When you run your blog, you want things to be as fast loading as possible and Shortpixel is one of those must-have plugins I install on every WordPress website to achieve this.
The best part? Once it’s set up properly, it’s pretty much hands-off. It will do all of the work for you. In this article, I’ll show you exactly how to use Shortpixel and how to set it up so you have 1 less thing to worry about.
Just a heads-up. If you’re using my Monthly WordPress maintenance service, you don’t have to purchase any subscription to Shortpixel, because I’ll be using my license on your site. So this will save you money down the line.
What is ShortPixel Image Optimizer
When you write your article and upload the images for it, each image will add up to the size of your page, and thus the loading time of that page.
ShortPixel Image Optimizer is a WordPress plugin that decreases the file size of your images and can load them in an optimized format, reducing the page file size as much as possible.
I’ve used this plugin now for multiple years and it never disappointed me to be honest.
I know there are alternatives like TinyPNG, EWWW image optimizer, Imagify, and others. But I always think, when something is working, why change it?
When you’re starting out with your WordPress blog, you can use the free version of Shortpixel, because it will give you about 100 credits per month, for free. But keep in mind that this plugin will create different versions of your image and on average, each image will cost you about 3 credits.
How To Setup ShortPixel Image Optimizer
Before you can use this plugin, you’ll need to create a free account. Once you’ve done that, you’ll receive a license code to activate the plugin.
Below is my affiliate link, which means if you use the paid version in the future, I’ll receive a small commission without any extra cost to you. If my content is helpful to you and you want to support me, I really appreciate that.
Click here to create a free account with Shortpixel.
Just fill in your email address and you’ll receive a confirmation email to activate your free account.
Once you’re logged in, you will find your Shortpixel API code, which you’ll need to activate your Shortpixel plugin.
Now head over to your WordPress dashboard and go to plugins -> add new plugin.
In the search bar, type in Shortpixel and you want to install and activate the plugin called Shortpixel Image Optimizer.
Be aware that Shortpixel has multiple plugins. Just pick the image optimizer plugin.
As you can see in the image below, I’ve already installed and activated the plugin on my blog.
Setting up ShortPixel
Now that you’ve installed and activated the Shortpixel plugin, you’re going to need to fill in your License code.
You can find your API key by logging into your Shortpixel account and going to the API area as shown below.
Copy the API code for your account and back in your WordPress dashboard go to settings -> Shortpixel.
You will be welcomed with a welcome screen where you’ll be prompted to either create a new account or fill in your API key.
On the right, fill in the API key you just copied and click on Continue.
This will take you to the main settings screen of your Shortpixel plugin. If you get prompted to take a tour, you can just click on the X and close this out because I’m going to take you through the settings and how to set these for the best performance.
At this stage, you DO NOT want to do the bulk processing just yet.
On the left side, you see a toggle for advanced mode. You want to click this so that you can set up the processing options as well.
So let’s go over each screen one by one and what to pick for the settings.
You’ll first want to click on the Image Optimization setting.
The most optimised settings are already selected for you here by default.
First, you have the option to pick the compression type and by default, Lossy is selected. Which will give you the best compression of your images.
So you want to pick that one.
Then in the area of what to optimize, you want to basically select all of them. Including the optimize unlisted thumbnails, which is turned off by default. You want to toggle this one as well.
If you give away ebooks on your blog to build up your email list and you have the PDF’s on your own website, you want to make sure to select optimize PDF’s as well.
Then under the Conversions area, you want to make sure to convert your PNG’s to JPGs as well.
A best practice is to upload your images as Jpegs by default and only use PNG format for your logo.
The benefit of a PNG is that it can have a transparent background, but in any other case, Jpegs are best for websites.
Under the EXIF management section, it’s recommended to turn this on, although I personally always have this turned off. This doesn’t help increase your speed and if you use your own images, you want your personalized data to be in your files.
Under the Smart Crop section, I just leave it as it is, since I want my images to be the size that I choose in terms of pixels.
Shortpixel Exclusions
The shortpixel exclusions tab, you can basically ignore it.
Here you can pick certain sizes that you don’t optimized, but if you want this tool to do everything for you, you don’t need to use this area.
Shortpixel Processing Settings
In the Shortpixel Processing tab, you get to select what you want Shortpixel to actually do automatically.
Here you definitely want the tool to optimize on upload, which is already selected for you.
This will make sure it will process your images the moment you upload them.
Background mode is turned off by default and this just means it won’t optimize your images while you’re working on your blog. And it will pick up the processing once you leave your site.
I personally just keep this turned off.
Backup originals will place a backup of your original images on your server.
Keep in mind that this can increase your files on your server, but it’s more to play it safe in case something goes wrong with an image.
And in your Shortpixel settings, you can just click on a button and those backups will be cleared, which I will show you in the next section.
In case you use a media file management plugin that saves your images in a specific area on your server, you can select that in the custom media folder by switching this on.
Otherwise, by default, Shortpixel will process your images from the main media folders.
WebP, AVIF, and CDN Settings
When you’re using Shortpixel, you want to turn your images into WebP format. This is a specific image format that is way smaller than a Jpeg and it will make your site load faster.
Do keep in mind that it will cost you 1 credit per image to put them in these different formats, but it’s worth it. That’s the whole point of using a plugin like this.
Personally, I have the unlimited plan since I use Shortpixel for client websites, but if you purchase a bundle with credits, it can take quite a long time before you run out of credits.
And for each image that is optimized, it can cost anywhere from 1 to 3 credits per image.
And if you use a CDN like Cloudflare, you can turn off the Shortpixel CDN option and if you’re not using Cloudflare, you can turn this on.
This will make sure that Shortpixel delivers your images from their server.
Shortpixel Integrations
Under the Shortpixel Integration settings, you can fill in your CDN details for Cloudflare, in case you use this.
If you’re not using Cloudflare, you don’t have to do anything with these settings.
Shortpixel Tools Tab
Under the Shortpixel Tools tab you will find a couple of buttons to, for example, remove your image backups.
This will save up a lot of space overtime on your web server.
In case Shortpixel is processing a lot of images, you can also clear these by click on the Clear Queue tab.
And in case you want to restore all of your images, you can do this by clicking on the restore button in this area.
Once you’ve gone through all of these settings, make sure to click on the save settings button.
Shortpixel Bulk Optimization
Now that you have fully set up Shortpixel, it will do all of the heavy lifting for you.
And now it’s time to run the Bulk Optimization option once.
By clicking on this, it will run a full scan of all of your images and optimize all of them. You only have to do this once and when it’s done, it will automatically optimize each new image you upload for you.
Things to think of before optimizing your images
Before you run the Shortpixel bulk optimizer, there are a couple of things to consider that can save you credits.
Especially on the free plan, you only have 100 credits per month and if you have an established blog, this can add up quickly.
- Remove any image from your media library that you’re not using.
Especially when you’re setting up your blog with a demo-site. Those will come with images already and if you’re not using them, you want to remove them before running Shortpixel. - Make sure your images are in Jpeg format. You don’t have to format them in WebP format manually. Shortpixel will do this for you.
Shortpixel credit bundle vs monthly subscription.
When you’re ready to get a paid plan for the Shortpixel plugin, you have 2 options.
You can either purchase a bundle with credits that will never expire. This is a one-time purchase and is perfect for you if you have a blog that you’re growing.
They start out for just $20 for 30K credits. I purchased the 100K credits bundle a few years back and I still have credits left on that account.
Or you can purchase a monthly or yearly subscription with unlimited credits.
Monthly subscriptions are just $10 per month and are best if you create lots of content per month or if you have multiple websites.
Keep in mind that you can use your subscription on unlimited websites. That’s why I use this now since I work with clients and I use my API keys on their websites.
In case you’re interested in my monthly WordPress maintenance service, you can read more about that here.
If you want the unlimited subscription and pay for an entire year, it’s only $99 for the entire year, which will save you an additional 2 months.
I hope this tutorial was helpful and in case you have specific questions about this, by all means, feel free to leave a comment below or reach out to me through my contact page and I’m more than happy to help you out.
