<b>Resize photos before uploading, not after</b>

<b>Resize photos before uploading, not after</b>

Here's a mistake almost every beginner makes: uploading a photo straight from the phone or camera. Those are often 4000 pixels wide and several megabytes, far bigger than any screen needs.

Why it matters: huge images make pages slow to load, and slow pages lose readers and rankings. WordPress keeps the original, so it never shrinks on its own.

How to do it right:
— Most blog images only need to be about 1200 to 1600 pixels wide.
— Resize on a free site like Squoosh or TinyPNG before uploading.
— Aim for under 200 kilobytes per image where you can.

A pixel is just one tiny dot of the image, and fewer dots means a lighter file.

<i>In plain words:</i> shrink your photos before they go up, your pages will load far faster.