Let’s be clear, website speed is based on several factors. For example, a high speed website contains smaller size images, good hosting, good server response time, less coding work, and only a few plugins that actually matters.
So, if you took care of all necessary things perfectly to increase your website speed but ignored the image size, your website will be still inside the slow websites category. Yes, Image size is highly important in website speed. And using WebP images (a format recommended by Google) will actually increase your website speed eventually.
Today, in this article, we’ll learn about how to increase website speed using WebP images for completely free and mainly, in a safe way! So, let’s get started.
You can safely convert your JPG images to WebP in Our JPG to WebP Converter.
Table of Contents
Why Website Speed Matters More Than Ever in 2025?
The first reason is, a great user experience. Think about it, you visited any website while researching and it loads quickly when you open, don’t you feel wow? This is the exact mindset of every user. Even if it loads 1 second faster than ever, users will quickly get a positive feeling about that website and this is what Google loves!
A website that loads under 2 seconds is considered as a high loading speed website.
The second reason, Google’s core web vitals becoming stricter! Core web vitals is a group of metrics that Google uses to calculate or measure a user experience on any website, including loading performance, interactivity, and visual stability. These metrics are very important in SEO because Google considers it as a ranking factor. Google uses these metrics and decides whether to rank your website high or low!
Which means, if your site scores well on core web vitals, it has significantly more chance to rank high.
Third one, users will quickly exit your site if it loads slower. Yes, it’s our own mentality in this fast growing world! Let’s be honest, if you visited a website and it took more than 5 seconds to load, would you still be on that website? Absolutely, the common answer is No. So, make sure your site loads faster so users don’t get this feeling.
The final one is, Google trusts your website because it’s loading fast (under 2 seconds). Google loves those websites which are loved by users, Simple! If you make a user happy with a fast website, Google will also be happy that your site is loading faster, which is a main reason for higher rankings.
How Website Speed is Actually Calculated? (2025 Breakdown)
Website speed is calculated by Google based on the following factors.
Largest Contentful Paint
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) – a metric that is used to measure how much time it has taken to load the individual largest element or largest image on the website. This is one of the main factors to calculate website speed by Google.
A 2.5 seconds LCP is considered as good and perfect for rankings. Which means, the largest element on your website should want to be loaded in or under 2.5 seconds.
According to my personal experience, to maintain a good LCP, you must make sure that:
- You rely on a good hosting provider
- Use a caching plugin
- Enable lazy loading
- Don’t use a heavy codes like JavaScript and CSS
- Use WebP image format (not JPG)
- Don’t install a lot of unnecessary plugins.
First Input Delay (FID) / INP (2025 Update)
Interaction to Next Point (INP) replaced FID in March 2024. INP is another main metric which is used to measure website responsiveness and interaction. In simple words, INP tracks the user activity on that specific page like user clicks, taps and keyboard presses, etc. It clearly indicates that, the more your site is engaging or interesting to users, the more it has a chance to rank high in search results.
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) is another metric which measures visual stability of a website page. In simple words, CLS tracks user experience on our website. For example, if you visited a random website while researching and decided to click a button, and content on that page quickly moves due to an ad or because an image loaded slowly, it indicates a bad user experience because it causes unexpected clicks by users.
According to Google, having a CLS score about 0.1 is a good indicator for rankings.
Why Images Heavily Impact All These Metrics?
Images can make as well as can break your website performance and rankings, if not used in a proper way. Yes! Larger images are the main reason for LCP. If the image size is too heavy, like JPGs, it will break your website performance quickly.
That’s why Google officially announced WebP image format in 2010, especially for web use. JPG images are ok for photography and printing, but using JPG or PNG for web use like blogging, e-commerce and digital marketing is too risky.
The one and only solution to improve website speed based on image optimization, is to use WebP images in your website. WebP images are so lighter in size compared to JPG and others, while maintaining the same original quality. So, if you are using WebP images, your website will speed up and perform high compared to those who are still using JPGs.
To know more about WebP images, read our article What is WebP and How it improve SEO.
What Slows Down a Website in 2025?
In this section, we will deeply discuss what are the actual things that can slow down your website and how to avoid it.
Heavy Image Sizes
Yes, heavy image size is the main reason that most of the websites remain slower. You can see huge improvements in speed if you optimize your images perfectly. Using WebP images exactly helps you here! WebP images are lighter up to 50% compared to JPG and others, with the same original quality. WebP images don’t reduce image quality but it safely reduces its size.
Unoptimized Image Formats
I repeat, not to use JPG or PNG for websites, it will massively slow down your website! JPG and PNG are good but they are not made for web uses. That’s why Google launched a separate browser friendly image format WebP, for uses like blogging, digital marketing, etc.
You have to use WebP images because Google loves it and Google gives a first priority to WebP images compared to other formats.
Server / Hosting Issues
A cheap hosting can also slow down your website. So, make sure to use a reliable and trusted hosting service like Hostinger, etc.
Render-Blocking CSS/JS
A heavy use of codes like CSS and JavaScript will also affect your website speed. So, make sure not to use too much code on your website.
Why WebP Images Are a Game-Changer For Website Speed
WebP format is exactly made for web use, by Google. No doubt it’s a game changer in website speed, when it comes to image optimization.
What exactly is WebP?
WebP is a modern image format launched by Google in 2010. WebPs are browser friendly images and they contain a high quality image with a very small size as possible. This is what Google exactly wants!
There is a huge difference between WebP and JPG images based on web use. We explained it deeply inside our article
WebP = Smaller File Size Without Losing Quality
According to Google, WebP images are lighter in size up to 35 – 50% which is a much more important factor in SEO. Because, when you use WebP images, they are so lighter in size that they won’t harm or affect your server, and your website as well as your images loads quickly when a user opens it. I guarantee you heard about the concept of Time is Money and yes, that proverb exactly fits here! Because we are saving user time and enhancing user experience, and that is what Google expects from a good website.
There is a double add-on advantage for us while using WebP images! One, people will love it because it provides a great user experience. And also Google loves our websites because people are loving it! I hope this example gives a clear understanding of why WebP is better than JPG format for web use.
WebP Boosts All Core Web Vitals
Yes! Because of its lighter size and faster loading capability, WebP images boost and improve all core web vitals. Ok, let’s be practical. I am giving you a simple task to use WebP images in your website for the next 30 days and check back your core web vitals score in Google PageSpeed Insights. I guarantee you can see major improvements in website speed and performance, as well as in rankings in a few months!
How to Convert JPG to WebP Safely in 2025?
Safe WebP Conversion is more important than just WebP conversion. A lot of tools online upload your images to their servers, and then convert it to WebP and it has a high chance that your uploaded images are stored somewhere in their server. So, in this section we’ll discuss how to convert to WebP with maximum safety and privacy.
Step 1: Convert JPGs to WebP Using a Safe Tool
We have developed a 100% Safe JPG to WebP Converter that converts all of your images inside your browser. We do not use any servers to convert your JPG images. All the WebP conversion safely happens in client-side browser so, all the data will delete once you refresh the tool page. So, stay confident and convert as many images as you can because, your images don’t go anywhere, it’s completely free and supports unlimited WebP conversions.
Step 2: Replace Old JPGs on Your Website
I personally know that it’s a little bit of a time taking process. But trust me, if you replaced all of your JPGs on your website to WebP, you can see a sudden speed boost on your website, because replacing all JPGs to WebP suddenly reduces the server load on your website and your website become more SEO friendly, which is a main step for technical SEO.
Step 3: Use Lazy Loading and Caching
If you are a wordpress user, make sure to use a good caching plugin like lite speed cache or wp rocket. It clears a major cache in your website and helps in speeding up your site. Also make sure to enable the lazy loading feature inside a caching plugin. It’s all small steps but also effective steps.
Conclusion
In conclusion, never use JPG images in your site because it hurts your site SEO and rankings. For this exact reason Google provides a lighter image format like WebP for us. So, using the image format that is officially recommended by Google is the safest way. So, make sure to convert your existing JPGs on your site to WebP and use WebP images for new articles as well. You can safely convert your JPG to WebP using our JPG to WebP Converter.
Have a Great Day!
