Resize and/or crop the image to the dimensions recommended by GTmetrix. By comparing the two variations of your images side-by-side, you can see how large the image actually is (and why the page it’s on may be loading slow).ĭownload the old image and open it in your image editing tool of choice (I use GIMP). If you compare the image shown on your website with your image URL, you will see there is a noticeable difference in their sizes. Next, paste the image URL into a new browser tab. Right click an image > copy image address. You can also manually check if images are too large. Expand their recommendations and you’ll see the correct dimensions these images should be resized to. Run a page through GTmetrix and view the “ serve scaled images” section.
GTmetrix legacy reports show you the correct dimensions for your large images.Ĭreate a free GTmetrix account and go to Accounts > Default to Legacy Reports > enable. Find Oversized Images In GTmetrix Legacy Reports
Next, create an image dimension cheat sheet with each area’s dimensions.
The best way to avoid properly size image errors is to learn the dimensions of the different areas your website (sliders, widgets, logo, full width blog images, etc). But different areas of your site call for specific dimensions (images need to be resized accordingly). You can set a maximum width + height in most image optimization plugins.
Next, run other pages through PageSpeed Insights and resize your images on those.Ĭan I use a plugin to automatically resize images? Since PageSpeed Insights only shows unoptimized images for the single page you’re testing, start by resizing sitewide images that appear across your website (logo, sidebar and footer images). Finally, replace the old image with the new one. Resize them to the correct dimensions (found in your GTmetrix legacy report). To properly size images in WordPress, expand the item in PageSpeed Insights and view which images are too large. If you ran your site through PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix, you may see a recommendation to properly size images.