Boost Your Website by Enabling Compression via Your Server .htaccess File in cPanel or Through FTP

Every little thing you do on your server can either make or break your site, and can also go a long way in boosting your site’s overall performance, thereby boosting your ranking in search engines such as Google and Bing.

Enabling compression through your server’s .htaccess file is one such performance booster and is quite simple to do. Via FTP or your cPanel host backend, access your .htaccess file and enter the following code:

# Enable Compression
<IfModule mod_deflate.c>
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/javascript
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/rss+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/vnd.ms-fontobject
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-font
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-font-opentype
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-font-otf
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-font-truetype
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-font-ttf
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-javascript
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xhtml+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE font/opentype
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE font/otf
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE font/ttf
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE image/svg+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE image/x-icon
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/css
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/javascript
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/plain
</IfModule>

<IfModule mod_gzip.c>
mod_gzip_on Yes
mod_gzip_dechunk Yes
mod_gzip_item_include file .(html?|txt|css|js|php|pl)$
mod_gzip_item_include handler ^cgi-script$
mod_gzip_item_include mime ^text/.*
mod_gzip_item_include mime ^application/x-javascript.*
mod_gzip_item_exclude mime ^image/.*
mod_gzip_item_exclude rspheader ^Content-Encoding:.*gzip.*
</IfModule>

# Leverage Browser Caching
<IfModule mod_expires.c>
ExpiresActive On
ExpiresByType image/jpg "access 1 year"
ExpiresByType image/jpeg "access 1 year"
ExpiresByType image/gif "access 1 year"
ExpiresByType image/png "access 1 year"
ExpiresByType text/css "access 1 month"
ExpiresByType text/html "access 1 month"
ExpiresByType application/pdf "access 1 month"
ExpiresByType text/x-javascript "access 1 month"
ExpiresByType application/x-shockwave-flash "access 1 month"
ExpiresByType image/x-icon "access 1 year"
ExpiresDefault "access 1 month"
</IfModule>

<IfModule mod_headers.c>
<filesmatch "\.(ico|flv|jpg|jpeg|png|gif|css|swf)$">
Header set Cache-Control "max-age=2678400, public"
</filesmatch>
<filesmatch "\.(html|htm)$">
Header set Cache-Control "max-age=7200, private, must-revalidate"
</filesmatch>
<filesmatch "\.(pdf)$">
Header set Cache-Control "max-age=86400, public"
</filesmatch>
<filesmatch "\.(js)$">
Header set Cache-Control "max-age=2678400, private"
</filesmatch>
</IfModule>

Please note the mod_header settings above. You can change these to your own specific time needs.

What does this do? In a nutshell, it compresses your website and helps reduce latency to improve load time. This code will help shave a few seconds off of your website’s load time and could result in higher search engine rankings as well as overall improvements in user experience. If you’re operating an eCommerce website, this can also lead to increased sales.

For Advanced users only. Please utilize the code only if you know what you’re doing or have your web administrator do it for you. This site is not responsible for any liability caused by incorrect usage of this code or your web server.

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