ShortPixel Image Optimizer for WordPress: A quick beginner guide

Installing and using the ShortPixel Image Optimizer WordPress plugin

You will first need to install and activate the ShortPixel Image Optimizer WordPress plugin in wp-admin on your site. To optimize images using ShortPixel, you will need to create a free account. The free account will come with 100 credits. ShortPixel offers a number of paid plans which start at $3.99 a month and cover 7,000 images.

Installing and using the ShortPixel Image Optimizer WordPress plugin

To find your API key, you will need to log in to your ShortPixel account and then go to the dashboard in the API keys section:

API keys

In wp-admin of your site, you will need to navigate to following option:

Settings > ShortPixel

Then copy your API key from your ShortPixel into the settings and click on the Save Settings & Validate button. Now that you have validated the API key from ShortPixel, you can optimize existing images in your site’s media library and new images uploaded to your site’s media library.

There are two different ways to optimize images on your site:

1. You can do it directly for single images in the media library.
2. Or you can bulk optimize all of the images in your site’s media library.

Bulk optimization

The bulk optimization of images can be started in wp-admin from the following navigational path:

Media > Bulk ShortPixel

Folders for plugins and themes

Images used by plugins and themes can also be optimized using ShortPixel, but those custom folders would need to be added via the advanced menu of the plugin. Find the plugins or themes you want to optimize and add those folders :

Settings for PDF file

By default, ShortPixel will also include PDF files to be optimized, but they can be excluded from being optimized in the advanced settings:

Backups and restores

ShortPixel, by default, will back up the original unoptimized images. This means that you can restore single images or bulk restore all images if needed.

EXIF tag

The ShortPixel Image Optimizer WordPress plugin will by default remove EXIF data when images are uploaded or when images are being optimized. This should result in the files being 8.5% smaller, and it recommended to keep the remove EXIF setting enabled:

Image quality settings

ShortPixel offers several different image quality levels, such as lossy, glossy, and lossless. If you are unsure what the difference is between the image quality levels, you could use a test image and then optimize using the online tool available within ShortPixel.

Image resizing

ShortPixel also supports resizing images when new images are first uploaded on the site and that setting can be changed in wp-admin from following are of the user interface:

Settings > ShortPixel

Support for next generation image file formats of WEBP and AVIF

The ShortPixel Image Optimizer WordPress plugin supports the next generation image file formats of WEBP and AVIF. Image converted to next-generation image format can result in smaller image files, which means the images will be faster to load for the website’s visitor.

The WEBP image file format has been natively supported in WordPress since version 5.8. Next generation image formats can be set in wp-admin from following navigational path:

Settings > ShortPixel > Advanced

The ShortPixel Image Optimizer WordPress plugin can also work with the Cloudflare CDN. This means that images served from Cloudflare will be the optimized image version and not the unoptimized version of the images.

Helpful resources

Here are some helpful resources to help you maximize the power of the ShortPixel Image Optimizer WordPress plugin:

• https://wordpress.org/plugins/shortpixel-image-optimiser/
• https://shortpixel.com/web-tool-docs
• https://shortpixel.com/knowledge-base/category/306-shortpixel-image-optimizer
• https://shortpixel.com/knowledge-base/article/126-which-webp-files-delivery-method-is-the-best-for-me
• https://shortpixel.com/knowledge-base/article/127-delivering-webp-images-via-htaccess
• https://shortpixel.com/knowledge-base/article/286-how-to-serve-webp-files-using-spio
• https://shortpixel.com/knowledge-base/article/11-lossy-glossy-or-lossless-which-one-is-the-best-for-me
• https://shortpixel.com/knowledge-base/article/14-can-i-restore-my-images-what-happens-with-the-originals
• https://shortpixel.com/knowledge-base/article/208-can-shortpixel-automatically-resize-new-image-uploads
• https://shortpixel.com/knowledge-base/article/520-settings-optimize-pdfs
• https://shortpixel.com/knowledge-base/article/164-what-data-is-kept-when-keep-exif-option-is-selected