How to Configure the LiteSpeed Cache Image Optimization Settings in WordPress

The Litespeed Cache for WordPress plugin includes some pretty powerful Image Optimization settings.

This Knowledge Base article will cover the different settings available and help you set up your LSCache for WordPress Plugin properly.

Let’s begin!

How to Configure the LiteSpeed Cache Image Optimization Settings in WordPress

Step 1: Login to your /wp-admin and hover over the LiteSpeed Cache option in the menu on the right. Next, in the little popup that appears, click Image Optimization.

Step 2: Click Image Optimization Settings at the top of the Image Optimization page.

When the Image Optimization page loads, you’ll see there are a lot of settings.

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Let’s review these settings so you can get your Images optimized!

• When enabled, the Auto Request Cron setting will run a Cron job to optimize your images each time you upload new images to your Media Library.
  • This is a great setting to enable as it saves you from having to manually optimize each image you upload.
• The Auto Pull Cron feature is enabled by default. This feature enables the use of a cron job to control the fetching of optimized images from LiteSpeed’s image server. If you disable this setting, you will need to fetch newly-optimized images manually using the Pull Images button.
  • We recommend leaving this set to enabled.
• The Optimize Original Images setting is set to On by default. This means that JPG and PNG images uploaded to your Media Library will be optimized and a backup of the original will be saved. The way this works is, if image.jpg can be optimized, a copy of it is saved as image.bk.jpg. Then, the newly optimized version is saved back into image.jpg.
  • We recommend leaving this setting to On.
• The Remove Original Backups feature is a feature you should be extremely careful with. This feature is disabled by default for a reason. When enabled, your original image will be deleted once it’s optimized.
• The Optimize Losslessly feature will utilize lossless compression when compressing and optimizing images. This can improve image quality post-optimization but may result in larger images than if you had used lossy compression.
  • This setting is purely up to you. In our professional opinion, the difference in file size between an image optimized with lossy vs lossless compression is negligible, however, when you’re talking about uploading a lot of images, that difference can quickly add up and eat away at your disk space in your hosting plan.
• With Preserve EXIF/XMP data, you can choose to retain or discard any EXIF or XMP data from the image. This information can contain details about the camera equipment used to take the picture, copyright date and photographer, GPS coordinates, comments, keywords, and more. Because this information does take up some space, the optimization process removes this information by default. You can choose to enable this if you wish, but this will increase the file size of the final optimized image.
  • We recommend setting this to enabled, not only for filesize reasons but for privacy. EXIF data can contain the GPS coordinates of the location you captured the image, which can reveal the coordinates of your home, place of work, family and friends’ houses, and other places you frequent. This information could be used against you.
  • If you do choose to leave this information there, consider using an EXIF data editor, such as ExifToolGUI for Windows, and edit out sensitive details, such as GPS data.
•  The Create WebP Versions will create a .WEBP file version of uploaded images as part of the Image Optimization Process. WEBP is a common file format which in many cases results in an image with quality optimization and a relatively small file size.
  • You can choose to enable this, if you wish, but bear in mind, the third copy of the images you upload will be created and therefore, these new WEBP files will be taking up additional space, even if they are small files. Over time, that adds up, and it also deducts from INODE availability.
• With Image WebP Replacement you can choose to use the WebP image format for optimized images in lieu of JPG or PNG, where available. Using WebP image format can result in up to 30% smaller image files.
  • This is a master switch, so you should be very careful of using this.
  • The WebP image format is not supported by all browsers. If an unsupported browser requests a page with WebP images on it, LSCache will serve a version with the original, unoptimized image file format to that browser.
  • Warning: Enabling this option will create additional cache varies. If you have crawling enabled on your website, cache varies can cause multiple crawlers to be created which consumes additional hosting resources, such as I/O and CPU.
  • We recommend leaving this option Off unless you have a very specific reason to use it.
• With WebP Attribute to Replace, you have the power to alter the behavior of WebP Replacement. The default values show where LiteSpeed Server automatically replaces JPG with WebP. The attributes listed are one per line using the format element.attribute, or .attribute (where element is optional).
  • Simply remove an attribute from the list if you do not want WebP images replaced there.
  • Add a new one to the list of your site has an attribute that the plugin doesn’t replace by default.
• Using WebP For Extra srcset is handy if you have custom code on your site which adds srcset elements, but bypasses WordPress logic to do so. If this is the case, you will need to enable this feature. LiteSpeed knows to look for srcset elements that are generated through WordPress, but it won’t replace WebP images in other srcset elements, unless you tell it to.
• And finally, using WordPress Image Quality Control, you can adjust the image compression quality. Any number smaller than 100 is accepted, but the smaller the number, the more noticeable the compression will be.
  • We recommend staying around 82.

Important: Be sure to click Save Changes in the top right corner of the page to save any changes you make.

Using the configuration we’ve recommended will get your site’s Image Optimization settings running great!

▶️ Please join us in the next tutorial, where we will walk you through the configuration of the LiteSpeed Cache Database Optimization Settings in WordPress