What’s your process for integrating WebP image formats in a Magento 2 site to improve page-load speed?

At MageAnts, we follow a comprehensive and performance oriented approach to integrate WebP image formats into your Magento 2 store. This significantly improves page load speed while maintaining image quality and browser compatibility.

Here's the process we follow:

  1. Enable WebP on the Server: We configure the server to support WebP file delivery and set necessary headers for content negotiation.
  2. Convert Images to WebP: Existing images, products, categories, banners, etc., are converted into the WebP format using reliable tools or automation scripts optimized for speed and quality.
  3. Upload WebP Files: Converted WebP files are added alongside existing images, ensuring seamless fallback options for unsupported browsers.
  4. Use the
    Tag in Templates:     We update your theme templates to use the <picture> tag, allowing the browser to load WebP when supported, and fall back to JPEG/PNG when necessary.
  5. Deploy Static Content and Clean Cache: Once template and media updates are complete, we deploy static content and clear all caches (to reflect changes across the storefront.
  6. Verify with Browser Tools: We perform detailed checks using browser developer tools and tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to ensure WebP images are loading properly and improving performance metrics.