Wednesday 3rd May 2023.
Google’s John Mueller Clarifies WebP Image Indexing Confusion.

+ Unclear extensions may cause image files to appear in Search Console's "Crawled - currently not indexed" report.
+ WebP images aren't indexed as HTML pages.
+ WebP offers faster load times but requires fallbacks for unsupported browsers.

Read the entire Search Engine Journal article here =>

Gary

Hi Gary, so what's the takeaway there - Your thoughts?
Use WebP, or don't?
It sounds like a hassle with needing fallback, basically coding images twice, and ect not having built in fallback for product and category images.

David

David,
I have not used any WebP images YET. So just observing and taking note of articles like this.
Patrick at Badman Bullets has been using WebP images. He may have comments about any issues encountered.

This Google Developers article confirms which browsers support WebP images.
Google Chrome (desktop) 17+
Google Chrome for Android version 25+
Microsoft Edge 18+
Firefox 65+
Opera 11.10+
Native web browser, Android 4.0+ (ICS)
Safari 14+ (iOS 14+, macOS Big Sur+)
... basically all major browsers worth worrying about.

I have just obtained software capable of exporting images in the WebP format and will certainly start using them on websites shortly.

GIMP is a FREE open source image editor that can export in WebP format.

Gary

I converted one of my other websites to all webp file images.

www (DOT) slixprings (DOT) com

I do NOT have any fallback setup.

I just noticed that I do have some images that have been crawled but are not indexed.

The product pages are indexed it's just the image that isn't.

The pages are definitely faster and lighter though.

I use a free webp image converter that does a really good job and very simple to use.

https://squoosh.app/?utm_medium=PWA&utm_source=launcher

The thing to keep in mind is that "most" modern browsers will accept the webp format as it started back in 2010.

As of June 23, 2020, all major browsers — Chrome, Edge, Firefox & Safari (14+) — support the WebP format.

Browsers usually force you to update anyway or do it automatically.

I've had no customers complain they couldn't see any pictures.

I'm happy with it.

Patrick

I have used WebP images, but only for large background type images. Otherwise, I use .jpg or .png for all other images and tinypng.com to optimize them. Personally, I believe converting all your product images to WebP is a waste of time for what little speed benefit you get. I have compared file sizes of optimized .jpg to WebP, it the difference is almost negligible.

Marshall
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