Tinify’s Web Page Image Analyzer. Some experts recommend that your images shouldn’t be more than 1MB, but Shopify advises users to keep image files under 70KB. 

Technical SEO basics: Check your website speed.

To achieve this, you can compress your images on Tinify’s website, or use our Developer API. Our lossy compression algorithm is designed to automatically deliver the best optimization results without compromising image quality (this means that the changes are imperceptible to the human eye). Compressed images take up less space and require less bandwidth to load. This will significantly help improve your website’s loading speed, and in turn, increase your website’s ranking on search engines. 

Besides this, here are other tips you can implement that don’t require extra technical expertise:

  • Create an SEO-friendly site structure: Make sure your website has a clear and organized structure, with easy-to-use navigation and URLs that are simple to read and understand. All pages should be easy to find in a matter of a few clicks – this will also help search bots understand your content.
  • Create a Google Search account and submit your sitemap: Submitting your sitemap is like giving Google a map of all the pages on your website. This helps Google find and show your pages in search results faster and more accurately. It also helps you see how your website is doing in search results and any problems to fix. For a more detailed explanation, read Semrush’s article on this.
  • Make your website mobile-friendly: Mobile devices now account for the majority of internet traffic, so it’s crucial to have a mobile-friendly website. Use responsive design or dynamic serving to ensure your website is optimized for mobile devices. Most website templates – e.g. WordPress, Squarespace – are already prepared for this. Nonetheless, evaluate your website’s mobile version with Google PageSpeed Insights in case improvements are needed. 
  • Fix technical errors: Identify and fix technical errors like broken links, 404 pages, and duplicate content. Use tools like Google Search Console to monitor your website and identify errors.

And that’s it – you can now take your apron off… Well, not quite! Remember that SEO is a long-term strategy, which means that you won’t be able to see any results immediately. According to a survey conducted by Arhfes, it typically takes between 3 to 6 months to see any improvements, while Marketing Lab suggests up to one year, especially for new websites as they have less content and backlinks than older ones. It’s a slow-burning process, but eventually, you’ll see an increase in website traffic. Lastly, you need to consistently go back to these steps so you keep ranking higher. 


TL;DR:

SEO basics can be divided into three:

On-page SEO (content):
  • Optimize URLs, titles, and headers with relevant keywords.
  • Use internal links to relevant pages.
  • Write a concise and informative meta description.
  • Create quality content that’s at least 1500 words long and includes keywords.
  • Conduct keyword research to understand what words visitors use to find you.
  • Use tools like Google Search Console and RankMath to guide you.
Off-page SEO (website authority):
  • Building high-quality backlinks from reputable websites relevant to your industry is crucial for ranking higher.
  • Social media can help build brand awareness, increase engagement, and drive traffic to your website.
  • Online reputation affects SEO rankings, so encourage positive reviews and address negative feedback.
  • Optimizing your website for local SEO can improve your rankings in local search results.
  • Tools like Moz and Semrush can help you analyze your website’s authority score.
Technical SEO:
  • Make sure your website loads within 3 seconds and compress heavy images to reduce loading time.
  • Create an SEO-friendly site structure with clear navigation and simple URLs.
  • Submit your sitemap to Google Search for faster and more accurate indexing.
  • Make your website mobile-friendly with a responsive design or dynamic serving.
  • Fix technical errors such as broken links, 404 pages, and duplicate content.

Finally, remember that it might take up to a year to see any results but a consistent effort to improve your website’s SEO will eventually lead to more traffic.

Looking for an image size reducer? Learn 5 techniques to better optimize large images beyond compression

“Make PNG smaller”, “how to compress JPEG to 50KB”, and “image size reducer” are a few of the things users type to find a way to compress large images into small ones. However, there is more that users can do than compress their images. While this is key – after all, that’s what Tinify is about! – there are other ways to make sure your images are the smallest size possible.

Large images can slow down your website, which may lead to a negative user experience and even lower search engine rankings. While this may sound obvious, it is common for new bloggers and inexperienced website users to overlook this. The excitement of seeing our little corner of the internet come to life can make us blind to more technical points – like whether our website is taking two seconds more to load than what is recommended. 

So, if your website visitors are first presented with a loading symbol before accessing your content, keep on reading!

Let’s go over some tips and techniques for optimizing large image files to ensure that your website stays fast – including using an image size reducer:

  1. Use the right image format
  2. Use the right image dimensions
  3. Compress your images with Tinify’s image size reducer tool
  4. Convert your images to WebP
  5. Use lazy loading and image caching

“Panda promise” that this will work!

Use the right image format

The first step in optimizing large image files is to choose the right image format. The reason for this is that image formats make a big difference in terms of file size. For example, PNGs end up being larger in size than JPEGs. That’s why JPEG, the most common image format, is the best choice for photographs, while PNG should be used for web graphics, logos, charts, and illustrations, particularly because it handles transparent backgrounds.

Knowing these differences will help you save your images in the right format, which will ensure your website isn’t populated with image formats that are larger than necessary.

Use the right image dimensions: resize and crop images

Another factor that can affect the size of an image file is its dimensions. It’s usual for new website owners to overlook the size of their images, but with this, they might end up uploading too many large images.

Since most websites only display images at a specific size, find out the recommended sizes and resize your images according to them. For example, if you want to upload a header image to WordPress, your image doesn’t need to be larger than 1048×250 pixels. In the end, resizing decreases the file size even further, which will make your website load faster. 

You can resize and crop your images with built-in software on your computer. For Windows users, you can check this link for instructions on how to resize images using Paint. For macOS users, you can use Preview – learn how to here.

If you’re a technical user, you can sign-up for Tinify’s Developer API, which gives you the chance to resize your images within your code, as well as smart cropping options.

Use an image size reducer: Compress your images with Tinify

Another effective way to optimize large image files is to compress them. Image size reducer tools compress the file size of an image by removing unnecessary data and reducing the number of colors. Compression tools are quite effective at reducing the size of large images without any noticeable loss in quality.

According to the e-commerce platform Shopify, a good rule of thumb is to keep your image file size below 70KB. This can be difficult to achieve with large images, and that is why they recommend using image size reducer tools, like Tinify.

You can use Tinify as your go-to image size reducer tool.

While some compression tools give you the chance to choose the level of compression, Tinify’s algorithm is designed to optimize images to their fullest extent at the click of a button. So, when you upload an image to Tinify, we will analyze each image, and based on this, the best optimization level will automatically be determined. There’s so much website owners have to worry about that it’s important for us that they can save time in the process of optimizing their pictures.

If you have a website, you can use Tinify’s analyzer to discover how much loading time you’ll save by compressing your images.

To compress them, you can drop them directly to Tinify’s homepage and upload the compressed image back to your website. Free users have a limit of 5MB per image, but if you find yourself stuck with larger images, you can take advantage of our Web Pro subscription. For WordPress users and developers, there’s an easier way to compress images. All you have to do is to create a Tinify API account, and all your images will automatically be optimized for free up to 500 compressions. 

Convert your images to WebP

Okay, perhaps now your website loads faster than ever – no loading symbol to exhaust your visitors! However, when you add your website to Google’s web analyzer, you realize that more can be done to optimize your images… Like converting them to next-gen image formats. Unlike JPEG and PNG, next-gen image formats were created for web use, which means they’re smaller in size to load faster. 

One example of this is WebP, created by Google. It is similar to JPEG and PNG, but it can produce smaller image file sizes while maintaining the same quality. In this way, you can replace your PNG and JPEG images with WebP to cut even more on loading time. The downside is that this image format only works in modern browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Opera, etc), so you need to have a fallback option for Internet Explorer and older browsers. 

You can convert your images to WebP online or with Photoshop, and compress them after with Tinify. If you’re a technical user, you can take a look at Tinify’s API to automatically convert your PNG, JPEG, and WebP images. We hope to make this feature available to browser users later this year.

Use lazy loading and image caching

Once you’ve optimized your images, you can also implement a few things on your website to make them load in the best possible way. 

One trick is to implement lazy loading, a technique that delays the loading of images until they are needed. In other words, you can use lazy loading to defer the loading of images until the user scrolls down to the part of the page where they’re displayed. This can improve the initial loading time of the page and reduce the amount of data that needs to be transferred over the network. 

To implement lazy loading, you can use a lazy loading plugin or JavaScript libraries, such as LazyLoad, Lozad.js, and unveil.js. You can also use HTML attributes: the loading attribute can be used to specify the loading behavior of images. The attribute can be set to lazy which will only load the image when it comes into view. This is a native browser feature and is supported by most modern browsers. All in all, these tools allow you to specify which images should be lazy-loaded and when they should be loaded.

Lastly, another technique you can implement is image caching. It’s a technique that involves storing copies of images in a cache which stores the image temporarily in a proxy server or a browser cache. Image caching can be useful for reducing the amount of data that needs to be transferred over the network. It can also help to reduce the load on servers, as it reduces the number of requests that need to be handled. 

For example, a web browser will typically cache images that are downloaded as part of a webpage, so that they don’t need to be re-downloaded each time the user visits the page – this is one of the reasons why cookies exist. You can use a caching plugin for this, or a CDN (Content Delivery Network) so your images are served to users from a server that is geographically closer to them.

If you’re curious about this, Tinify’s CDN might be for you! Tinify’s CDN caches optimized versions of images, which makes it an “all in one” tool for reducing, compressing and caching your images.

TL;DR

If you’re stuck with large images that slow down your website, remember that using only an image size reducer might not be enough to solve this issue. Here are 5 ways to reduce and optimize large image files:

  • Use the right image format: JPEG for photographs and PNG for web graphics, logos, charts, and illustrations.
  • Use the right image dimensions: resize and crop images to the appropriate size by checking the appropriate dimensions for your website.
  • Compress your images with Tinify: Large images can be compressed by a lot with our image size reducer tool without any noticeable loss in quality.
  • Convert your images to WebP, a modern image format that can provide smaller file sizes than JPEG or PNG.
  • Use lazy loading to only load images when they are needed, and image caching to store images so they are served faster to your users.

Take advantage of next-gen images to make your website faster in 2023

One of the most read posts in Tinify’s blog is about WebP, a next-gen image format that offers better compression for a faster website. WebP – together with HEIF, AVIF, and JPEG 2000 – is slowly replacing the usual JPEG and PNG image formats. But while they aren’t new, only now more and more users are jumping on the bandwagon and serving images in next-gen formats. If you’re behind on this, don’t worry – the beginning of this new year is perfect timing to take your visuals to the next level.

In this blog post, we talk about:

  1. What are next-gen images and examples;
  2. Which next-gen image format is the best for your website;
  3. What are the advantages of using next-gen images;
  4. How to convert your images to next-gen formats using Tinify.

Ready? Let’s dive in!

What are next-gen images?

Next-gen (short for next generation) images are newer file types that were designed to render faster on the web. Unlike traditional image formats such as JPEG and PNG, they offer better compression, meaning that they can be smaller in file size while still maintaining high quality. 

These new formats include WebP, AVIF (AV1 Image File Format), HEIF (High-Efficiency Image File Format), and JPEG 2000 (JP2). Here is a summary of the key differences between these formats:

  • Compression algorithm: JPEG 2000 uses a wavelet-based compression algorithm, while WebP uses the VP8 and VP9 video coding formats, HEIF uses the HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding) standard, and AVIF uses the AV1 video coding format. Wavelet-based compression can offer better compression ratios and image quality than the block-based compression algorithms used by VP8, VP9, and AV1, but it can also be more computationally intensive to decode.
  • File size and compression ratio: AVIF has the potential to achieve the best compression ratios and smallest file sizes of these formats due to its use of the AV1 codec. HEIF may also have an advantage in terms of compression ratio and file size due to its use of the HEVC codec. JPEG 2000 and WebP may have slightly larger file sizes, but can still offer good compression and image quality.
  • Features: All of these formats support lossless and lossy compression, as well as transparency. WebP also supports animation and color profiles, while HEIF supports 16-bit color depth and the ability to store multiple images in a single file. AVIF and JPEG 2000 do not currently support animation or color profiles.

Which next-gen image format is the best for your website?

In terms of compression ratio and file size, AVIF probably yields the best results. JPEG 2000 might also offer good compression ratios, but its wavelet-based compression algorithm can be more computationally intensive to decode, which may affect its performance in some applications.

In terms of browser support, WebP is currently the most widely supported of these formats. It is supported by all modern browsers, including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, and Apple Safari. AVIF and HEIF are also supported by many modern browsers, although their support is not as widespread as WebP. JPEG 2000 is less widely supported than the other formats, with limited support in some modern browsers.

Overall, all these formats offer good compression and image quality, but WebP has become the go-to next-gen image format due to its wider browser support. According to Google, WebP can reduce file sizes by up to a third compared to JPEG and PNG images. The only catch is that it is not supported by older browsers, such as Internet Explorer. However, a way around this is to have JPEG or PNG as a fallback and serve these instead in older browsers.  

What are the advantages of using next-gen images?

There are a few different ways in which using next-gen image formats can help you optimize your website. One is that they can help reduce the file size of your images, which can speed up your website’s load time. Another way is that they can improve the quality of your images, making them look better and more professional.

Moreover, next-gen images can also help you save money on bandwidth costs. This is because they are typically more efficient than traditional image formats, meaning that they use less data to achieve the same quality level. This means that you won’t have to pay as much for bandwidth when using next-gen image formats.

In a nutshell, these are the major benefits:

  • Smaller file sizes: Next-generation image formats are typically more efficient at compressing images, which can result in smaller file sizes. This can be especially beneficial for websites that need to load quickly.
  • Improved image quality: Some next-generation image formats offer improved image quality, especially at smaller file sizes. This can be useful for images that need to be displayed at a high resolution or with a lot of detail.
  • Enhanced features: Some next-gen images offer enhanced features that are not available with traditional image formats. For example, some next-generation image formats support transparency or animation, which can be useful for certain types of images.
  • Better performance: Next-gen images can often be decoded and displayed more quickly than traditional image formats, which can improve the overall performance of a website.
  • Reduced bandwidth usage: Using smaller file sizes can help to reduce the amount of bandwidth required to transfer images, which can be beneficial for websites with a large number of visitors or a global audience.

If you are still in two minds on whether you need to convert your JPEG and PNG images on your website, remember that even a one-second difference in loading time can have a big impact. According to Website Builder Expert:

  • A 1-second delay reduces customer satisfaction by 16%.
  • 40% of users wait no more than 3 seconds before abandoning a website.

Besides this, using next-gen images can help you boost your SEO. One of the biggest recommendations of the web analyzer Google PageSpeed Insights is to switch to next-gen image formats, such as WebP. So, if you want to rank higher on Google’s search engine, converting your website images to next-gen formats is worthwhile.

How to convert your images to next-gen formats

Since we launched the new image converter feature for Tinify API users, WebP has been the most converted image type – around 80%. If you’re an API user looking to improve your website speed, this new feature allows you to do that in just one step, simply by making a “convert request” in your code. The Tinify algorithm will automatically convert and compress your images. This assures that you have the smallest version possible of your image without losing quality. API users can find all the information needed to start converting their JPEG, PNG, and WebP images here

Next-gen images: JPEG vs. WebP example
Can you spot the difference?

For non-developer users – such as WordPress users – you’ll need to use a WebP image converter tool and manually upload your pictures into Tinify’s online tool to maximize the level of compression. After it, you must upload them manually to your website. In the future, along with image compression, we’ll also offer the image converter feature to Web Pro users. Keep an eye out for this on Twitter or LinkedIn!

TL;DR:

  • Next-gen images are designed to be faster on the web and offer better compression, allowing for smaller file sizes while maintaining high quality;
  • Examples of next-gen image formats include WebP, AVIF, HEIF, and JPEG 2000;
  • WebP is the most widely supported of these formats, but fallback options are necessary for older browsers;
  • Next-gen formats will improve your website speed and SEO, according to Google;
  • API users can convert PNG and JPEG images to WebP with the new image converter feature. 

Image compression plugin: Better images with Tinify WordPress Plugin

A simple way to increase the loading time of your website is to compress the images. If you have a WordPress website, Tinify’s image compression plugin might be very helpful. This plugin can automatically compress all your images by integrating with the popular image compression services from Tinify. You can choose between the different compression options, just how you like it!

WebP images: why should you use them to improve your website?

WebP is an image file format created by Google that is meant for web use. It enables small file sizes while preserving quality. There is barely a contrast between your original picture and the WebP image and there can be minimal quality loss or no loss. By using your files in WebP format on your website you save a lot of data storage which ensures that your website loads faster.