A guide to Squoosh for image compression

Site speed is currently at the forefront of website design and search engine optimisation, and compressing your website’s images is one of the quickest and easiest ways to help make your site load faster for users.

So, when we all got an email from Gary, subject line ‘image compression tool” we all got excited … as only a bunch of developers, designers and digital marketers can.

Enter Squoosh from Google Chrome Labs.

So what is Squoosh?

Squoosh is a simple and easy-to-use app where you can drag and drop an image of your choosing into the tool and then you can pick from compression standards including MozJPEG, OptiPNG, and Google’s own WebP.

A small slider lets you quickly adjust the level of compression, and you’ll also see a running total of how large the new file is expected to be. A second slider can be pulled across the image to let you easily see the effects of the compression, just in case you’ll lose too much image quality. There are more advanced options available, but to be honest you’ll be able to get a pretty decent balance between image size and quality without them.

Where can I get Squoosh?

You can access Squoosh online through its simple-to-use website and, once loaded, it can also work offline within your browser. https://squoosh.app

When to use Squoosh?

Once the team has handed off your website and you start adding your own content to the site, we suggest you run all of your images through this tool before uploading them to your media library.  Keeping on top of your image sizes will not only help with your site speed but also the size of your database, which can have an impact on the cost of your hosting.

If you need more information or would like any help, drop us a line.