Images account for the bulk of most websites’ load times. With a few clicks, Image Optimization can improve load times and make you and your visitors happier.
Image optimization does not alter the images stored in your site files; it creates new images. The new images don’t require additional storage, and they will not count toward the disk space use of your Kinsta plan.
When Lossless or Lossy is enabled, the CDN automatically creates WebP versions of the images on the fly using Cloudflare’s Polish service. The WebP versions are cached in Cloudflare’s CDN and are delivered if:
- the Accept header in the visitor’s browser includes WebP, and
- the compressed image is significantly smaller than the original image.
The CDN will deliver the original image if it is smaller than the WebP version.
Enabling Image Optimization
To enable Image Optimization on your site, log in to MyKinsta, go to WordPress Sites > sitename > CDN, and click on Image Optimization, Settings.
That will bring you to a new window where you choose between Lossless or Lossy image optimization:
Lossless Image Optimization
Lossless optimization has no impact on the quality of your images. GIF and PNG images are compressed, and metadata is removed from all images.
Select this option if retaining your image quality is essential.
After you click the Save Settings button, the CDN page should look like this:
Lossy Image Optimization
Lossy Image Optimization may reduce the quality of your images because it uses JPEG compression to make images as small as possible. Like Lossless optimization, this will also compress GIF and PNG images and remove metadata from all images.
Select this option to maximize image optimization, even if it may impact the image quality.
After you click the Save Settings button, the CDN page should look like this:
Disabling Image Optimization
To disable Image Optimization on your website, log in to MyKinsta, go to WordPress Sites > sitename > CDN and click on Settings for Image Optimization. From the new window, select None and click on Save Settings.
The CDN page will now reflect no Image Optimization settings are applied and will look like this: