What is GZIP Compression? And How to enable it in WordPress
Posted on April 18th, 2022
WordPress is now the world’s most popular Content Management System. You will find hundreds of benefits and reasons to create a website in WordPress. The most practical reason people choose WordPress is its simplicity and easy interface. As we all know, WordPress offers hundreds of free and paid plugins. We can use these plugins with any WordPress website and themes. You will also find plugins to solve problems and increase usability. So, in this article, we will discuss one of the essential tools called GZIP Compression. There are enough plugins available that will help us to perform this task. But before we dive in, let’s discuss some important topics related to this topic. So, if you’re looking for the methods of GZIP Compression, then you should understand the need for GZIP Compression on your website. Then after, we will discuss all the effects caused by GZIP Compression and plugins that provide these features.
What is GZIP Compression?
GZIP Compression is a data compression technology that allows you to compress the website’s data files. It’s an automation tool because GZIP compression will compress the files before sending them to the visitor’s browser. In simple words, when you compress your site data files. It will take less time to transfer from the server to the client’s browser. So, we can deliver the files quicker and improve the website’s user experience. The speed of any website is one of the most effective elements that increase user engagement and catch more sales for your business.
Modern browsers will automatically unzip all the compressed data received by the visitor’s browser. Our internet browsers are also smart enough to unzip all the files and display them without affecting website looks and functions. And even GZIP compression is supported by all the Modern Browsers, Servers, and Hosting companies.
How does GZIP Compression work?
GZIP Compression works on website files like HTML, JavaScript, CSS, etc. The GZIP Compression technology uses algorithms to compress these website files. So, whenever a user tries to visit the website or any of the pages. The algorithm transfers the files to the user’s browser in compressed format.
GZIP Compression tool can reduce the file sizes by up to 70%. Even most of the website speed tools strongly recommend enabling the GZIP Compression. Like Google page speed insights, some of them will show a warning if your website does not allow the GZIP to Compression. GZIP Compression is a critical piece of information: GZIP Compression doesn’t compress images and videos by default. We need to optimise the images for the web on our WordPress website.
Why is GZIP Compression important for our WordPress Websites?
The website’s raw files and data will take longer to transfer from the server to the user’s browser. Now, the website’s speed may go down if you get many users or visitors simultaneously. But, when you enable GZIP Compression on your website, it will allow you to efficiently transfer all the data, which directly boosts the page load speed. And secondly, the hosting account also reduces the website load. That’s why GZIP is one of the essential steps of the website to improve speed and performance.
There are many plugins available in the WordPress library. If you think GZIP Compression is very technical and confusing, you should try one of the plugins listed in this article. It will make GZIP Compression super easy. Many hosting providers already provide GZIP as their primary feature, which is incredibly effective. Some companies like Bluehost, officially recommended as a WordPress hosting provider, will automatically enable the GZIP Compression for your websites.
Suppose you’re not sure about your website’s GZIP compression settings. And if you want to know if GZIP is enabled on your website or not. Here, you can click on this link called GiftOfSpeed. Click on this link, and you will have a search bar just like the below image. Type your website’s URL and press enter.
Plugins for GZIP Compression
Too many plugins allow you to enable the GZIP Compression explicitly. But, there are some of them that we found the best and most effective. Here is the list of the plugins that we will use to enable the GZIP.
Now, Let’s learn how to enable GZIP Compression with the help of these plugins step by step.
Super Cache plugin
WP Super Cache plugin is one of the most accessible and effective plugins for WordPress. This plugin will allow you to clear the cache as per its name, and there are enough features available that may be helpful for your website. So, here are the steps for enabling GZIP Compression with the help of the WP Super Cache plugin.
Step 1: Install and Activate the WP Super Cache Plugin on your WordPress website’s admin area.
Step 2: Now, click on the left-side panel, then click on the Settings tab. Then, click on the WP Super Cache option that you can see as the last option in the Settings tab. Follow the below image to find the option.
Step 3: After that, you will be on the settings screen of the WP Super Cache plugin. Find the tab menu and click on the Advanced tab, then you have to click on the checkbox called “Compress pages, so they’re served more quickly to visitors.” You can see this option in the below image.
Congratulations, you just enabled the GZIP Compression on your website with the help of the free WP Super Cache plugin.
WP Rocket plugin
WP Rocket plugin is another caching plugin for WordPress websites. It is the most used plugin for basic settings and clearing cache. WP Rocket is a convenient and easy-to-use plugin. It automatically enables all the necessary settings for your website and optimises your speed. So let’s see how we can allow GZIP to Compression with the help of the WP Rocket plugin.
Step 1: Log in to your WordPress website’s admin area. Then Install and Activate WP Rocket. You can download the plugin from the official website and upload it, and it’s another way to install a plugin.
Step 2: The plugin will automatically enable the GZIP Compression after successful installation. So, it’s unnecessary to allow the GZIP to explicitly with the WP Rocket plugin.
Step 3: Now, you can click on Settings in the left-sided tab bar and then click on the last option called WP Rocket for further descriptions and cache settings.
It is an automatic plugin that frequently clears the cache and keeps your website optimised.
WP Total Cache plugin
WP Total Cache plugin is another plugin that has a bundle of features. But, it would be best if you had good practice using this plugin because it’s not that handy or a beginner-friendly plugin. The advantage of this plugin is that you can choose the free version if you’re seeking the best cache plugin. So, as we discussed before in this article, let’s discuss how to enable GZIP Compression with the help of the WP Total Cache plugin.
Step 1: After logging in to your website’s admin area. Install and Activate the WP Total Cache plugin. You can see the image below for reference.
Step 2: Now, find the Performance tab from the left-sided section. Here, you can find General settings, as you can see in the below image. Click on it to get into the settings.
Step 3: Here, you will have many options on this screen. Page cache, minify, database cache, opcode cache, etc. You should find an option called Browser cache, just like the image below. Then click on the checkbox and mark it as true to enable GZIP Compression for your website.
Then Lastly, click on the Save All Changes to save the latest changes on your website.
Congratulations, you just enabled GZIP Compression with the help of the free WP Total Cache plugin.
Conclusion:
This article has brief information about GZIP compression. All the essential things you need to learn about GZIP and its advantages. We also explain how easily we can install and use plugins to enable GZIP Compression on your WordPress website. All you need to do is follow the steps as per the selected plugins. Some of them offer free GZIP Compression tools. Most of the hosting management service providers also provide GZIP compression tools. Go ahead and choose one of the plugins as your GZIP Compression tool for your WordPress website.
