PAGE 1 – What happens when you upload an image to your WordPress website

PAGE 2 – What the default WordPress Media Library Settings mean to low performance

PAGE 3 – How to change the WordPress Media Library Settings for faster performance

PAGE 4 – Results of change and how the EWWW Image Optimizer recognizes it

When you upload a picture into the WordPress Media Library on your website, by default WordPress will save up to 4 different sizes of the same image. This means that though you uploaded only 1 image, WordPress is saving 4 images all at different sizes.

WHY IMAGE OPTIMIZATION IS IMPORTANT

When doing the Google PageSpeed Insights the one common culprit to slower website speed are the images saved and used on your website. If you are using a plugin like the EWWW Image Optimizer you will notice that after you optimize an image it will say how many sizes were compressed, see image below.

These sizes indicate how many images WordPress has saved in your Media Library. So when you optimize an image you are actually optimizing all 4 images. What are these 4 images and why are they created by default in WordPress?

In the top image above it said that 4 sizes compressed, reduced by 6.2%, for a total size of 9.4 KB saved. But what does that really mean? In the above image you can see the 4 image sizes that were compressed, and when you add their final savings, 5.6 KB + 2.6 KB + 731 B + 402 B, you get 9.4 KB.

Now fortunately before I upload images to my Media Library, I always reduce the size in Microsoft Paint. For this particular image it was already down to a memory size of 74.4 KB before EWWW optimized it by 7%. But there are 3 other image sizes WordPress has saved that were also optimized.

Nowhere on my website do I use these other sized images, so these 3 duplicate images of different sizes are taking up space in my Media Library and contributing to a less efficient overall website performance. How can this be easily resolved, especially if I have no intentions of using the other sizes of the image I uploaded? Read on.

NEXT UP = Why the default WordPress Media Library Settings contribute to slower website performance



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RD40 Premium
Great training Robert. I have already made the changes to my media settings. Perhaps this will solve an issue I've been having with double urls showing up in the Serps. When people click on this double url link, it brings them to my site with a post of a picture, but no content. So i've been doing 301 redirects to bring them to the original content when they click on it. Are you familiar with this issue Robert?
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boomergp08 Premium
Thank you. I am happy you liked my training tutorial.

That is an interesting problem you are having. Once you get that image fixed, let me know if having only one sized image instead of duplicates, makes a difference. I would like to know.

You will however probably have to do another fetch as Google of that particular post and wait a couple of days to see if the change in the image has fixed the problem or not.
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RD40 Premium
Thanks Robert. I will make the change and monitor it over the next few days. I will definitely let you know when I can. Thanks again!

Ralph
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boomergp08 Premium
You are welcome Ralph
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Judy-B Premium
I changed the settings in the Media Settings. I have the EWWW plugin installed a while back. So I still have to delete and reload images I already have?

Also do the images added in the new Content feature take care of size automatically or do they need to be fixed too.

Thank you for this training, Robert. Wish I would have known this before I had so many images. :)
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boomergp08 Premium
You are welcome Judy.

As for images already uploaded there are no up to date plugins I know of that will cleanup the unwanted image sizes in your media library.

So going back and deleting then uploading the image again will fix the issue, but could take some time depending on how many images you have.

For me this is a process I will take my time with because it is not something that needs to get done right away. This is more of a cleanup that can happen over the course of time.

As for all future images you upload, just upload images that are pre-optimized to a size close to how you will use it in your website.

Then if you have the EWWW Image Optimizer installed, or another similar plugin, the image you upload will be further optimized automatically before being saved in the media library.

Did I answer your questions enough?
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Judy-B Premium
Yes, you did. Sounds good to me. Thank you for taking the time. Guess I will do the same and delete and upload as time allows. :)
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boomergp08 Premium
You are welcome.
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teddae Premium
What plugin do you recommend for Option#1? I have a new site that is almost developed... on a non-template, custom-made WP platform which I have learned is the correct way to avoid guaranteed problems with site performance as your site grows in content and images... and get your site on a VPN Server of course. You don't want your site contaminated by anyone else on your SHARED server like happened to me.

Anyway, I'd like to add a well-known and recommended plugin to my current site as a test to see how it works in removing 2/3 (not actually of course) of my Library. I really don't care what happens to this site version as it will be replaced in a week or so.
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boomergp08 Premium
I only know of one plugin but it is outdated and has not been updated in over two years. WordPress does not recommend its use. Option 2 is still the best option, at least for me.
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teddae Premium
Roger
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teddae Premium
Thanks Boomer! This is what I call an EXTREMELY HIGH IMPACT post. Are you the 1st one in WA history to solve this problem for us? WA should have a HIGH IMPACT medalion for posts like this. Awesome, I've been dealing with Image Library (needs WP re-design) problems ever since I can remember. WHAT A NICE GUY!
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boomergp08 Premium
You are welcome Ted. I believe that no one else here at WA has done this training before.
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KelseyLim Premium
Hi Rob, Thanks for the informative training on keeping the image size down to a minimum in the WP media library. I didn't realize that the default setting can be set to zero which not only space but also speed. I certainly agree with you that it is better to go through the hassle to resize each image than to install another plugin which may affect the page speed. [Kelsey]
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boomergp08 Premium
You are welcome Kelsey. After using the EWWW Image Optimizer I noticed that it would show that it optimized 3 or 4 sizes of the same image. Then I realized that these were duplicates created by WordPress when we upload images. Changing the settings to 0 worked in stopping WP from duplicating the images.
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