6 Best Shopify Image Optimization Tools for Better SEO & Speed

Your Shopify store is optimized, yet you’ve noticed it takes a lot longer to load. A potential buyer is not going to wait for your site to load. They will simply move on to other sites.

Google also prioritizes fast responses. If your store doesn’t meet the mark, it simply won’t show up where it matters.

One of the biggest problems behind slow load times is unoptimized images. They drag down the store’s performance and increase bounce rates, which impact rankings.

Image compression is an easy and effective solution. In this article, we will brief you on all the ways you can optimize your Shopify store’s images. Let’s discover the best 6 tools and strategies to optimize your site’s images and keep it loading fast.

How to Compress Shopify Images Easily? 

Page speed plays a massive role in e-commerce success.

Hence, image conversion and optimization should be a significant part of your strategy. Here are some ways you can easily compress your Shopify images without sacrificing quality.

Using Third-Party Apps for Compression Before Uploading

You can optimize your original images before uploading them. By compressing, you will create a smaller version of the same image. It can create a substantial impact on your site. 

For Yahoo, the traffic increased 9 percent with just a 0.4-second decrease in load time. Imagine what it can do for your site.

Here are five powerful tools you can use for image compression:

1. TinyPNG

Are you struggling to keep your store’s images high quality while reducing their size? This free web-based tool effectively compresses JPEG and PNG images. It is able to reduce file sizes without noticeable quality loss. It’s user-friendly and ideal for optimizing images before uploading them to your website.

2. Kraken.io

Do you upload GIFs along with product images? Then this optimizer is for you. It allows for lossy (some data lost) and lossless (no data lost) compression for JPEG, PNG, and animated GIF files. You can even use its resizing capabilities for bulk images. 

3. ImageOptim

Are you afraid of big data and worried about uploading sensitive images for compression? With this solution, you can optimize them right on your computer without any risks.

This is a desktop application. It removes any unnecessary metadata without requiring you to upload or download any sensitive data. If you prefer offline optimization, then this app is for you.

4. ShortPixel

Finding it difficult to optimize WebP images for your storefront? This is a unique one that supports WebP format image configuration. With this site, you can compress over 100 images for free. You also have lossy and lossless compression settings. So you can choose the quality of your images.

5. Optimizilla

If you are on the hunt for a free online image optimizer, then this right here is the solution for you. However, you don’t have the option to choose or describe the end result you want. It optimizes your images using a combination of lossy and lossless compression techniques. Thus, you end up with reduced image file sizes while maintaining the necessary quality for web use.

Using Shopify App to Compress Images Directly

Tired of manually compressing images for your store? If you don’t want to explore sites for your online store, then we have a simpler solution for you. 

SEOAnt is a good Shopify app can help you automatically compress images, so you can forget about this duty. It is a built-in app solution for Shopify that can be integrated into your store. Its job is to not only optimize images, but it will also enhance the entire website’s performance. 

Here are some simple steps you can follow to use the SEOAnt.

Step 1: Install the app from the Shopify app store. Follow the installation instructions and grant the necessary permissions

Step 2: Then open the app from your Shopify dashboard and click on the ‘Speed Optimization’ menu. Go to “Optimize images“. Activate the Auto Image Optimization setting. All future images uploaded to your Shopify store will get compressed automatically. Now this is an optional step but enhances your ease. 

Step 3: You can also optimize previously uploaded images by clicking “Upload image to optimize” and then clicking on “optimize now.”

A cosmetic store, SonoContour, saw a 56 percent increase in organic growth after SEOAnt integration. You can achieve the same results and even more if you like. 

How to Optimize Images for Better SEO?

Did you know that unoptimized product images make up 38 percent of webpage weight on mobile devices? This weight is the difference between fast and slow-loading pages. And even a 1 sec decrease can cause losses of 1.6 billion to corporations.

If you want your store’s images to appear quickly, then you need image SEO. 

1. Adjusting Image Size

Generally, the original images are too large. This can hinder your website’s performance. The easy solution is to compress the images and limit the size to under 100 kb. You can use any of the sites mentioned above to compress images for your store. 

Are you holding back on image compression because you’re afraid of ending up with blurry, pixelated visuals? However, the case is almost the opposite. You can retain the original image quality simply by saving it in WebP format. 

2. Choosing the Right Image Format

While size matters a lot, the format is also just as important. Different formats affect load speed differently. You have to be mindful while choosing a format to ensure optimum quality and speed. The JPEG and JPG are ideal for photographs. Whereas PNG is best for images that require transparency. 

Both have restrictions when it comes to file sizes. 

On the other hand, WebP is the ideal format for Shopify. It provides superior compression without sacrificing quality. 

3. Optimizing Alt Text

Alt text serves as a text-based description of your images. It allows the search engine to understand the content of the images. While crafting alt tags, make sure they describe the content of the image. Secondly, try to incorporate relevant keywords in the text to improve SEO.

For example, instead of “IMG1234,” use “red leather handbag front view.” 

4. Optimizing Image Names

You know that Google indexes your images by their file name. Hence, Google Image SEO best practices indicate you should be saving your images thoughtfully. The image name should contain the relevant keyword. Instead of mindlessly clicking on save, type in a relevant word for the image.

For example, you can choose to write ‘bluedenimjeans.shopify’ instead of some random number. 

5. Using Adaptive Images

There are way too many types of devices out there that your consumer can use. There is no way to estimate the size of the screen that will be accessing your site. Hence, it is important that you ensure your image quality remains consistent regardless of the screen. 

The current Shopify built-in mechanism ensures that all images load correctly across mobile devices, tablets, and desktops. However, it is upon you to upload a non-pixelated and good-quality image with a small file size. 

6. Enabling Image Preloading

Image preloading will allow your site images to load instantly when someone clicks on a page. In order to enable this, you need to modify your HTML code a bit. Simply add <link rel=”preload” as=”image” href=”image-url.jpg”> to the code. 

By using this trick, your images will display on the customer’s screen instantly. Thus allowing your customer to be immersed in the product through text and visuals.

For Shopify store owners who are not tech-savvy, there is an even simpler solution: just enable the “Instant Page” switch in SEOAnt, and the tool will automatically handle all page loading issues for you.

7. Monitoring Image Performance Regularly

It is essential to monitor all aspects of your business carefully. Regular updates and optimization are necessary for optimum functionality. You can use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights and Shopify’s built-in speed reports. These features will allow you to track image performance so you can modify it based on real-time data. 

This ongoing website optimization is the only way to stay ahead of the competition in this fast-paced world. 

8. Using Lazy Load Technology

Lazy loading is the newest feature that defers image loading until your user scrolls to them. Essentially the purpose is to reduce load time through bandwidth savings. When you implement lazy loading for your store, the images only load when they enter the viewport. This way you can reduce unnecessary data transfer to images not being viewed. 

Even though Shopify themes support lazy loading by default. You can enhance it by installing the SEOAnt app from the Shopify app store. This is particularly helpful if you have too many images on one page. 

9. Using Shopify CDN to Speed Up Image Load Times

Shopify has a built-in Content Delivery Network (CDN). It is a power tool that enables your store’s images to load quickly regardless of your customer’s location. It works by distributing image files across multiple global servers. When a customer visits your store, they receive the images from a server closest to them. 

The CDN is also designed to optimize and cache images for faster delivery. The entire system is designed to reduce load times and prevent any slowdowns during high-traffic periods. Beyond speed, this is particularly helpful in enhancing reliability. If any one server is experiencing issues, any other server can chime in to deliver images. 

To ensure your store uses Shopify’s CDN, navigate to the content section in the admin panel. Then select files and upload your desired images. Images should have URLs starting with cdn.shopify.com or a similar structure, indicating they’re served from Shopify’s CDN

What’s Next?

Image optimization is crucial for improving your Shopify store’s performance, SEO, and customer experience. Every step, from selecting the proper image format and tweaking sizes to employing advanced technologies like SEOAnt and Shopify’s CDN, improves the speed and visibility of your website.

Implementing these tactics ensures that your product photos load quickly while maintaining quality. s allowing you to outperform competitors and attract more customers.

If you feel lost in the world of optimization, then consider using Channelwill’s comprehensive suite of e-commerce tools.

As a reputable Shopify expert, Channelwill provides products such as SEOAnt for improving your store’s SEO, Trustoo for collecting and showing client reviews, and ParcelPanel for enhanced order tracking. These connected solutions not only increase retail productivity but also enhance the consumer experience, resulting in improved conversion rates and brand loyalty.