Many website owners are not aware that uploading large images creates problems later on. These large images will take time to display for your visitors. WordPress and certain plugins make different sized copies of the uploaded image on the fly. This creates more files and more megabytes to store.
Today’s phones and cameras can make extremely large images. Save those for print not for the web. Most modern laptops and desktops have screen resolutions between 1440 pixels (px) and 1920 pixels. So a 5000px image is not necessary. Scale it down. Compress it. Then upload it to your website.
Why is it a problem? It is a problem when you want to move your website to a different web host. When you want to move your website you must first archive it. All the themes, plugins and images that you uploaded over the years add up. So the archive file can become quite large and difficult to move around. Some web hosts charge for extra backup space.
Let’s say you have an archive file size of 10 Gigs and you have 3 backups. That is 30 gigs of space that you wouldn’t need to be charged for if you were more sensitive to the file sizes that you were uploading.
Cut the fat! Make your websites lean. They will load faster and they will be more portable.
