Smush 3.12.0 frees up your time and your eyeballs while enhancing your image optimization experience further with new Bulk Smush background optimization!
Got tons of images to compress and optimize on your web site? Now you can navigate away from the plugin or close the browser window while Smush works tirelessly in the background.
There’s no more staring and waiting in front of your screen while your images are being optimized, making your workflow more efficient.
In other words – the days of waiting on a page for image optimization are over! You can browse around elsewhere and opt for an email notification about when the optimization process is complete! Or, just check back at any time to see how it’s going.
This brief article will look at how simple it is to use. Plus, there are a few other new improvements that we’ll touch on.
Let’s get to it!
How Background Optimization Works
As you’ll see, there’s not a ton to do to get background optimization to function. It’s ready to go once you start a Bulk Smush!
Just begin by clicking Bulk Smush Now from Smush’s dashboard.
One-click gets Smush smushing.
When Smush starts Bulk Smushing, you’re free to close out of the area and continue working on more vital things rather than staying on this screen.
Leave Smush to do its work while you do yours.
If you want to be notified once Bulk Smush is completed, simply turn on email notifications. There are two ways of doing this. One is to enable email notifications under the Bulk Smush settings.
Now you’ll know when Bulk Smush is done via email.
Also, you can click the Enable Notifications link on the notification during the Bulk Smush progress.
You’ll see this link during Bulk Smush if email notifications are not enabled already.
The email gives you a glimpse of the total images analyzed, images smushed successfully, and any images that failed to smush.
If you click on View Full Details, it will take you to the Smush dashboard.
Beyond an email, you can always check Smush’s dashboard for progress. When complete, it will show the percentage of images optimized, total savings (in KBs or MBs), and the number of images smushed.
As you can see, 100% of the images in the media library have been smushed.
And that’s really all there is! There’s nothing else to do or set up to implement background optimization. It’s a process that is essentially all set up for you – right out of the box!
Other Improvements
Beyond background optimization, Smush 3.12.0 has improved by eliminating its 50 images limit — so there’s continuous optimization without any stops.
Also, we replaced Google fonts with Bunny fonts for better GDPR compliance and added a filter on the Media Library page to view items without any errors.
We’ve Got Your Background Optimization
As an award-winning plugin with a 5-star rating, Smush not only has an impressive background, it now it stands out even more with its new background optimization feature and additional upgrades!
If you’re not using Smush already, what’s the wait? Smush is WordPress’s most popular image optimization plugin, with over a million active websites – and it’s entirely free! If you’re not using Smush yet, download the plugin from wp.org and experience blazing speeds immediately in just a few clicks.
Smush now frees up your time and your eyeballs while enhancing your image optimization experience further with Bulk Smush background optimization!
Got tons of images to compress and optimize on your web site? Now you can navigate away from the plugin or close the browser window while Smush works tirelessly in the background.
There’s no more staring and waiting in front of your screen while your images are being optimized, making your workflow more efficient.
In other words – the days of waiting on a page for image optimization are over! You can browse around elsewhere and opt for an email notification about when the optimization process is complete! Or, just check back at any time to see how it’s going.
This brief article will look at how simple it is to use. Plus, there are a few other new improvements that we’ll touch on.
Let’s get to it!
How Background Optimization Works
As you’ll see, there’s not a ton to do to get background optimization to function. It’s ready to go once you start a Bulk Smush!
Just begin by clicking Bulk Smush Now from Smush’s dashboard.
One-click gets Smush smushing.
When Smush starts Bulk Smushing, you’re free to close out of the area and continue working on more vital things rather than staying on this screen.
Leave Smush to do its work while you do yours.
If you want to be notified once Bulk Smush is completed, simply turn on email notifications. There are two ways of doing this. One is to enable email notifications under the Bulk Smush settings.
Now you’ll know when Bulk Smush is done via email.
Also, you can click the Enable Notifications link on the notification during the Bulk Smush progress.
You’ll see this link during Bulk Smush if email notifications are not enabled already.
The email gives you a glimpse of the total images analyzed, images smushed successfully, and any images that failed to smush.
If you click on View Full Details, it will take you to the Smush dashboard.
Beyond an email, you can always check Smush’s dashboard for progress. When complete, it will show the percentage of images optimized, total savings (in KBs or MBs), and the number of images smushed.
As you can see, 100% of the images in the media library have been smushed.
And that’s really all there is! There’s nothing else to do or set up to implement background optimization. It’s a process that is essentially all set up for you – right out of the box!
Other Improvements
Beyond background optimization, Smush 3.12.0 has improved by eliminating its 50 images limit — so there’s continuous optimization without any stops.
Also, we replaced Google fonts with Bunny fonts for better GDPR compliance and added a filter on the Media Library page to view items without any errors.
We’ve Got Your Background Optimization
As an award-winning plugin with a 5-star rating, Smush not only has an impressive background, it now it stands out even more with its new background optimization feature and additional upgrades!
If you’re not using Smush already, what’s the wait? Smush is WordPress’s most popular image optimization plugin, with over a million active websites using it! Download the plugin for free and experience “hands-free” image optimization in just a few clicks.
Enjoy the fastest ever image processing times with the latest version of Smush. Spend less time waiting for your images to be optimized with up to 3x more processing speed.
Just when you thought the most popular WordPress image optimizer (currently boasting a 5-star rating and over a million+ active installs) couldn’t get any better… Smush takes it to the next level with version 3.11.
In this article find out just how much time you can save optimizing images with 3x processing speed and see how Smush stacks up against its toughest competitors.
You’ll realize how much time you can save and why this award-winning plugin is breaking speed records for image optimization.
Let’s get to it!
What’s New In The Latest Version Of Smush
Our hard-working developers are constantly improving Smush. Here’s what’s included in our newest Smush version.
Parallel Processing Speed
As mentioned in the introduction, the processing speed is now better than ever.
Multiple images are processed in parallel, which makes lightning-fast processing speed a reality for your image files.
Before, images were sent to Smush’s API and were processed one at a time. Now, multiple thumbnails (and originals — if enabled) are processed in parallel for multifold improvement in processing speed.
This saves you tons of time. There are no more waiting long periods for images to be processed.
Recovers Gracefully from API Side Issues
Since Smush makes calls to an external service through HTTP requests, there are always possibilities of things failing randomly (e.g. temporary network issue).
We now have a Retry Mechanism that helps recover from any issues without having to show any errors. That means less time you’ll be dealing with failed optimized images.
Before, if a temporary network issue caused the Smush request for one of the image sizes to fail, it also treated all the other sizes as failures.
Now, in Bulk Smush, it’s no longer a problem. With the retry mechanism in place, it prevents all images from failing if there are issues with only one.
With that being said, let’s take a look at…
Smush vs Other Image Optimization Plugins
We wanted to see how Smush’s speed stacked against a couple of the other most popular optimization plugins. So, we decided to give it a go with speed tests.
As you’ll see — testing is easy to implement. We simply set up a few websites, added some images, installed a plugin to each site, and optimized images.
This can all be done for free, and it’s highly recommended that YOU try it out for yourself. We’d love to hear what results you were able to achieve.
Here’s a breakdown of what we did…
Setting Up Testing
To get started, we set up a WordPress site and created a template so that the site was duplicated. We did this instantly with the help of InstaWP.
InstaWP is a quick and easy way to set up a new WordPress site for testing.
InstaWP allows you to set up WordPress sites and templates – at no cost. It streamlines the testing process creating a new site with just a few clicks.
Once the admin of the new WordPress site was created, we added images to the site for free with the Instant Image plugin.
The Instant Image plugin lives up to its name by delivering images – instantly!
With the Instant Image plugin, you can quickly add images to your site with one click. We went through and added 60 images for testing.
The plugin adds them immediately to your media library.
Since we have the site set up, we want to head back to InstaWP and SaveTemplate to duplicate the site we just created.
We’ll create two more websites based on our original site with 60 images. Why? Because we’ll be testing two other plugins, along with Smush.
We’re using the FREE version of each plugin. There are no upgrades or anything else involved.
Finally, we’ll upload one plugin to each site (e.g. Smush to one, Imagify to another, etc.).
And that’s it! We’re ready for testing.
Oh, well…one more thing. Get a stopwatch ready. We’re going to time each one and see how they match up.
It’s a plugin image compression speed test. Ready…set…GO!
Imagify Speed Test
Imagify is ranked highly as a WordPress optimization plugin.
We’ll kick things off with Imagify. Imagify is a popular image optimization plugin with a 4.5-star rating and over 600K active installs.
We installed Imagify, started our timer, and implemented bulk optimization.
Imagify shows you the percentage of its progress.
As the percentage of optimized images kept increasing, all was going well. But then…uh-oh…
Uh-oh… all of my image optimization credits were used up and I’ve barely begun!
The optimization ground to a halt midway (not even midway) through. The free version didn’t have enough credits to optimize my 60 images. It only was able to get to 45% of them.
Imagify gave me a detailed report of what was optimized.
The result was it took 11:08 to optimize 45% of the images.
ShortPixel Speed Test
ShortPixel is smiling anxiously awaiting the speed test!
With a 4.5-start rating and over 300K active installs, ShortPixel is up there in the ranks as a well-known image optimization plugin option.
An indicator to start the optimization process is clearly labeled.
ShortPixel has a 4-step process. It begins with the images you want to optimize, a summary, the progress, and results.
This test has our 60 images ready to be optimized.
You can see there are 60 images and 252 thumbnails in the optimization process.
Once the optimization started, it abruptly ended.
Like Imagify, the lack of credits had us hanging, and the optimization process didn’t complete all the work. In fact, it only processed 18 images.
As you can see, it processed about 30% of our media library.
The race to the finish line wasn’t completed with ShortPixel’s free version. The result was it took 2:28 to optimize 18 images.
Smush Speed Test
We’re #1 for a reason. Part of the reason is, as you’ll see, a need for speed.
We decided to save the best for last. After all, Smush has a lot of advantages — beyond just the speed factor.
For example, there are no credits to buy once you hit an optimization limit. Nope. The free version of Smush will pause at 50 images; however, just click resume, and it starts right back up. That’s not the case with most other image optimization plugins.
So, let’s start at the beginning. We have our 60 images – the same as the other example. And they require compression.
Smush makes it clear how many images you need to compress.
Clicking Bulk Smush gets us moving…
Smush’s progress moves very quick.
When Smush hits 50 images, as I mentioned, it pauses. With a click of a button, it starts immediately back up again, so there was no point in stopping the timer.
When it’s done, it’ll show you the results. This includes a number of images optimized in the media library and your savings.
As you can see, Smush took care of 100% of the images in the media library.
The result was it took 1:38 to optimize 60 images.
Final Results
As you can see, the outcomes were across the board. Some didn’t even make it through the finish line, while a few came out on top. Here are the final results:
1st Place: Smush 1:38
2nd Place: ShortPixel 2:28 (didn’t finish)
3rd Place: Imagify 11:08 (didn’t finish)
Of course, other variables can determine the speed of image optimization. That includes good hosting, strong internet connection, image sizes, and other possible factors.
This speed test was simply created to demonstrate where Smush is at today, and the hope is that you’ll give it a test run yourself against your current image optimization plugin.
Results may vary, but you’ll see that speed is on Smush’s side with speed and other functions – no matter your situation.
Quickly Optimize Images with Smush
As you can see, with up to 3x faster processing, Smush can save time and optimize your images quickly so you can spend time focusing on your WordPress business instead.
Don’t take my word for it when it comes to a speed test. As I mentioned, try your favorite image optimization plugin and see how it compares.
Plus, our developers have some more exciting goodies for Smush coming soon (e.g. background optimization and removal of the 50 images limit before pausing), so stay tuned…
Enjoy the fastest ever image processing times with the latest version of Smush. Spend less time waiting for your images to be optimized with up to 8x more processing speed compared to the competition.
Just when you thought the most popular WordPress image optimizer (currently boasting a 5-star rating and over a million+ active installs) couldn’t get any better… Smush takes it to the next level.
In this article, find out just how much time you can save optimizing images with superior processing speed and see how Smush stacks up against its toughest competitors.
You’ll realize how much time you can save and why this award-winning plugin is breaking speed records for image optimization.
Let’s get to it!
What’s In The Latest Version Of Smush
Our hard-working developers are constantly improving Smush. Here’s what’s included in our Smush updates.
Parallel Processing Speed
As mentioned in the introduction, the processing speed is now better than ever.
Multiple images are processed in parallel, which makes lightning-fast processing speed a reality for your image files.
Before, images were sent to Smush’s API and were processed one at a time. Now, multiple thumbnails (and originals — if enabled) are processed in parallel for multifold improvement in processing speed.
This saves you tons of time. There are no more waiting long periods for images to be processed.
Recovers Gracefully from API Side Issues
Since Smush makes calls to an external service through HTTP requests, there are always possibilities of things failing randomly (e.g. temporary network issue).
We now have a Retry Mechanism that helps recover from any issues without having to show any errors. That means less time you’ll be dealing with failed optimized images.
Before, if a temporary network issue caused the Smush request for one of the image sizes to fail, it also treated all the other sizes as failures.
Now, in Bulk Smush, it’s no longer a problem. With the retry mechanism in place, it prevents all images from failing if there are issues with only one.
With that being said, let’s take a look at…
Smush vs Other Image Optimization Plugins
We wanted to see how Smush’s speed stacked against a couple of the other most popular optimization plugins. So, we decided to give it a go with speed tests.
As you’ll see — testing is easy to implement. We simply set up a few websites, added some images, installed a plugin to each site, and optimized images.
This can all be done for free, and it’s highly recommended that YOU try it out for yourself. We’d love to hear what results you were able to achieve.
Here’s a breakdown of what we did…
Setting Up Testing
To get started, we set up a WordPress site and created a template so that the site was duplicated. We did this instantly with the help of InstaWP.
InstaWP is a quick and easy way to set up a new WordPress site for testing.
InstaWP allows you to set up WordPress sites and templates – at no cost. It streamlines the testing process creating a new site with just a few clicks.
Once the admin of the new WordPress site was created, we added images to the site for free with the Instant Image plugin.
The Instant Image plugin lives up to its name by delivering images – instantly!
With the Instant Image plugin, you can quickly add images to your site with one click. We went through and added 60 images for testing.
The plugin adds them immediately to your media library.
Since we have the site set up, we want to head back to InstaWP and SaveTemplate to duplicate the site we just created.
We’ll create four more websites based on our original site with 60 images. Why? Because we’ll be testing four other plugins, along with Smush.
We’re using the FREE version of each plugin. There are no upgrades or anything else involved.
Finally, we’ll upload one plugin to each site (e.g. Smush to one, Imagify to another, etc.).
And that’s it! We’re ready for testing.
Oh, well…one more thing. Get a stopwatch ready. We’re going to time each one and see how they match up.
It’s a plugin image compression speed test. Ready…set…GO!
Imagify Speed Test
Imagify is ranked highly as a WordPress optimization plugin.
We’ll kick things off with Imagify. Imagify is a popular image optimization plugin with a 4.5-star rating and over 600K active installs.
We installed Imagify, started our timer, and implemented bulk optimization.
Imagify shows you the percentage of its progress.
As the percentage of optimized images kept increasing, all was going well. But then…uh-oh…
Uh-oh… all of my image optimization credits were used up and I’ve barely begun!
The optimization ground to a halt midway (not even midway) through. The free version didn’t have enough credits to optimize my 60 images. It only was able to get to 45% of them.
Imagify gave me a detailed report of what was optimized.
The result was it took 11:08 to optimize 45% of the images.
ShortPixel Speed Test
ShortPixel is smiling anxiously awaiting the speed test!
With a 4.5-start rating and over 300K active installs, ShortPixel is up there in the ranks as a well-known image optimization plugin option.
An indicator to start the optimization process is clearly labeled.
ShortPixel has a 4-step process. It begins with the images you want to optimize, a summary, the progress, and results.
This test has our 60 images ready to be optimized.
You can see there are 60 images and 252 thumbnails in the optimization process.
Once the optimization started, it abruptly ended.
Like Imagify, the lack of credits had us hanging, and the optimization process didn’t complete all the work. In fact, it only processed 18 images.
As you can see, it processed about 30% of our media library.
The race to the finish line wasn’t completed with ShortPixel’s free version. The result was it took 2:28 to optimize 18 images.
Optimole Speed Test
Optimole is an extremely popular image optimizer.
Optimole is another popular image optimizer with 90K active installations and a 5-star rating. With a cloud-based system it banks itself on the “set it and forget it” way of optimizing images in real-time.
Once activated with a license key (which is free), it immediately begins its image optimization process.
However, after waiting an hour, it states it’s still optimizing images…
They mention that optimization is still happening behind the scenes.
Optimole compresses images on the fly so that when an image is requested, it will apply the specific transformation required by the device and send it to your visitors — ensuring each image is perfectly sized for each device.
However, there’s not much more specific information beyond that on its dashboard. After an hour, a couple of images are compressed, .07MB saved file size for the latest ten images, and 70% average compression.
There’s just a message of reassurance that visitors will view the best images from their devices automatically. But, the image optimization process is not completed.
A note that all is well while image compression is being completed.
In other words, it’s not that it’s not working — but a bit in the dark about how well it’s working immediately.
Since it was over an hour and still no solid results of optimization, the final clocks in at hours for 60 images to be completed compressed, though it may offer immediate results — depending on specific images.
reSmush.it Speed Test
A plugin that has “Smush” in its name grabbed our attention.
With bulk image optimization, numerous setting options, and over 200k active installs, reSmush.it is another popular choice when it comes to your WordPress images.
It starts by mentioning how many non-optimized pictures you have, so it’s pointed out the 60 that we’re using to test with.
It states how many it will optimize to a good quality rate.
Once clicking “Optimize All Pictures,” — the race is off! It gives a status of how optimization is going.
At this point, it’s at 7%.
When completed, it gives you the status of how it went by showing you the space saved, total reduction, attachments optimized, images optimized, and total images optimized.
The results are in!
The time it took to compress everything was 16:02. Quite a bit of waiting, but it did get the job done.
Smush Speed Test
We’re #1 for a reason. Part of the reason is, as you’ll see, a need for speed.
We decided to save the best for last. After all, Smush has a lot of advantages — beyond just the speed factor.
For example, there are no credits to buy once you hit an optimization limit. Nope. The free version of Smush will pause at 50 images; however, just click resume, and it starts right back up. That’s not the case with most other image optimization plugins.
So, let’s start at the beginning. We have our 60 images – the same as the other example. And they require compression.
Smush makes it clear how many images you need to compress.
Clicking Bulk Smush gets us moving…
Smush’s progress moves very quick.
When Smush hits 50 images, as I mentioned, it pauses. With a click of a button, it starts immediately back up again, so there was no point in stopping the timer.
When it’s done, it’ll show you the results. This includes a number of images optimized in the media library and your savings.
As you can see, Smush took care of 100% of the images in the media library.
The result was it took 1:38 to optimize 60 images.
Final Results
As you can see, the outcomes were across the board. Some didn’t even make it through the finish line, while a few came out on top. Here are the final results based on time:
1st Place: Smush 1:38
2nd Place: ShortPixel 2:28 (didn’t finish)
3rd Place: Imagify 11:08 (didn’t finish)
4th Place: reSmush.it 16:02
5th Place: Optimole Hours
Of course, other variables can determine the speed of image optimization. That includes good hosting, a strong internet connection, image sizes, and other possible factors.
This speed test was simply created to demonstrate where Smush is at today, and the hope is that you’ll give it a test run yourself against your current image optimization plugin.
Results may vary, but you’ll see that speed is on Smush’s side with speed and other functions – no matter your situation.
Quickly Optimize Images with Smush
As you can see, with up to 8x faster processing, Smush can save time and optimize your images quickly so you can spend time focusing on your WordPress business instead.
Don’t take my word for it when it comes to a speed test. As I mentioned, try your favorite image optimization plugin and see how it compares.
Plus, our developers have some more exciting goodies for Smush coming soon, so stay tuned…
Editor’s note: This article was updated on February 28, 2023, to include new test results against even more of the competition. (Luckily for us, Smush continues to smash it out of the park.) The article was originally published on August 25, 2022.
Optimizing your images manually would involve a lot of resizing, a fair bit of coding, and heaps of time. Luckily, Smush does all the hard work for you and plenty more besides, all of which you will find covered in this guide to help you get the most out of the plugin.
Smush offers an abundance of features to help you get your images under control.
For example, whilst Smush may be best-known for compressing images (without losing quality), it can also help defer your offscreen images with its lazy-load feature, convert your images to next-gen formats (WebP), and serve your images from our super-fast CDN.
Luckily, you don’t need to dedicate much time or effort to your images when you have Smush installed. Most features can be activated with one click.
Whether you’re a new user or just hoping to uncover some cool features you might have missed, this guide will help you get the most out of this plugin.
So without further ado, here’s how to get the most out of Smush:
1. Smush All Your Images in Bulk
When you first install Smush, chances are you’ll have a backlog of images that need your attention.
The Bulk Smush feature scans your site for any images that would benefit from being compressed.
Each time you add new images, Smush will add them to this total.
All you have to do is click the button – Smush does all the hard work for you and lets you know when the job is complete.
Much faster than compressing them yourself.
You can exclude certain image sizes from Bulk Smush if required. However, as Smush compresses without sacrificing quality, it may be beneficial to smush them all.
Remove the ticks from the images sizes you want to exclude from being compressed.
2. Automatically Compress New Uploads
Once you have used the Bulk Smush feature to catch up on your backlog of image compressing, you will seldom need to use it again.
This is because of the handy Automatic Compression feature. If you enable this, Smush will compress images as soon as you upload them to your site.
The days of routine image pruning can easily be a thing of your past.
3. Super-Smush For Double the Compression
If your main focus is on your site’s speed, you may want to take image compression a step further.
Super-Smush offers twice the compression of regular smushing by stripping out every bit of unneeded data, without reducing the quality of your images.
Give it a try – we challenge you to notice a difference in quality!
If you don’t want to take it as far as Super-Smush, you can instead strip the unnecessary metadata from your images, leaving only what is needed for SEO purposes. Photos often store camera settings in the file such as focal length, date, time and location – removing this will reduce your file size.
If you’re a photographer, you might want to keep this information, but it serves little purpose on most sites so is generally safe to remove.
4. Display Your Full Size Images
If you upload an image that is larger than 2560px in either width or height, WordPress will automatically scale it down to generate a ‘web-optimized’ maximum image size.
If you are purposefully adding larger images and want to override this, you can use the image resizing option.
You can set your own new maximum image size.
Bear in mind that your theme may also have its own maximum image size – you will need to check this before enabling this feature.
If you are uploading full-sized images, you can also choose whether or not these will be included in Bulk Smush.
Another couple of simple one-click features.
Make sure you enable the bottom selection if you want to store a copy of all your full-size images, in case you ever wanted to return them to their pre-smushed forms.
There are some circumstances where one of these two file types is more suitable than the other. However, if your main concerns for your site are memory usage and speed, then using JPEGs instead of PNGs should be beneficial.
If you upload your images as PNGs, Smush can check to see whether converting them to JPEGs will reduce the file size.
The files will remain as PNGs if there is no reduction in the file size.
You can, of course, make the same conversion outside of WordPress. However, using Smush removes the hassle and converts all your files in one swoop.
6. Smush From the Media Library
If you would prefer to select individual images for compression, look no further than your own media library.
Here, you will find a new column labelled ‘Smush’.
You can compress your images one-by-one.
If you have auto-compression turned off, any photos which you upload should be ready to smush from within your media library.
You can smush your images individually, or alternatively single out images to be ignored from bulk smushing.
7. Lazy Load Your Images For a Boost of Speed
If you have pages with lots of photos, displaying them all at once can put a lot of pressure on the server.
Deferring your off-screen images is a good way to allow the server to concentrate on loading the elements of your site above the fold so that your visitor can get stuck straight in.
It takes one click to deactivate if you find it’s not right for your site.
If there are certain types of images or certain output locations you wish to exclude from lazy loading, you can easily add them here.
Remove the ticks from any of the options that you don’t wish to include.
You can also exclude certain various post types, specific URLs, and CSS classes and IDs.
Basically, if you want to enable lazy loading, you can fine-tune exactly how and where it is enabled.
Once you have chosen which images will lazy load, you can then decide how you want the pre-loading images to appear.
If you don’t want any form of animation, simply select ‘None’.
8. Utilize Smush’s CDN
The closer you are to the server that is providing your content, the faster it will load. A CDN (Content Delivery Network) is a series of servers which are spread around the globe, and when a browser makes the HTTP request, the content is served from the closest server to its location.
Smush Pro boasts a 45-point CDN, with a few extra tricks up its sleeve. It can automatically resize your images as well as convert them to Google’s own next-gen format, WebP.
If all you want is for your images to be served from the CDN, you do not need to delve any further into these.
However, there are a few useful tools that can be of benefit to your site, so they are worth checking out.
To activate the Smush Pro Image CDN, From Smush Pro in your websites dashboard, go to the CDN tab and click the blue button.
Once you have activated the CDN, you will see more options within Smush.
This will store and serve copies of all your JPG, PNG, and Gif images from the Smush edge servers – drastically improving speed.
Don’t Leave Your Background Images Out
As standard, only images used on your posts and pages will be served through the CDN
If you want your background image to be served from the same speedy CDN as the rest of your images, Smush has you covered.
Your background images will reach your visitor quicker if served through our CDN.
You will need to ensure that your background images are properly declared with CSS in your theme’s files.
9. Serve the Correct Image Sizes
Ideally, you should never serve an image larger than what will be displayed on the user’s screen. Using original or full-size images when a smaller image will do makes your pages take longer to load while your browser waits for the images to render.
Smush’s CDN houses a handy feature to resize your image to fit the container, without needing to touch a line of code.
As the resizing is done from the CDN, your original images will remain full size.
10. Convert Your Images to Next-Gen Formats
JPEG 2000, JPEG XR, and WebP are modern image formats with superior compression capabilities. This means they produce much smaller image files so you can greatly improve your page speed.
Images served in the WebP format can benefit from more than 25% compression, and when you think about the number of images on your site, that’s a tonne of space that can be saved.
Smush’s CDN offers the option to convert your images to WebP in just one click.
All the legwork is taken care of by Smush.
Not all browsers support next-gen formats, which is something you would usually have to bear in mind when deciding to make the switch.
However, if you enable the WebP Conversion feature, Smush will automatically check whether or not a browser supports this format, and if not, will serve it in the original one. This ensures that none of your visitors are compromised.
Support at Your Fingertips
Now you know the ins and outs of this little plugin, it’s time to get stuck in and see how your site can benefit.
Smush is a very user-friendly plugin, so you should have no trouble managing your images.
If, however, you find yourself in need of some friendly advice, members should look no further than our awesome support team who are available 24/7.
You can also check out the plugin documentation and view new updates and features coming soon in our roadmap.
