Image File Formats: PNG Wins The Load Time Contest
When it comes images on your website, whether you use a .jpg, .gif, or .png doesn’t matter with search engine optimization. You’re going to use an alt tag and search engines can’t crawl the images anyway, so you’re much better off using the smallest image possible, which improves your load time. And that helps search engine optimization. So image size definitely is an SEO factor.
.JPG is the big loser in load time. If you have a lot of images on your website then you are killing your load time and that’s going to hurt you in the rankings. But if you convert your .jpgs to .gifs or .pngs then you’ll improve your load time tremendously. The only time I’d suggest using .jpg for your image file format is when you are dealing with real photos that require detailed digitization. The gradient in .jpg images is much more defined.
But if you are using charts and images that rely on a single color then you are better off with a .png. The .gif has been around a long time, but .png is better as it compresses the information into smaller bits. That will improve your load time and if you have a lot of images that will matter a lot.
2 Responses to “Image File Formats: PNG Wins The Load Time Contest”
The Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Journal is Written by SEO Expert:
Nick Stamoulis
Tel - 781-999-1222
nick@brickmarketing.com
Brick Marketing - SEO Company
In a quick Photoshop test just to make sure I’m not crazy, PNGs outweighed GIF and JPG formats typically by 2 to 1. PNGs lossless compression and full alpha support comes at a price: a higher file size. I’m a proponent of using PNGs just because they are many times much clearer than JPGs and GIFs, but I haven’t had many instances where PNGs optimize lower than the other options.
Can you help me out with some examples?
Thanks for reading Brad…since you are a web designer, please feel free to show everyone some examples and prove me wrong
)