How To Enable Gzip Compression In WordPress

In this article, we’ll go into one of the most important web technologies that keeps the web zippy: compression, and more particularly, the GZIP compression format.

How does GZIP compression work? I’m sure you’ve encountered this word while using Gtmetrix or Pingdom to test the speed of your website. I will assist you with enabling GZIP Compression and speeding up your website.

Yes, Gzip compression is one of the most significant page speed factors. And in this article, I will explain how to determine whether or not your website is GZIP capable. And if not, what are the various methods for enabling GZIP compression on your WordPress blog?

What Is GZIP Compression?

If you are unfamiliar with the compression mechanism, allow me to explain the fundamentals of compression in web design. No matter how you construct your website, it consists of of HTML, CSS, and Javascript.

We all adore WordPress themes with a wonderful aesthetic design. However, the greater the number of expected features, the greater the amount of coding required. That means the file size of your website will rise. This will directly affect the page load time of your website.

The compression mechanism comes into play to solve this issue. Gzip compression is nothing more than a compression technology that can be understood by any web browser.

For example, a browser will interpret your code as AAAABBBBCCC. Compression merely eliminates repeated staffs, such as characters, spaces, etc. And this is comparable to ABC. This is merely an illustration of how browser compression works.

Therefore, to lower the file size of your website, you must enable Gzip compression on your WordPress site. Here is a GTMetrix snapshot of my website’s page speed. You can observe how effectively my site has been reduced. This has an immediate effect on enhancing page speed.

My GTMetricx page-speed score is 100/100, but I cannot achieve YSLOW’s maximum score of 100/100. However, the average page load time is < 1 second, which is really satisfactory.

How To Enable GZIP Compression In WordPress

There are several ways to accomplish this on any WordPress website. However, I will utilise the common WordPress cache plugins to easily activate GZIP compression.

#1. It has to be enabled on the server

My website is hosted on Godaddy and as soon as I set-up this website I have done this configuration through Godaddy Optimizer settings. Its speed technology is simply awesome.

Go To  Optimizer => Environment Optimizer => GZIP Compression.

By default, it will not be enabled. Simply use the switch to enable GZIP compression for your WordPress blog.

#2. Using WP Rocket Cache Plugin

WP Rocket adds GZIP Compression rules to your.htaccess file using the mod deflate module once activated.

#3. Using W3 Total Cache Plugin

If you are using the W3 Total cache plugin (the finest free WordPress cache plugin), you must additionally click a box to enable Gzip compression for your WordPress website.

Navigate to the W3 Total Cache plugin configuration page.

Proceed to the Browser Cache option.

And check the box next to Enable HTTP Compression.

Click the Save changes button to conclude.

enable gzip compression W3 Complete Cache

If you were to ask me to choose between WP Rocket and W3 Total Cache, my vote would go to WP Rocket, as this plugin is easier to use and provides greater control over page performance. Using the WP Rocket plugin, I have created a website that loads really quickly.

#4. WP SuperCache Plugin

Another popular FREE WordPress cache plugin is WP SuperCache. This plugin is also being used on a couple of my websites, where it is performing admirably.

However, if WP Supercache is compared to W3 Total Cache, I will choose W3 Total Cache. Anyway, here are the compression settings for the WP Supercache plugin.

Select WP Supercache from the settings menu

On the initial page of the Miscellaneous section, select the compression option.

Click the Save changes button to conclude.

Conclusion

Thus, the focus here is on the Gzip compressor. Surely you comprehended the significance of authorising this compression. And I have attempted to include all common cache plugins that make it simple to activate Gzip compression for WordPress websites. If you have any further questions, please leave a comment and share your opinions.