Suddenly Using Random Size Images

Resolved hmnvtn
(@hmnvtn)

6 months, 4 weeks ago
Suddenly, WPRM is generating size 500×500 recipe images and using them in all new recipes created. My WP media settings do not generate that size of an image and no 500×500 images are generated when I deactivate the WPRM plugins.

How can I stop WPRM from generating new images sizes? Right now, when creating a new recipe, I have to deactivate WPRM (so that it doesn’t automatically generate 500×500 images), upload images, reactivate WPRM, and then choose the image in the recipe card. If I do that, it works as it has been. However, obviously I can’t continue to work like that …

No other changes have been made, no other plugins updated.
- This topic was modified 6 months, 4 weeks ago by hmnvtn.

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)

Thread Starter hmnvtn
(@hmnvtn)

6 months, 4 weeks ago

Just confirmed. If I upload file z-test-1.jpg with WPRM activated, it generates the following files and uses the 500×500 in the recipes:
z-test-1-500×500.jpg and
z-test-1-500×375.jpg

If I upload the same file with WPRM deactivated, only regular sized images are generated and are properly used in the recipes.
Thread Starter hmnvtn
(@hmnvtn)

6 months, 4 weeks ago
Found this, it seems to be working…
```
function wprm_remove_metadata_image_sizes() {
	remove_action( 'after_setup_theme', array( 'WPRM_Metadata', 'metadata_image_sizes' ) );
}
add_action( 'after_setup_theme', 'wprm_remove_metadata_image_sizes', 9 );
```
Plugin Author Brecht
(@brechtvds)

6 months, 4 weeks ago

Definitely not suddenly. We’ve been generating these 3 images sizes for years: 500×500, 500×375 and 480×270, cropped to those dimensions specifically.

We do it because those are the different ratios that Google wants to see in the recipe metadata for the recipe images.

So by disabling this, you’re basically making your SEO worse, so I definitely do NOT recommend adding that code.

I don’t really see how extra thumbnail sizes would cause any problems, but you could use a plugin like https://wordpress.org/plugins/fly-dynamic-image-resizer/ if you’re worried about disk space.
Thread Starter hmnvtn
(@hmnvtn)

6 months, 3 weeks ago
I appreciate you looking out for the average user. However, for those of us able to manage our own image SEO needs, it would be very helpful if there was a switch for this functionality so that we aren’t required to go in and edit the functions file every time there is a theme update.

It does cause problems and I am not making my SEO worse.

Just a request/suggestion 😉
- This reply was modified 6 months, 3 weeks ago by hmnvtn.
Plugin Author Brecht
(@brechtvds)

6 months, 3 weeks ago

Could you clarify what you mean? Google does actually want to see those different ratios, so I really do not see a reason for removing those thumbnail sizes.

I don’t understand how this would make your SEO worse, as it’s a feature specifically for SEO reasons.

Plugin Author Brecht
(@brechtvds)

6 months, 3 weeks ago

On a side note: you should create a child theme and add the code there. That way you don’t have to worry about theme updates.

If your theme is already a child theme, create your own custom plugin for the same end result.
Thread Starter hmnvtn
(@hmnvtn)

6 months, 3 weeks ago
I don’t want to use a child theme or another plugin, the code above works just fine. Also, I did not say that the resizing feature makes SEO worse, I said I am not making my SEO worse by opting out of it.

Besides the unnecessary use of resources and space, with the feature activated, the recipe cards automatically use your resized square image. No matter what I tried, I couldn’t make the cards use the images I want them to use. I want to use a sized down version (same dimensions) of the original 16×9 image, not the square version.

We dominate a lot of the 1-3 featured recipes in our categories … those featured recipe results show a 16x9ish image. If your recipe card has a square image, Google automatically generates a 16x9ish image for those featured recipe results … it does not always do a good job picking what part of the original image to focus on.

The square images are only used next to your url/excerpt listing in the search results, and Google automatically generates a square thumbnail if you don’t have one.

We generate significantly more traffic from the featured recipes (rectangular image) section at the top of the results page than we do from the actual search results (square image) in the middle of the page. Therefore, it is more important to us to have a rectangular image in the recipe card. On a side note, Google never pulls the featured image from our posts, just the images from our recipe cards.

The reason that I didn’t realize that WPRM was doing this is because we started out using WPRM a while ago, switched to Mediavine Create when it came out, and recently switched back to WPRM because we like it MUCH better and didn’t like the limitations of Create. Also, when we did, Amazon affiliate revenue instantly jumped 300% … WPRM just makes it so much easier to handle universal ingredients and their associated affiliate links.
- This reply was modified 6 months, 3 weeks ago by hmnvtn.
Plugin Author Brecht
(@brechtvds)

6 months, 3 weeks ago

I misunderstood what you meant by “I am not making my SEO worse”, but I really think are making it (slightly) worse. Google is very clear that they want to see all those different ratios in the metadata. This is a direct quote from their recipe metadata guidelines:

For best results, provide multiple high-resolution images (minimum of 50K pixels when multiplying width and height) with the following aspect ratios: 16×9, 4×3, and 1×1.

I want the best SEO results for WPRM users, so that’s why we generate those images and add them in the metadata.

That said, you can still display any image you want in the recipe card. The images generated are just for the metadata. In the template editor you can pick any thumbnail size on your website for displaying the recipe image: https://help.bootstrapped.ventures/article/79-changing-recipe-image-size

If you want to keep using that snippet to remove the thumbnails, a child theme really is the perfect place to add code like that. As you mention yourself: otherwise custom code will get overwritten whenever you updqte the theme.

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