{"id":93177,"date":"2026-04-25T15:16:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T20:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bricktowntom.com\/blog\/?p=93177"},"modified":"2026-04-25T15:16:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T20:16:13","slug":"managing-images-for-a-wordpress-site","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bricktowntom.com\/blog\/04\/managing-images-for-a-wordpress-site.html","title":{"rendered":"Managing images for a WordPress site\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Images enhance the user\u2019s experience and help get a message across, all the merrier. But while it’s tempting to start throwing images everywhere, avoid rolling like a mad imagery scientist. With images, less is more. And a sound strategy for managing images on a WordPress site<\/a> is key.<\/p>\n

You have to remember that your WordPress site won\u2019t load too well if you\u2019ve just uploaded a 4MB hero image to your home page. That isn\u2019t the best policy. So, what is the best practice for managing images for WordPress? Glad you asked!<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take a little journey into the world of web images and WordPress, shall we?<\/p>\n

First things first… getting the images<\/h2>\n

Before you start worrying about managing images for a WordPress site, you first must have<\/em> images.\u00a0Barring a photographer, a couple\u00a0great sources are iStock Photo<\/a> and Getty Images<\/a>, to name just a few.<\/p>\n

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These online repositories were specifically created for folks that need one or more images for their brand or site.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

With both repositories, there is a monthly or yearly fee for obtaining the image or images. And if you want to use some of the images for commercial use, the fees can get a little steep. But they both have millions of images to choose from.<\/p>\n

Finally, if you\u2019re on a budget, like the rest of us, there are royalty-free sites like Pixabay<\/a>. On Pixabay, there are tons of images to choose from that are typically free to use, with no need for photo credits. (Although credits are a nice gesture and appreciated by the contributor.)<\/p>\n

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Where you don\u2019t<\/em> want to grab images from is Google.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Most of these images are copyrighted intellectual property. If you really need to use one of the images, you will need to try and contact the original creator of the image and then obtain the right to use said image.<\/p>\n

This can be not only a long and painful process but could result in great expense. Using a copyrighted image, without permission, could land you in hot water with a cease-and-desist order. No one has time for that.<\/p>\n

Image sizes<\/h2>\n

How big is too big? That is the question of the ages. Ideally, you want to take the original image and resize it externally, with an appropriate application to get the large image cut down to the actual size that is to be used on your website.<\/p>\n

Most WordPress themes have set sizes for things like hero shots (the main image on a page) and other features. So, you should try to size your main image to the proper dimensions before<\/em> uploading it. Never just upload a huge, unedited pic to your site and then rely on coding to resize it for you.<\/p>\n

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A resized image, online, is still the large file size that was uploaded. It\u2019s just coded to look smaller.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

So, you can have a 2,000 x 2,000-pixel image appear to be only 200 x 200 pixels on the screen. But it\u2019s still the file size of the 2,000 x 2,000-pixel image! Now you have a massive load time on your website\u2019s pages.<\/p>\n

For the pages of a site, you alo should resize your images to the appropriate size, as well, which is usually much smaller than the hero shot. Then it is acceptable to allow the site\u2019s coding to resize the thumbnails for you, because these main body images are typically pretty small, anyway.<\/p>\n

Image editing<\/h2>\n

You have an image that you need to work with. Now what? Well, you will need to go in and resize and possibly clean up the image in question before you upload it to the WordPress site. Fortunately, there are many applications out there that can be used for this very task.<\/p>\n

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My personal go to is Adobe Photoshop<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

With Photoshop, you can edit and resize images to your heart\u2019s content. It also has an amazing compression engine that can compress images into a multitude of web formats and makes them ready for upload.<\/p>\n

That sounds fine and dandy, but what if I\u2019m on a tight budget? Anything out there for free?<\/p>\n

Again… glad you asked. There are free image editing websites out there. While not as powerful as Photoshop, they still have pretty amazing editing capabilities and even function in much the same way as Adobe\u2019s star product.<\/p>\n

One website I\u2019ve used before is Pixlr<\/a>. This is a totally free website that affords you with a host of notable features for editing photos.<\/p>\n

Once you\u2019ve edited your image(s), you can save them to your local machine and then upload them to the WordPress site.<\/p>\n

Another online image editing site is befunky<\/a>. With befunky, you can edit images, too, but its editing capabilities are much simpler than Pixlr and far more reduced than Photoshop. However, in a pinch, it\u2019s still fun to work with.<\/p>\n

Preferred compression and file formats<\/h2>\n

Once you have your image sized and edited, you will need to save it with the best compression and file format. The compression is, in part, what determines the file size. The format is the file type. Optimally, you want as small a file size as possible, and there are several file types to choose from.<\/p>\n

For hero shots, you want to keep the file size down to under a MB \u2014 but that’s up for debate. For the main body images, you want to keep them down to only a few KB. This will ensure a fast load time for your pages. The file types commonly accepted online are:<\/p>\n