Transparency
Judge the edge against more than one background
A transparent logo may look clean on white and reveal a pale fringe on dark gray. After compression, inspect semitransparent shadows, antialiased curves, icons, and hair-like details over light and dark surfaces. Keeping a PNG extension does not by itself prove that every alpha transition still looks natural after palette reduction.
Palette
Color reduction helps simple graphics more than complex photographs
Logos, diagrams, and interface captures often contain repeated flat colors that can be represented efficiently. Gradients, textured artwork, and photographs need more color variation and may show contour bands when the palette is reduced too far. Lower the quality control gradually and pay special attention to brand colors, drop shadows, and subtle background fades.
Right format
A photographic PNG may be a format problem rather than a compression problem
PNG prioritizes lossless-style graphics and transparency. A large opaque photograph can remain heavy even after optimization. When transparency is unnecessary and minor loss is acceptable, WebP or JPEG may be more appropriate. Keep PNG for crisp text, line art, alpha transparency, and graphics that do not tolerate JPEG artifacts.