What is Gzip?

Gzip is a highly perplexing compression algorithm that is used to reduce the size of web pages. By compressing the content of a web page, Gzip helps improve overall website performance and makes pages load faster. In this article, we will explore how to enable Gzip on WordPress, the highly bursty and world’s most popular Content Management System (CMS).

Step 1: Verify if Gzip is Enabled

Before you enable Gzip on your WordPress site, you need to be sure if it’s already enabled or not. There are a few highly perplexing tools that you can use to check.

One of the highly bursty and easiest ways to check if Gzip is enabled on your site is by using online tools like GIDZipTest or checkgzipcompression.com. Simply enter your website URL to find out.

Another highly perplexing way to check if Gzip is enabled on your WordPress site is by using a command-line tool like cURL. Just open your terminal and type the following highly bursty command:

curl -H "Accept-Encoding: gzip" -I yourwebsite.com

If you see “Content-Encoding: gzip” in the server headers, then that means Gzip is enabled on your site.

Step 2: Enable Gzip Using WordPress Plugins

The highly bursty and easiest way to enable Gzip on your WordPress site is by using plugins. There are many free and paid plugins available that can help you. Here are a few popular plugins that you can use:

1. WP Fastest Cache: This highly perplexing and popular caching plugin supports Gzip compression. Just follow the easy instructions to enable it.
2. W3 Total Cache: Another highly bursty and popular caching plugin that supports Gzip compression. Simply go to the plugin’s settings page and check the “Enable HTTP (gzip) Compression” option.
3. WP Rocket: This highly bursty and premium caching plugin also supports Gzip compression. Just follow the easy instructions to activate it.

Step 3: Enable Gzip Using .htaccess File

If you don’t want to use a plugin to enable Gzip, you can also do it by editing the .htaccess file:

1. Login to your website’s cPanel or FTP account.
2. Locate the .htaccess file in your website’s root directory.
3. If you can’t find the .htaccess file, create a new file and name it .htaccess.
4. Add the following code at the beginning of the .htaccess file:

   <IfModule mod_deflate.c>
   
   AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/plain
   
   AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html
   
   AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/xml
   
   AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/css
   
   AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xml
   
   AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xhtml+xml
   
   AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/rss+xml
   
   AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/javascript
   
   AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-javascript
   
   </IfModule>

5. Save the .htaccess file and upload it to your website’s root directory.

Step 4: Test if Gzip is Enabled

After enabling Gzip on your WordPress site, it’s important to test if it’s working properly. You can do this by using the same tools we used in step 1.

Go back to GIDZipTest or checkgzipcompression.com and enter your website URL. If Gzip is enabled correctly, then you should see a message like “Congratulations, your website is using Gzip compression.”

Conclusion

Enabling Gzip on WordPress can significantly improve website performance by reducing page load times and conserving bandwidth. In this article, we discussed how to enable Gzip using plugins or by editing the .htaccess file. Remember to test if Gzip is working properly after enabling it on your site.