In the world of SEO (Search Engine Optimization), one metric rules them all: Page Speed. Google has explicitly stated that faster websites rank higher. And what is the #1 cause of slow websites? Giant, unoptimized images.
The Problem with JPG and PNG
Legacy formats were built for a different era. PNGs are fantastic for quality but are often bloated. A simple homepage banner might be 800KB as a PNG. On a 4G mobile connection, that single image could take 2 seconds to load.
Enter WebP
WebP was developed by Google specifically to solve this bandwidth crisis. It uses "predictive coding" to encode images. essentially, it looks at the pixels it has already decoded and guesses what the next ones will be, only storing the difference.
The Stats:
- 25-34% smaller than comparable JPEGs.
- 26% smaller than comparable PNGs (while keeping transparency!).
SEO Benefits
By converting your site's assets to WebP:
- Lower LCP (Largest Contentful Paint): Your main content loads faster, improving your Core Web Vitals score.
- Reduced Bounce Rate: Users (especially on mobile) leave sites that take more than 3 seconds to load.
- Bandwidth Savings: If you pay for hosting bandwidth, smaller images literally save you money.
Converting is easy. You can use tools like LocalImageConverter to batch convert your existing assets to WebP today.