It is our privilege to wake up every day and help folks make their websites faster. It’s not always easy, and sometimes it feels like a bit of a slog. But when we hear from folks like Bob at Studio Brabo, it makes it all worthwhile. Looking back reminds us of how much has been accomplished, and our customers (and even our beloved free-loaders) are a big part of that journey, helping to shape EWWW IO and SWIS Performance as we go along. Here is what he shared, I hope it will be an encouragement to you as well. Then go make a difference through the work that you do each day!
At Studio Brabo, we design and develop custom WordPress websites and WooCommerce webshops for ambitious brands that care about both aesthetics and performance. Based in the Netherlands, we’re a boutique digital agency working with a wide range of clients—from local businesses to national brands—helping them stand out online with tailor-made, fast, and scalable websites.
Our approach is simple: no bloated themes or off-the-shelf templates. We build every website from the ground up using a lightweight, modular WordPress setup—powered by our own custom-built page builder, Brabo Composer. This gives us full control over both structure and performance, allowing us to deliver pixel-perfect websites without the usual overhead. It also means we’re fully responsible for optimization — and able to fine-tune every part of the front-end experience.
The Challenge: Beautiful Design vs. Performance
One of the most common challenges we face is optimizing image-heavy websites without compromising visual quality. Many of our clients have strong visual identities, with large hero banners, product galleries, and retina-quality content. That’s great for user experience — but not for performance.
Before using EWWW IO, we had to rely on manual image compression using external tools. It worked, but it was time-consuming, error-prone, and didn’t scale well when clients uploaded their own (unoptimized) content after go-live.
We needed a better solution. One that worked automatically, inside WordPress, and gave us full control over how and when images were optimized.
Discovering EWWW IO
We came across EWWW IO a few years ago while researching native WordPress solutions for image optimization. It instantly stood out because it checked all the boxes:
- Automatic, background optimization
- Bulk compression tools
- No limits or external APIs required
- Flexible settings for lossy and lossless compression
After trying it out on one project, we quickly made it a standard part of our WordPress stack. We now include it in nearly every client project by default.
How We Use It Today
EWWW IO is deeply integrated into our development workflow. During development, we use the plugin to bulk-optimize all media assets. After launch, it continues to compress client-uploaded images automatically, ensuring long-term performance stays high — even as content evolves.
Combined with proper caching, lazy loading, and custom-coded themes, EWWW IO helps us squeeze out every millisecond of performance without compromising image quality.
The Results
Since implementing EWWW IO across our projects, we’ve seen measurable performance gains:
- Image file sizes reduced by 40–60% on average
- Up to 5–10 seconds faster initial load times on some legacy sites
- Improved PageSpeed, especially on mobile
- Lower bounce rates thanks to faster perceived load times
- Happier clients — page speed is no longer a bottleneck
In some media-heavy sites (e.g., event platforms or portfolio sites), we’ve saved multiple gigabytes of bandwidth per month, thanks to ongoing optimization.
In short: EWWW IO just works — and we couldn’t imagine building WordPress sites without it anymore.
The Biggest Win? Peace of Mind
The biggest win for us is not just the performance boost — it’s the peace of mind. We know that every image, whether uploaded by us or by the client, will be optimized without extra effort. It saves our team hours of manual work and gives our clients a faster, more professional website experience.
