Websites are no longer judged by just their design; nowadays, a good website should be well optimised along with its design, and even a small delay in loading can increase bounce rate. Images also have a good role in website optimisation; if images are not optimised very well, it can cause low performance of the website.
To solve the optimisation issue caused by images, WebP was developed. WebP is made for web pages that support compression, transparency, animation, etc. WebP has become the most recommended choice for modern websites.
In this article, we are going to explain to you what WebP is, why modern websites use it and how WebP improve page speed. In this article, we also compare it with our classic PNG and JPG image formats. So, without wasting much time, let's learn about the WebP format.
What Is WebP?
WebP is an image format developed by Google. It has better compression when we compare it with the PNG and JPG image formats. It can compress in both lossy and lossless ways, which means you can compress it by losing image quality and also without losing quality.
The WebP format images have less file size than image formats like PNG, JPG, which helps your website to load faster. WebP can replace the classic PNG, JPG, and GIF image formats as it supports transparency, compression, animation, etc.
WebP was supported by several modern and popular browsers, which include Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari. It was the most recommended image format for websites as it supports several browsers, and also mainly because of its features.
Why Modern Websites Use WebP?
Modern Websites are mainly built for a better user experience, and as part of it, they always focus on better performance of the website. An unoptimised image is one of the reasons behind low performance. To fix it, they use the WebP image format. WebP has the ability to store high-quality images in a low file size, which helps them to serve images in high quality without causing performance issues.
Another reason is its flexibility, as I told before, it supports better compression, transparency in image and animation, which helps them to replace several image formats with this one image format. WebP images also meet all modern web standards.
As search engines encourage fast-loading websites WebP image format can help to optimise the website. These all reasons encourage modern websites to use the WebP format for their website images.
How Does WebP Improve Page Speed?
The page speed is also checked by how much faster images are downloaded and displayed on the page. By using the WebP image format, you can reduce downloading time and help to display faster as it has a smaller file size than other image formats. This helps to improve your page speed.
The WebP images also reduce the amount of data transferred between server and user, which helps the browser to render content faster and also helps to reduce the delay on the page. Using several images on a single page makes the page speed more noticeable.
By its fast downloading speed, its small file size and fast rendering helps to improve page speed, which is why several websites use WebP.
Comparison Of WebP, PNG And JPG
| Features | WebP | PNG | JPG |
|---|---|---|---|
| File Size | Low | High | Medium |
| Animation | True | False | False |
| Transparency | True | True | False |
| Quality | Excellent | Excellent | Good |
Can We Convert Other Format Images to WebP?
Yes, you can convert other image formats to WebP by using any online image converter to WebP tool. You can try out our free Image To WebP Converter.
Conclusion
By reading this article, you have understood what WebP is and why modern websites use the WebP format for their website images. WebP is the best image format that suits any website that always aims better user experience and better page speed. WebP has become the most recommended image format these days.
Faster loading images not only increase user satisfaction but also improve your website performance. The WebP image format is no longer an optional image format. We also recommend using the WebP image format for your websites because if images load quickly, then there is a chance of users staying more time on your website, especially on a wallpaper website, or content that requires images for reference.
Hope this article helps you build a good knowledge of the WebP image format. Adding WebP images to your website may make your website a future proof that meet modern standards. From now on, start using WebP images to improve the user experience of your website.