Lazy Load image can dramatically improve the loading time of a website. It helps a site load fast and boost SEO. But how to lazy load images on a WordPress website? What is the best lazy load plugin for WordPress?
Keep reading and we’ll cover all lazy load and its related information like how you can set up Lazy load images on WordPress, how to lazyload iframe, and so on.
What is Lazy Load?
A website has different types of components including images, CSS, HTML, JS, videos, fonts, and so on. The image is the heaviest part of a webpage. When you visit a website, all components load by default even you need them. All unwanted images load with the webpage which consumes more data and time to load.
So, is there any method that only loads images when you really scroll to them? The answer is YES. Lazy load is the solution to it. Lazy load is a function that loads an image only when a user scrolls to it.
Imagine that you to a webpage where it has 2 images on that. Where one image is on top and another is at the bottom. When you go to the webpage, it loads both images at the same time. But you only used the upper part of the webpage which means the bottom image loaded unwantedly.
Lazy load an image can help here and solve this problem. It loads images only when users scroll to that particular image. It saves bandwidth and stops unwanted requests to the server. So by this, it helps to load faster your website and ultimately improve SEO.
Benefits of Lazy Load Image and iframes
As I told you before how lazy-loads work, so it is clear that –
- Lazy load dramatically load the site faster and improve the website’s loading speed
- It only loads images when the user visits them and save bandwidth
- Boost SEO ranking.
- Provide a better user experience.
- Minimize unwanted server request.
Why Lazy Load Plugin?
WordPress 7.5 and later has lazy-loads by default. It assigns the “loading=”lazy” attribute in HTML for image and iframe. So you don’t need any external plugin for it. But, this by default feature is very simple as basic. There is no control over it or you can not modify it by yourself. So, the lazy-load plugin does this job better. So you need a lazy-loads plugin. There is so many free lazy load plugin for WordPress where some are paid.
How to Lazy-Loading image in WordPress
WordPress is powered by thousands of plugins which make it the world’s most popular CMS. These plugins add more functionalities to WordPress. To lazy load the image, there are many plugins available from free to paid. But here today, I am sharing some hand-picked free lazy load plugin for WordPress that helps to load website faster and boost SEO
1. a3 Lazy Load
a3 Lazy Load is WordPress most popular free lazy-load plugin with more than 200000 active installs. It is a lightweight and customizable plugin dedicated to lazy loading without spending money. It works for all devices and is fully compatible with WordPress. You can also customize the loading effect for example fade-in and spinner.
It is also compatible with WooCommerce and perfect for those who are looking for a lazy-loading plugin for their online store. It also works for iframe as well as images and videos. a3 Lazy Load is compatible with all cache plugins and other optimization plugins. All these make it WordPress’s best lazy load plugin for Free.
2. Lazy Loader
This lazy loading plugin defers images, videos, iframe, audio and background images. It is a simple but feature-packed free lazy-load solution. With images and video, it also lazy loads background images(inline) too.
You can skip lazy loading on some pages or some elements now. Thank this plugin. It also has a exclude option that can exclude certain pages from lazy loading. This option is for the advanced user but anyone can use it.
3. Jetpack
More than 5 million websites are using WordPress’s this Jetpack plugin. It comes with the most powerful and important features including Free CDN and on-the-fly image optimization. It also has a basic lazy load option that can be enabled in its settings option.
If you use the Jetpack plugin and want a simple lazy-loading for images, you can definitely try it. You just need to go to the plugin setting and enable lazy load from the performance tab.
4. Autoptimize
This is a website optimization plugin with HTML, JS, CSS minification, aggregation and a lot more features. Along with all these, its lazy-load feature also works perfectly.
Autoptimize add a tiny js in the web page which loads images upon scroll to them. Autoptimize is compatible with most caching plugins like WP Super Cache, Cache Enabler etc.
5. Speed Up – Lazy Load
It is a very simple and lightweight plugin(only 5KB). This plugin’s lazy-load implementation technique is very simple. It avoids download until the user scroll to it. And it only downloads and loads the image when the user scrolls to them.
For example, if an image is placed at the bottom and uses come on that page. Then, the image will not be loaded with the webpage. It only loads when the user scrolls down to the bottom.
6. LiteSpeed Cache Plugin
LiteSpeed Cache is an all one website optimization plugin that has an inbuilt lazy load feature. Unline other, it generates responsive place holder for the image which avoid seeing blank until image load. It also has a feature that generates ‘Low-Quality Image Placeholder’ using its quic.cloud service for giving a better user experience.
LiteSpeed Cache plugin works will all types of web servers but, it gives its best with LiteSpeed web server technology. I use this plugin on my most of sites. It is free of cost plugin for WordPress and available for everyone.
Note that, it is not a Lazy Load only plugin, it has various features from generating cache to speed optimization. So if you have other cache plugins then and looking for a lazy load only plugin then, you should avoid it. But if you have a LiteSpeed webserver than, you should give it a try. Its server-level cache functionalities will boost your website’s loading time and give you a better experience.
