56. What Should I Do With Old Blog Images?

[00:00:00] Stephanie: Storage space and site speed are legitimate concerns for bloggers, which is why we don't want old unoptimized images weighing us down,. With them? Let's chat about it. Welcome back to the podcast. This month we're celebrating the first birthday of Payless for Traffic by answering listener questions.

[00:00:30] For this week's episode, I'm addressing two questions that have a common theme. What to do with old often unoptimized blog post images. We'll dive into the specific questions in just a second, but first we need to talk about the importance of image optimization. There are several reasons why we should care about optimizing the images on our blogs.

[00:00:52] First website storage space is not infinite, especially if your website uses shared hosting like Bluehost. Those high quality 3000 by 4000 pixel graphics that you get from your product photographer are beautiful, but they are not the best idea for your website. Having too many of these images can quickly suck up your storage allotment.

[00:01:17] And secondly, optimization is important because the more elements you have on your blog post, the longer it takes to load. Site load Time is becoming more and more important. It's always been important, but Pinterest especially is starting to pay attention to your site load time. So not only does having a slow loading website impact user experience,

[00:01:41] but it can also send negative signals to Google and Pinterest about the quality of your website and your content. So you want your website to load quickly and optimizing your images is one way that you can do that. So let's dive into the first question about old images. I heard from a listener who is working on deleting old irrelevant blog posts from her website.

[00:02:03] She was inspired by some episodes of the podcast and she was rolling up her sleeves and getting that work done. But she discovered as she deletes these old posts, the images that were in those posts still exist in her media library, they don't automatically get deleted as well. So she's wondering if there's a good way to deal with these old images without having to go through each post one by one.

[00:02:28] So this is a great question, especially since it's possible those images might have been used in more than just the one post that she deleted, and I'm assuming this is what she discovered, which is why she asked the question. She's like, I don't want to have to go through all of my posts to make sure that this image was only in that one blog post that I deleted.

[00:02:51] Because if she deletes the image, then she now has a broken image throughout other posts on her website. But it just does not seem realistic to scroll through your entire list of blog posts to make sure an image isn't used anywhere else before deleting the image. So on the surface, it might seem like the media library has this capability.

[00:03:12] When you go to your media library on the back end of WordPress, there's an option to put your media library into list view instead of gallery view. And so it's gonna look a lot like your list of blog posts but instead it's just your images lined up in that way. And there are a bunch of columns that give you information about the images.

[00:03:32] And one of the columns is labeled, uploaded to. And so there is a link to the blog post that that image has been uploaded to. And then if you sort that column, you know, you press the sort button. All of your unattached images, so images that have not been attached to a blog post are going to be grouped together. But I did some experimenting, and that is not an exact science because first, that image will only attach to one post.

[00:04:07] So if that post that it was technically attached to is deleted, it's going to show as unattached, even if that image is technically somewhere else on your website. But this can give you a good place to start because you can quickly rule out images that are still attached to existing content. But let's say you have a large number of images and you know that some of them are orphaned images.

[00:04:34] Is there a way to deal with this quickly? I will admit that this is something I have not had to deal with in my blogging life, so I did have to do some research to see if there's a plugin that can handle this task. And just as a quick disclaimer, as you know from previous episodes of the podcast, I am very cautious when adding plugins to a website.

[00:04:53] I never want to add a plugin for a task that can be done with an existing plugin, or it could be done manually. But if you have a lot of old media to check, there are definitely a few solid plugin options out there. Many image optimization plugins, which we're gonna talk about in just a second, they have the capability to identify orphaned images. And by orphaned images, I mean the images in your media library that are not found on your website.

[00:05:26] But I did see mixed reviews for many of the plugins that I checked. Some users said that their entire media library was deleted or flagged for deletion. So when you're deciding on a plugin, you want to choose one that gives you manual control of the deletion process. So if the only option with that plugin is to identify orphaned images and then delete them in bulk,

[00:05:49] I would probably avoid that plugin. I'm also cautious about the accuracy of these plugins depending on where they get their information about attachment. Are they using that same information from the uploaded to column in the media library that we already have access to, or are they utilizing a more advanced method of checking for orphaned images because that can make a big difference on whether you're actually even getting accurate recommendations.

[00:06:18] For this particular episode, I am not going to name specific plugins because I haven't tested any of them myself, and this episode will live on indefinitely, so I don't want to make an untested recommendation that could become obsolete when the plugin is no longer available. So instead, if this is something you're interested in tackling for your website, I would suggest searching for orphan image WordPress plugin on Google, or to type in how to delete unused images in WordPress.

[00:06:51] And from there, there are some good Roundup blog posts where you'll be able to identify some options that are recommended more than others. You'll see some of the same plugins popping up multiple times within those posts. The other question I received about old blog content is from a listener who started their blog before learning what they now know about image optimization.

[00:07:14] We've all been there. That's the joy of blogging. There's always more to learn. This listener now has a solution for ensuring their images are an appropriate size when they upload it to WordPress. However, they're wondering if there is a way to retroactively optimize the images on their website. The answer to this question is a resounding yes.

[00:07:35] There are a lot of image optimization plugins that allow you to retroactively optimize your existing media library. Again, I'm not going to make a blanket recommendation. Just choose one that comes highly recommended in blog posts, it has good ratings in the plugin library, and is clearly updated regularly.

[00:07:55] You also wanna make sure that it is compatible with your version of WordPress. But one thing I wanted to mention is that there are some image optimization plugins that allow you to both reduce file size retroactively and identify orphaned images. So these more robust plugins usually have a cost, but that is something to keep in mind as you're looking for an option that will work on your site.

[00:08:23] So to sum it up, there are definitely ways to clean up the images on the back end of your website. It will take a little bit of legwork to find the best plugins for your situation, if you need a plugin, but if this is a priority for you right now, there are definitely ways to save time. My final recommendation is to only proceed with a new plugin after you have created a backup of your site.

[00:08:47] This is especially true when you're dealing with the removal of assets on your website. If something breaks or goes wrong, you wanna easily be able to set things right again. If this episode sparked a question for you, be sure to let me know. You can submit a question for the podcast at stephanieroyersolutions.com slash podcast if you'd like to hear it answered on the show.

[00:09:11] And also my dms are always open. If you want to talk shop, you can connect with me at Stephanie Royer Solutions on Instagram.