Image Optimization

Everything you need to know about image optimization

Why is image compression important?

Loading times directly impact SEO and user experience. The faster the site, the easier it is for a visitor to navigate and search engine bots to crawl the pages. Images are one of the biggest culprits responsible for slowing down a website, especially large, unoptimized images. What’s more, pages that are stacked with heavy image content can have a detrimental affect on your page rankings. So compressing your images before uploading them is crucial.

I've used TinyIMG to optimize my images, but according to Page Speed Insights by Google, my page speed hasn't increased. Why?

Page Speeds Insights (PSI), though a good tool for finding optimization opportunities, isn't useful as a scoring system for Shopify sites. The reason is that tools like this rely on algorithms and analysis based on a system of rules to calculate a score. Not all the warnings make sense. Your score could go down, even after you've made various optimization improvements that have clearly made your site faster. For greater accuracy, we recommend using this tool to check your page loading times instead: https://gtmetrix.com/

Will image optimization stop automatically after FREE credits are used?

No. TinyIMG will carry on optimizing your images until all of them have been optimized. You will be charged for extra image optimizations according to the pricing plan you have selected. You can, however, cancel image optimization via your TinyIMG dashboard or cancel all future optimizations within the ‘Settings’ page.

Why does it take so long to optimize all images?

TinyIMG goes through several processes to optimize your images. Firstly, the app requests your images from Shopify which takes just 1 second for each one. Downloading each image takes 2-3 seconds depending on your image size. So if you have 1000 images, it could take up to 3000 seconds to load your images to the TinyIMG system. After that, the system starts the optimization process, which takes 1-2 seconds per image, Uploading the images back to your store takes 1 second per image. So, it might take another 3000 seconds to optimize and upload all of your images. All in all, if 1000 images need optimizing, it could take between 6000 - 7000 seconds (1hr 40 minutes to around 2 hrs). But don't worry, you don't need to keep the TinyIMG app open. The processes work in the background and we'll inform you when optimization is complete.

Why isn’t TinyIMG finding my images (homepage banners, blog images, etc.)?

TinyIMG is able to automatically compress Product, Collection, Asset, and Blog Post Featured images. Unfortunately, it’s not possible to compress any other images you may have stored in Shopify within the “Files” section in “Settings”. This includes blog post and homepage images. TinyIMG (like all Shopify apps) is not allowed to access this area, hence the reason such images can’t be optimized. If you want to optimize your blog post, homepage, and any other images, you can still do so manually. To do this, upload your chosen images to the Manual File Uploader first to optimize them. Download them once optimized and then you can upload them to Shopify.

Do I need to do anything when I upload new images?

TinyIMG automatically takes care of compressing and optimizing your new Product, Collection, and Asset folder images as soon as you upload them. You don’t have to do anything at all, and can instead focus on other areas of your online business.

What if I want to get my original images back?

You can restore individual images to their previous unoptimized state if you wish. Just make sure that you don’t uninstall the app before restoring your images. Simply follow these steps: 1. Open TinyIMG, click on the Details button of the segment it was placed in. 2. Find the image you want to restore and click the Restore button.

Why do my optimized images contain random numbers?

To have a unique filename, we add a random number to end of every filename. It’s important that you don’t have images with the same filename as they may overwrite each other. This does not impact SEO in any way.

Why hasn’t my image filename changed after optimization?

If the image was uploaded manually, the filename cannot be optimized as filename optimization uses a template. For example, a product name, a collection name. Assets and custom image uploads do not have any template that it can work on. Only illegal characters are removed from the filename.

Why is there a discrepancy between my optimized images count and remaining credits?

We do not deduct credits if the image was already optimized and only filename or the ALT text was updated. We only deduct credits when we actually optimize the image and it's uploaded to your store. That's why the numbers might mismatch.

How do I change or cancel my subscription to TinyIMG?

We hope you’ll find TinyIMG - Image Optimizer so useful that you won’t want to cancel! But if you do, that’s no problem. Simply uninstall the app if you want to end your subscription. If you want to change your subscription plan, just go to our settings page and you will find a section called "Subscription plan". Just hit Upgrade button and choose the best plan for you.