Do you want to learn how to use lazy loading to load images into WordPress?

Lazy Load is a technique that allows your website to load only images when a user scrolls down to a specific image, which reduces website load time and improves performance. of the website.

Most popular websites that are heavy with images use Lazy Load to increase the speed and performance of the website.

In this article, we'll show you how to load images to WordPress using Lazy Load.

Why Lazy Load Images in WordPress?

Lazy loading of your images on WordPress can speed up your website and provide a best user experience.

No one likes slow websites. In fact, a performance study found that a single one-second delay in page load time results in 7% fewer conversions, 11% fewer pageviews, and 16% lower customer satisfaction.

use lazy load to load images

Search engines like Google also don't like slow loading websites. That's why faster websites rank higher in search results.

Images take the longest time to load on your website compared to other web elements. If you add a lot of images to your posts, each image increases your page load time.

One way to handle this situation is to use a CDN service. A CDN will allow a user to download images from a web server closest to them and reduce website load speeds.

However, your images will still load and will affect the overall page load time. To resolve this problem, you can delay loading images by implementing lazy loading or Lazy Load on your website.

How does lazy loading of images work?

Instead of loading all your images at once, lazy loading only downloads the images visible on the user's screen. It replaces all other images with a placeholder image or an empty space.

When a user scrolls down, your website loads images that are visible in the browser's display area.

Lazy loading can be very beneficial for your WordPress blog.

  • It reduces the initial loading time of the web page, so that users will see your website faster
  • It saves bandwidth by providing only images at the time of viewing and can save on hosting costs

The release of WordPress 5.5 added lazy loading as a default feature.

However, if you want to customize how your images load lazily and background images lazy load, you will need to use a WordPress Plugin.

Please note: Although lazy loading or Lazy Load will help improve website loading speed, you should always optimize images for the web before uploading them to WordPress for maximum performance.

We will share two WordPress plugins which can help you easily configure lazy loading on WordPress images.

Method 1. Lazy Load Images in WordPress with WP Rocket

We recommend that you use the plugin WP Rocket to lazily load images into WordPress. It is the best WordPress caching plugin on the market and it allows you to easily enable lazy loading of images.

Other than that, it is a very powerful plugin that helps you optimize your website speed without knowing the complex technical terms.

Upon installation and activation, all of its default recommended caching settings will dramatically speed up your WordPress website.

To enable lazy loading of the image, you just need to check a few boxes. You can even enable lazy loading for videos, which will further improve your website speed.

use lazy load to load images

Method 2. Lazy Load Images in WordPress with Optimole

This method uses the free plugin Optimole. It is one of the best WordPress image compression plugins and it allows you to enable lazy loading of images easily.

If you get more than 5 visitors per month, you will need the The premium version.

When activating, go to Media »Optimole, then sign up for an API key.

Just click on the button Register & Email API KeyAnd it will be emailed to you.

Then enter your API key and click on " Connect to OptiMole Service ».

After that, click on the tab " Settings ”.

Here you can make sure that the " Scale images & Lazy load" is activated. This will generate images based on your visitor's screen size and improve loading speeds.

Then click on the menu option " Advanced »And select« Lazyload ».

On this screen, there are various settings that allow you to customize how your images will lazily load.

First of all, you can adjust the " Exclude first of images from lazyload ". This will prevent the first images of your articles or pages to use the lazy load.

You can set this option to 0 if you want each image to load lazily.

Then you can activate the option " Scale Images ».

This will adapt the images to the size of the visitor's screen and make your page load faster.

After that you can activate the setting " Enable Lazyload for background images ».

This will lazily load your background images, which can be some of the larger images on your website.

Another setting you can enable is lazy loading of embedded videos and iframes. If you have a lot of embedded video content, you should enable this setting.

This will load a placeholder image instead of the video. When you click on it, the full video loads.

You can continue to customize these settings and see what works best for your website and images.

Before exiting the plugin settings, be sure to click on the " Save Changes ».

Discover also some premium WordPress plugins  

You can use other WordPress plugins to give a modern appearance and to optimize the handling of your blog or website.

We offer you here some premium WordPress plugins that will help you do that.

1. ARMember

ARMember is a WordPress Plugin content protection. It's a unique solution that allows you to sell subscriptions on any website. It has a whole range of tools that can completely or partially protect its content.

ARMember WordPress Membership Plugin

Another of its features is the fact that it offers a free option which is a bit limited in terms of functionality. Speaking of features, this powerful WordPress Plugin offers, among other things:

The ability to schedule content, support for multiple subscription plans, easy setup, migration between subscription plans, WooCommerce support, several forms templates, and more.

It is also a reference in this niche.

Download | Demo | Web hosting 

2. Tax Display by Country for WooCommerce

Tax Display By Country for WooCommerce is a plugin that allows you to display the prices of products with or without taxes, depending on the country of the visitor. It also allows you to pre-select the visitor's billing country. Tax Display by Country for WooCommerce

Remember that sometimes customers can be confused because of the different currencies and when that includes taxes it is even more complicated. Tax Display By Country, therefore, allows you to remove these obstacles and simplify the purchasing process.

Download | DemoWeb hosting

3. Slick Popup Pro

Slick Popup Pro is a WordPress extension quite simple and lightweight that converts any form created by the plugin Contact Form 7 in a popup. She uses the form and converts it into a beautiful and perfectly responsive popup.WordPress Popup Plugin Slick Popup Pro

The popup form can have several uses including: an information collection form, a Contact form, a registration form, a quote form, a suggestion / complaint form and others.

Download | Demo | Web hosting

Other recommended resources

We also invite you to consult the resources below to go further in the grip and control of your website and blog.

Conclusion

Here is ! That's it for this tutorial. We hope this article has helped you learn how to lazily load images in WordPress. Do not hesitate to share with your friends on your favorite social networks

However, you will also be able to consult our resources, if you need more elements to carry out your projects of creation of Internet sites, by consulting our guide on the WordPress blog creation.

But, in the meantime, tell us about your Comments and suggestions in the dedicated section.

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