When it comes to website speed, a lot of things can be taken for granted these days. With increasing Internet speeds in many areas around the globe and enhanced adoption of cloud architecture and content delivery networks, sometimes website speed optimization can take a backseat to new feature development.
Part of building modern website experiences is by making use of highly-detailed imagery, as Samtec.com does on many of its flagship product pages – High-Density Arrays, for example. While the upside of this is an improved experience, the downside can be reduced page load times, especially for larger images. The larger an image is on the page (200 KB vs 2 MB for example), the longer it takes for that page to load. Multiply that by the fact that some pages have dozens of images, and you can see how that can add up quickly.
Image Optimization Improvements
Recently we rolled out a project to optimize a number of images across Samtec.com. Previous to this update, we had been manually optimizing images by running them through compression software as they were created. However, with this being just one step in the process to create a new page, it doesn’t always get done perfectly. So as we do in software, we automated it.
This works by running images through a compression platform before they are loaded onto the page, then serving the optimized images to the user. The result is a much smaller image in terms of size, but with virtually no difference in quality, also called “lossless compression.”
As I write this post, we’ve optimized about 3,000 images using this technique, with a 68% average reduction in size. This has helped increase pageload times on relevant pages by about 23% since early August 2022. Since this is now an automated process, the site will continue to benefit from this as additional pages and content are created.
We hope you like the speed increases!
Coming Soon to Samtec.com
Thanks for being a loyal reader of The Samtec Blog.
Here is what we’re currently working on, and a few other updates that are coming soon!
- Continued upgrades to our brand new checkout
- Updated capabilities to manage orders online for more users
- A design upgrade to our Mated Set view
- An upgrade to our search architecture
- A full rebuild of our online quote status system
- And more!
Keep an eye out for these updates and more coming soon.
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If you have any feedback or suggestions for our web team, feel free to send an email to eHelpDesk@samtec.com.
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