As a content creator who once got obsessed with her own creations, I admit that I often thought my food photos looked gorgeous in my phone gallery. But, strangely, when they arrived on my website, I was disappointed because visitors didn’t stay long. It happened because I didn’t know how to optimise images for the web properly, which made the images on my website too heavy.
For restaurant owners like you who also have a website, you should be concerned about it, too, because heavy images can quietly kill sales. Images are heavy because of bloated file sizes, and they’ll slow page load, risking active revenue loss. Slow-loading pages directly correlate with higher abandonment rates and lower conversions.
Slow Photos Sabotage Smooth Ordering
Improperly formatted or oversized images interrupt the entire purchasing flow. Each heavy photo becomes a speed bump that pushes hungry customers off your checkout page before they’ve even selected a dressing.
Why Bad Image Sizes Break the Flow
One of the most overlooked elements of an image is its dimensions, which can wreck everything if you publish it wrong. People usually love snapping their photos with their phone camera and uploading them straight. They don’t realise that their phone’s camera default produces a 6000x4000px photo.
Look at the infographic below to understand how this happens.
How Slow Images Affect Ordering Behaviour
As a content editor, I always ensure a page loads in no more than 2 seconds, including images, because any delay will train visitors to leave.
If it takes more than two seconds to render, visitors may think our (whole) site is broken or unprofessional. Your restaurant’s website can lose trust even harder, because diners browse with urgency, not idle curiosity. One moment of sluggish performance is enough to push visitors away.
Faster loading websites retain visitors longer and significantly reduce bounce rates. Every second saved keeps more potential customers on your ordering page rather than nudging them toward alternatives.
My observation of search engine traffic is that visitors today are predominantly mobile users. For a restaurant website, mobile visitors won’t tolerate delays, not when they’re hungry.
Images are usually slow to load on some websites because their owners don’t upload optimised images. These unoptimized heavy images tank your Core Web Vitals and silently damage your SEO.
Click this to know what Core Web Vitals are.
Core Web Vitals is a measurement for a website to load quickly, react to the audience’s click, and remain stable in its visual. This measurement is essential to ensure their site’s audience gets a good experience while visiting.
Beyond that, oversized files consume unnecessary bandwidth on the hosting server. I’ve experienced that optimised images reduce server strain, meaning we’re literally paying extra for bloated photos. In fact, the bloated photos don’t convert.
(Money evaporating for zero benefit.)
To prevent oversized images from slowing page load, I use a technology called lazy loading. It helps by deferring off‑screen images until the user scrolls, improving render speed and preventing the audience from bouncing.
Some website owners are concerned that lazy loading, which is usually implemented with additional HTML code, will slow page load times. But it actually doesn’t.
Search engines now fully support lazy loading when it is appropriately implemented using native HTML attributes. Google recommends it as a best practice for user experience (Google Web Developer).
Happier Online Diners by Faster Images
Making the image load faster can create snappy load times and smoother ordering. And there’ll be fewer digital bottlenecks that choke your site.
Choosing Formats That Work Everywhere
To accelerate image loading, I start by choosing the correct format when uploading: WebP. This modern format delivers nearly the same visual quality as JPEG, at roughly 25-35% smaller file sizes. Our images can load faster, without looking pixelated or washed out.
WebP significantly reduces file size while maintaining perceptual quality. It’ll be perfect for vibrant food photography that the restaurant site often needs.
Almost all browsers now support WebP when rendering a website.
Safari in version 13 and its previous versions haven’t supported it. It won’t matter for you if you are still targeting the audience with old-release devices in your market.
| Browser | WebP Supporter Version |
| Chrome | Since version 23 |
| Firefox | Since version 65 |
| Safari | Since version 14 |
| Edge | All versions |
Lean Files That Keep Pages Snappy
I also optimise the images by compressing them. This action lets me shrink a 3.2 MB food photo to about 180 KB. On your website, compressing images will ensure everything loads before customers even finish swiping, creating a friction-free flow from the first image to final checkout.
Modern compression methods shrink files without sacrificing quality. Your food will still look delicious on your website, just without the data baggage.
To compress them, I use specific tools on the internet, such as pixlr.com/suite, which will automate this process nicely. Just upload the images to one of those websites, and it’ll release the same pictures in a smaller size.
The result? My pages load faster, including their images. If you also practice it on your restaurant website, the benefits ripple across your ordering experience. Your customers can see the checkout page in under 2 seconds; a faster flow slashes drop-offs and encourages more completed purchases.
Beyond that, compression also cuts bandwidth costs. Your hosting plan will no longer lose gigabytes of redundant data every month. As rush hour hits your website, your pages will stay responsive, and your server remains stable.
Ultimately, your customers complete orders without digital traffic jams. Lighter images reduce both operational expenses and customer frustration.
Smart Editing Unlocks Better Flow
You’ll probably find it challenging to make photos on your site smaller, especially if its number is enormous and it ain’t just a one-time fix. But this can be fixed by collaborating with a content editor or content strategist.
A brilliant editor can create a sustainable system to prevent you from randomly compressing images at midnight. Or worse, only optimising when your site crashes during dinner rush.
While I’m editing images, I usually list the existing images and compress them to the WebP format at a more appropriate size. The image file is also renamed with specific keywords related to the image’s subject.
Content editors like me can even create alt text for each image to improve your product’s visibility online. These alt texts will be beneficial when your target audience searches by voice.
Learn more about what alt-text is by clicking here.
Alt-text for an image, or alternative text, is the text that serves as a substitute for an image in digital media. Search engine reads the alt text to understand what the image is about.
By understanding the alt text, search engines can recommend the image to anyone who needs information about the description.
For example, if your image displays a plate of vermicelli salad, I’ll create alt text like “A vermicelli salad which is dished with spring rolls and roasted chicken.” The search engine will prioritise your image to those people who need a specific vermicelli salad with chicken, rather than showing other sites’ salad which has no chicken.
All of these consistent workflows will prevent the digital clutter that happens when everyone uploads photos differently.
I also maintain file hygiene. I audit existing images, identify bloated files, and replace them with optimised versions. Do this to your site, then new menu photos will follow the same standards, and seasonal specials will also be updated without slowing your site.
This ongoing maintenance prevents the slow degradation that happens when optimisation is treated as a one-time chore. Plus, proper alt-text boosts accessibility for visually impaired customers and improves SEO.
Smart editing will make us double win, accessibility and search visibility.
Vicky Laurentina, 2025
Stop Losing Orders to Loading Screens
Optimising images determines survival. Because when your photos load instantly, customers will order smoothly, too. Revenue stops leaking to competitors with faster websites.
These are what you can do to optimise images for the web without losing quality:
Resize photos to display dimensions that your website’s server can handle at a proper speed. Keep the length as short as possible, up to 600 pixels.
Compress intelligently using WebP formats. This cuts file sizes by 25-35% while maintaining the same visual quality your customers expect.
Implement lazy loading for below-the-fold content. This speeds up initial page render by deferring images that visitors haven’t scrolled to yet.
Maintain these practices every time you upload new menu items. Consistency prevents the slow degradation that happens when optimisation becomes a one-time effort.
By practising all of these steps, your food can stay gorgeous and your pages can remain snappy. Ultimately, your diners can get through checkout.
Your salads are actually already better than your competitors, but your menus just need to load faster. Faster images mean more completed orders and less wasted ad spend.
Need help from someone who understands restaurant content without the corporate buzzword bingo? I can give you practical guidance that keeps your site moving as fast as your kitchen during rush hour.
I am a content strategist who loves blogging about planning and optimising content for marketing insights. Follow me on LinkedIn and Instagram below.