WORDPRESS WITH IMAGEENGINE

WordPress is an open source software that anyone can use to build a blog or website. It powers 35.9% of all websites in 2021 according to W3Techs survey. A tool that is easing creating websites and blogs, most of its functionality relies on plugins.

For a WordPress website to be fast in loading without keeping customers waiting, further configuration is needed and with the help of plugins, the process is simplified.

A key factor resulting in sluggish websites is poor image rendering. This could be resolved using an image cdn. Before going to an image cdn, a cdn is a distributed platform of servers that helps reduce delays in loading webpage content.

Image cdn is therefore a regular content delivery network with enhancement of softwares to magnify the underlying cdn functionality.

Benefit of using an image cdn

  • It enables global reach
  • Decreases image payload
  • Web performance and S.E.O ranking
Using an image cdn can enhance web performance and best mobile experiance for visitors. Whilst there might be lot of cdn to select from, ImageEngine is one of the most reliable to consider.

It’s a brilliant image content delivery network that will resize your image content tailored to end users.

ImageEngine over other image cdn

  • 30% faster than other cdn
  • 49% efficient image payload optimization
  • Efficient cache hit rate
  • Support JP2 for iPhone and WebP for chrome
To get started, download and istall ImageEngine WordPress plugin on WordPress.
 

Installing on WordPress dashboard

Downloaded file will be in a zip format. On the left panel of the dashboard scroll down to plugins and select ‘Add new’ from the dropdown options for the plugins page to populate.
Clicking on ‘Upload Plugin’ will expand the page view to choose file and install.
 
Plugin must be activated post installation for right configuration to be carried out on the settings page of the plugin.
 

Nest is to navigate to the settings page of the Image cdn plugin which can be accessed from ‘Plugins’ > ‘Installed Plugins’ from the left side bar.

Search for ‘Image cdn’ from the ‘Installed Plugins’ page and tap on settings. A delivery address is needed for the input field.

To obtain a delivery address, sign-up for an imageEngine account and fill all required fields. Provide the url of the website that needs to be optimized. Here blog4dev is used as a case study. Replace with the neede url and continue.

There are 3 options to sign-up: Google, GitHub or email credentials. Use the preferred option.

As a final step, ImageEngine needs to know where website assets are being served from. Using the dropdown select the required link and complete sign-up.

A delivery address will be created upon complete configuration. Copy and paste on Image cdn settings page on WordPress dashboard. Then enable ImageEngine and save changes.

All URLs for style sheet, JavaScript and images will be rewritten and updated by ImageEngine plugin.

WepPage Test is a web platform you can use to test the efficiency of ImageEngine plugin by first running a website without any image cdn, and running it again but this time with ImageEngine cdn.

Without image cdn

With ImageEngine

A clear difference is seen between the 2 results but more importantly, content download was reduced from 1571 ms to 1114 ms. ImageEngine did the magic and download time reduced by 457 ms which is significant for web performance.

Conclusion

It’s important to not keep website visitors waiting due to sluggish image rendering. Detecting visitors devices in order to optimize images and deliver via a global cdn is the best way of solving this and ImageEngine is an option in terms of image cdn.

Taken into an account, the effect of this can be seen as S.E.O improvement, web performance and sales conversion.

In as much as you seek best performance, image cdn is indeed worth looking into without much hesitation.

ImageEngine therefore is an alternative to consider when making a decision since it’s user friendly and can be installed with little guidance.

Moreover, there is strong customer support to offer help in case you run into technical challenges.