Best way to optimize image-heavy websites on a VPS?

Heya,

Great setup so far! Image-heavy sites definitely need careful optimization. Here’s how to tackle each area:

1. Balancing High-Resolution Photos with Speed

Responsive images are your best friend:

• Use <picture> elements or srcset to serve different sizes based on device/viewport
• Create multiple versions: thumbnail (150px), medium (800px), large (1200px), and original
• Only load full resolution when actually needed (like lightbox/gallery views)

Lazy loading:

• Implement native loading="lazy" for images below the fold
• Consider intersection observer for more control
• Load a low-quality placeholder first, then swap in the full image

Progressive enhancement:

• Serve a base JPEG version, then upgrade to WebP/AVIF for supported browsers
• Use quality settings around 80-85% for hero images, 70-75% for supporting content

2. VPS-Level Configuration Tweaks

Nginx optimizations (most impactful):

# Enable gzip for images (though limited benefit)
gzip_types image/svg+xml;

# Critical: Set proper cache headers
location ~* \.(jpg|jpeg|png|webp|avif)$ {
    expires 1y;
    add_header Cache-Control "public, immutable";
    add_header Vary "Accept-Encoding";
}

# Enable HTTP/2 for parallel loading
listen 443 ssl http2;

# Increase client body size for uploads
client_max_body_size 50M;

Server-level tweaks:

• Increase worker_connections in nginx (try 2048-4096)
• Tune keepalive_timeout (around 30-65 seconds)
• If using Apache, enable mod_expires and mod_deflate
• Consider switching to nginx if you’re on Apache (better for static content)

Database (if storing image metadata):

• Index any columns you query for image lookups
• Consider storing image paths/URLs rather than BLOBs
• Use connection pooling

3. Image Format Recommendations

Format hierarchy (best to fallback):

1. AVIF - 50% smaller than JPEG, excellent quality (Chrome/Firefox support growing)
2. WebP - 25-30% smaller than JPEG, broad support
3. JPEG - Universal fallback

Implementation strategy:

<picture>
  <source srcset="image.avif" type="image/avif">
  <source srcset="image.webp" type="image/webp">
  <img src="image.jpg" alt="Textured fringe haircut" loading="lazy">
</picture>

Quality settings I’d recommend:

• AVIF: 60-70 quality
• WebP: 75-85 quality
• JPEG: 80-90 quality (for fallback)

Additional Performance Wins

CDN optimization:

• Ensure your CDN supports WebP/AVIF transformation on-the-fly
• Enable “Polish” (Cloudflare) or equivalent auto-optimization
• Set up proper cache purging for when you update images

Consider image processing services:

• Cloudinary, ImageKit, or similar can handle format conversion and resizing automatically
• They serve the optimal format/size based on the requesting device

Monitoring:

• Use PageSpeed Insights to track Core Web Vitals
• Monitor Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) - images often drive this metric
• Set up real user monitoring to see actual performance

For a fashion/hairstyle site, users expect beautiful imagery, so the progressive loading approach works really well - they see something immediately, then get the full quality. The format fallback strategy ensures everyone gets a good experience regardless of browser support.

What CDN are you currently using? That might inform some specific optimization recommendations.

Retry