Author: Maneet Puri

One of the most crucial factors that influences user experience on a website is how much time it takes to load fully. Gone are the days when people were ready to wait for a website to load so that they can have a look. In the present age, visitor attention span time has reduced drastically. All it takes is 5 seconds for them to make a decision and leave the website altogether.

It is extremely important to lighten the size of your web pages and makes sure your website loads fast enough so as to retain your audience and make them stay.

The images on your website add on to the load time of the websites. This is because they considerably increase the size of your web pages, especially so if you fail to optimize them appropriately. However, optimizing your website will make sure that your website loads fast. Out of the many ways you can seek to optimize your website images, one of the methods that ensures to speed up the website load time is making the images smaller in size. Here are some ways to do the same:

Check the Image Format

The image format plays a determining role in its size and further its downloading speed on the web. There are two popular image formats for the web, each one having a specific purpose.

• JPEG - This format is for images and graphics that have millions of shades and colors and look more like a real-life photograph. Ideally, the .jpeg format is used photographs that depict real-life images and include a lot of colors. Because .jpeg formats are pretty lossy, it is not advisable to edit and save the same file again and again as it leads to loss of image quality.

• GIF - This format is suitable for images that have lesser number of colors. Most of the images on the web have the .gif format. This is because these images use an index of colors for the image and thus colors that are not in the image need not be included in the index. The .gif format works best for images that contain flat colors.

Check the Number of Colors in GIF

If you save a three color file as a 256-color indexed GIF, it will obviously bloat up the image size. When you save your file in the .gif format, make sure you first convert the image to web colors. This way you can make sure that colors don't dither on the web. After this, convert the image to the least number of colors that can be used while still looking correct.

Crop the Images

If you want to use a photo on the web for your website, make sure you only use parts that are relevant. Cropping refers to the procedure of removing the outer parts of an image in order to minimize the file size. There are many images that contain irrelevant portions on them. If these areas are near the outer borders of the image, you can easily crop them off. Cropping not only reduces the dimensions of the image but also lowers down the download size. Moreover, it helps clarify and enhance the important parts of the image.

By sizing down your website images, you can actually lighten your web pages and hence speed up the download time of your website.

About the Author:
Maneet Puri is managing director of LeXolution IT Services, a reputed website development company based in India. With over 10 years of experience in the web design services industry, he leads his team of custom web site designers to create powerful web solutions for his clients. "