Building a WordPress site that looks good, has all the features you want, and represents your business is one thing. But ensuring that same site loads fast and offers a great User Experience (UX) for your visitors is another. However, there are ways you can optimize your website to improve its speed and performance. The CompressX plugin converts and compresses WebP and AVIF files, and works alongside other optimization tasks, such as using a CDN or adding caching.
Let’s dive into CompressX, to give you an idea of the advanced image compression features this plugin offers. Below, we’ll take a look at the benefits, the unique functionality, and the pricing (hint: it’s free).
Why Do You Need an Image Compression Plugin?
When Google is considering ranking your website in the search results, there are a lot of factors at play—some of these are closely guarded secrets. But you can implement many of these SEO best practices on your own, and data suggests that optimizing your site for speed can help you rank higher.
Think about it—users love fast-loading websites. Optimizing your images can be a huge needle mover in terms of site speed. Since Google loves happy users, sites with fast loading speeds tend to rank higher. If your website has a ton of images and you haven’t been optimizing these properly, chances are they’re negatively impacting your site’s performance and rankings.
For WordPress, you can use an image optimization plugin. This makes image filesizes smaller, without impacting the quality. So, your visitors get the same image at a fraction of the loading time. You’re happy. Your users are happy. Google is happy.
Introducing CompressX: A Hands-Off Way to Achieve Maximum Image Compression
If you’ve ever manually compressed and optimized images, you know how time-consuming the process can be. Whether using a third-party tool that compresses each image or using the functionality inside an app such as Photoshop, it’s an additional step that can add hours to your week.
What if instead, you could upload your images to your WordPress, and they’d be automatically optimized? We’re talking about a 90 percent optimization rate without a noticeable impact on the quality of your photos.
Well, with CompressX, you can do precisely that. The CompressX plugin is a free and lightweight WebP and AVIF conversion and compression plugin. It automatically converts JPGs and PNG images into WebP and AVIF formats, then compresses those images.
Here are some of the core features of CompressX:
- Automatically converts JPEGs and PNGs into AVIF and WebP formats.
- Full control over the balance between quality and compression.
- Auto-resize images upon upload to your website.
- Can convert the entire existing image library on your site.
Plus, it does all this without impacting the initial images you upload. So, if you want to restore the original versions, simply uninstall the plugin and your original images will return. Let’s look a little closer at some of this functionality.
Automatically Convert and Compress AVIF and WebP Images
WebP is one of the most popular image formats for the web, and AVIF has plenty of support too. Most major search engines, internet browsers, and social media sites support them. These formats usually result in a smaller image size and a great balance between size and quality.
But, converting and managing these image types can be difficult. CompressX automatically converts your files to these image types and optimizes them according to the rules you’ve set. Then, it automatically replaces your existing images and loads them for your users (as long as their browser supports it).
It even has a unique feature where it will only use the smallest image with regard to file size. This means, if your existing images have already been compressed and are smaller in size, these will be used instead.
Bulk Image Conversion and Compression
CompressX can bulk convert and optimize your entire image library too. You can exclude specific folders within your Media Library if you don’t want to optimize every image. If you have images in different locations outside your Media Library, these can also be optimized.
You also have complete control over the compression level, with five different compression levels. Alternatively, you can set your own custom compression.
Image Thumbnail and Size Control
Beyond automated image resizing, you have full control over the compression of your thumbnails and other image sizes used across your WordPress website.
For example, let’s say you run a photography site selling prints of your landscape photos. Here, you’d want to use the optimized images for most areas of your site while keeping the original resolution image for the full-size image your visitors can check out.
CompressX Support and Help
CompressX is a pretty intuitive and user-friendly plugin. So, there’s a high likelihood you won’t even have to rely on their support team or resources.
But, if you have a question or your images aren’t being optimized properly, you’ll be happy to know there’s an active support channel on the plugin listing page in the WordPress Plugin Repository. Their team is very active and responds to the majority of support requests.
Beyond that, there’s some plugin documentation available that walks you through setting up the plugin and using the entire feature set.
How Much Does CompressX Cost?
CompressX is completely free! Simply install and activate the CompressX plugin, and you can start optimizing your images without restriction. There’s no cost to begin optimizing your entire image library and unlock faster loading speeds for your website.
However, many other compression plugins limit the number of images you can compress with free plans and charge a monthly or yearly fee for unlimited compression. While CompressX isn’t going down that road yet, it could be the case in the future.
Wrapping Up: Is CompressX Right for You?
CompressX makes image optimization simple and easy. Not only does it support the most cutting-edge image formats, but it currently gives you unlimited access to its optimization features. Plus, you get full control over what images you want optimized and the level of compression you’re using. If you’ve been wanting to optimize your images, but the price of other tools, or complexity has scared you off, give CompressX a try.
Do you have any questions about CompressX and if it’s a good fit for your website? Please share your thoughts and questions in the comments below!
