How to Enable GZIP Compression in WordPress

in this video you will learn how to enable gzip compression in wordpress so what is gzip compression gzip is a file compressing software which helps to reduce the size of a web page before it's served to a client a browser essentially gzip works by breaking up heavy html css and javascript files into smaller bits thus reducing the time it will take a browser to load them it doesn't work on images to learn about images please read our image optimization guide the technology isn't exclusive to wordpress it works on virtually any website with a web server so whether your website runs on wordpress magento drupal etc you can enable gzip compression on it how it works when developers write the codes for a website they add white spaces comments page breaks etc so as to make it easy for the human eyes to follow the problem is this formatting takes up space and can significantly add to the size of a web page what gzip does is to take away this formatting because to the browsers it means nothing the end result is that it compresses web pages by as much as 80 like earlier said all modern browsers support gzip so you don't have to worry about compatibility problems before i show you how to enable gzip compression on your wordpress website let me first show you two ways to check if gzip compression is enabled on wordpress so number one is using varvey tool there are several online checking tools you could use but for this tutorial we will be using a varby tool called gzip compression testing tool i put a link to this tool on the description below if you want quick access to this tool but let me show you how to go to this tool go to google.com on the search bar type varvgzip compression click search click this one now the reason why we try to access this tool using google is because if you go to varve.com website directly you will not find this tool the reason to that is they have stopped the use of some of their varvey tools and that includes the varby gzip compression test tool but it's still working fine alright so just copy and paste your url to this text box right here and then click test and the rest is taken care of if the file compression isn't active on your website it tells you instantly if gzip compression is enabled on your wordpress website it will give you a breakdown analysis of your website it's that easy alright so number two is using google chrome's developer tool so open your website in chrome and open developer tools with a keyboard shortcut ctrl shift i for map it's command shift i in developer tools click on the network tab next reload the page after the reload scroll up in the developer tools section until you find your website's url at the left column click on the url once and switch to the headers tab if you are in a different one then scroll down using the vertical slider in this section until you get to the response header section if gzip is enabled you will see content-encoding gzip if it's not enabled you will see content-encoding vr if it turns out file compressing isn't enabled on your website yet that can easily be fixed alright now that you know how to check if gzip compression is enabled on your website i will now show you how to enable them enabling gzip isn't as hard as it might seem at the surface there are a couple of ways to go about it but we will be considering just three starting from the easiest the first method is to contact your web host provider gzip is a technology that works on the server side and as such your web host provider is in the best position to help you out with it so reach out usually hosting providers do this from their own end without you having to click a button however in some cases they will provide instructions it all depends on the provider but by all means reach out note that we recommend having your hosts enable this feature other solutions should only be used if there are issues with this method method two is to use a plugin in wordpress besides gzip compression there's a plugin for virtually every task here are a couple of plugins that finish the job the first one is wp super cache wp super cache though primarily a caching plugin also does a good job at compressing web files to install this plugin on your wordpress dashboard go to plugins then new plugins search for wp super cache install and activate the plugin next navigate to settings wp super cache in the wp super cache page click the advanced tab then check the compressed pages so they are served more quickly to visitors option when you are done scroll down and click update status number two is w3 cache w3 cache is popular for its caching functionality what you might not know is that with it you can compress your web pages by as much as 80 there's a video tutorial on wordpress directory page of w3 cache you can follow to enable file compression and i've also put a link to that video on the description below so kindly check that out method three is to edit dot htaccess files this technique is somewhat technical and if you're not careful you might break your website nonetheless if you're confident with your abilities by all means give it a shot to start access your site using ftp if this is your first time using an ftp account i put a link on how to create an ftp account on the description below alright let's continue once a connection has been established look for the public html folder then scroll down and look for the dot htaccess file right click on the file then click the view edit option copy and paste the following lines of code into the bottom section of the notepad editor when you are done pasting save the file by hitting ctrl s in windows or command plus s for mac all right just click yes now what you need to do now is try to check if gzip compression is enabled on your website that's it for today's video if you have any questions or comments please leave them in the comment section below and if you like this video please click the like button and if you're new to our channel hit the subscribe button and the bell icon so you don't miss any of our future videos thank you for watching and see on the next one

Channel: FixRunner.com

Views: 5,433

Keywords: How to Enable GZIP Compression in WordPress, Compression Wordpress, how to enable gzip compression in wordpress, gzip compression, gzip, enable gzip compression, enable gzip compression via cpanel, enable gzip compression wordpress, gzip compression tutorial, gzip compression htaccess

Id: ds80IGD16eU

Length: 7min 54sec (474 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 23 2020