Photon Not Optimizing Images

Yes, I optimized all images with EWWW, and according to PageSpeed Insights they are trully optimized, but after activating Photon the images are reported as not optimized.
So I deactivated.
Also, this might depend on the host but serving them directly through my host was faster than through photon CDN.

When comparing the 2 sites, you will see that many of the images are 2 to 4 times LARGER using Photon.

I checked a few of the images, and while I do see a difference, images seem to be served faster through Photon. Here is an example:

Image optimized with EWWW Image Optimizer plugin

• https://www.craftsbycourtney.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/listpage-620×350.jpg
• Size: 236B
• Loading time: 340ms
• https://i.wpne.ws/S4YM

The same image, cached and served via Photon

• https://i2.wp.com/www.craftsbycourtney.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/listpage.jpg?resize=620%2C350
• Size: 322B
• Loading time: 42ms
• https://i.wpne.ws/S4Ev

One of the advantages of using Photon is that it will cache and serve a different image even for mobile users, or for readers with a viewport different from yours. Images are resized and cached on the fly, for each new browser size.

Now, I’m not familiar enough with Pingdom’s Website Speed Test or PageSpeed Insights tools to tell you how they work. But I would recommend that you use your browser’s console to test some of your images by yourself. You can find out how to open your browser’s console here:
https://webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/8525/how-to-open-the-javascript-console-in-different-browsers
Size and loading time stats will be available in the Network tab.

Also, this might depend on the host but serving them directly through my host was faster than through photon CDN.

That’s possible indeed, although that can change depending on your location. If most of your readers do not live too far from your server’s location, it doesn’t really matter. But if your readers are based all over the world, you’ll want to use a CDN like Photon, to make sure that images are served from somewhere close to the user’s location.

I hope this clarifies things a bit.

Thank you for your thorough response Jeremy. One of my main concerns was that I was forcing mobile users to download HUGE image files.

So you are saying that mobile users get smaller images? Is there anyway to verify this?

Thanks,

Clyde

So you are saying that mobile users get smaller images? Is there anyway to verify this?

That’s correct. You can verify this with your browser console. On an iPhone for example, the image we checked earlier should be resized to fit into the iPhone viewport. Its URL will become:
https://i2.wp.com/www.craftsbycourtney.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/listpage.jpg?resize=300%2C199

Of course, the loading time may vary here, because mobile readers are most likely to browse your site using a slower Internet connection.

Ok, thanks Jeremy for your help.

I will give Photon a second chance!

So all in all, it’s safe to activate Photon again?

Only problem is that SEO-wise google’s bots might think that the site is not fast enough, even if user experience is great. Any thoughts on this?

So all in all, it’s safe to activate Photon again?

It is, yes. I can’t talk for Google’s bots though. Google Pagespeed insights returns a good score for your site. But if you want to optimize your images further, you could follow Google’s recommendations here:
https://developers.google.com/speed/docs/insights/OptimizeImages

I hope this helps.