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I'm currently trying to increase the speed of my website and I noticed that, when I run it through ismyblogworking.com, I get a message that reads "your blog application doesn't support gzip compression."

Since then, I've tried quite a few things to enable gzip compression. I've updated my Wordpress to 3.8.1 (the most recent update), I've installed W3 Total Cache and I've added the follow code to my .htaccess:

compress text, html, javascript, css, xml:
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
AddType x-font/otf .otf
AddType x-font/ttf .ttf
AddType x-font/eot .eot
AddType x-font/woff .woff
AddType image/x-icon .ico
AddType image/png .png

However, I'm still getting the same warning sign, still ranking low for PageSpeed Insights. Can anybody give me some advice as to what I should be doing here? How can I get a WordPress site to enable gzip compression?

|improve this question
  • before getting into details about the rules on the .htaccess, have you asked on your hosting company if they support compression and what kind? – PatomaS Feb 14 '14 at 12:29
  • I haven't, although they are Bluehost which seem to be widely recommended for Wordpress, so I would expect they would. Is it common for hosting companies to disallow this? – Zetland Feb 14 '14 at 12:45
  • Many companies disable compression because of the overload it generates on the server. Specially poorly coded sites. Also, other hostings disable it by default but they enable it on a per user/site basis. I have no experience with them, so I can't say what they do, but I'd ask there first, it should be 5 minutes or less on a live chat. – PatomaS Feb 14 '14 at 12:52
  • Just to be sure, the first line in your code block compress text, ... is commented out (ie. #)? Or does not exist in your actual .htaccess code? – MrWhite Apr 18 '14 at 23:20
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Put these lines in your .htaccess and PageSpeed Insights will see your gzip compression:

<IfModule mod_deflate.c>
<FilesMatch "\.(html|php|txt|xml|js|css)$">
SetOutputFilter DEFLATE
</FilesMatch>
</IfModule>

It works for my sites.

|improve this answer
  • Thanks. I already have this. <IfModule mod_deflate.c> AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html text/plain text/xmltext/css application/x-javascript BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4 gzip-only-text/html BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4\.0[678] no-gzip BrowserMatch \bMSIE !no-gzip !gzip-only-text/html </IfModule> Should I delete it and replace it with your code? – Zetland Feb 14 '14 at 13:24
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    Indeed, you can replace your code by the one I propose. – Zistoloen Feb 14 '14 at 13:43
  • And should I also switch off any cache plug-ins that I have installed on my Wordpress? – Zetland Feb 14 '14 at 13:57
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    Your intuition is good; indeed, several WordPress plugins can update the .htaccess file. Try to apply my code and keep switch on your plugin. It manages other things I suppose. If it doesn't work, try to deactivate the gzip compression on your plugin and if it's not possible, switch off it. – Zistoloen Feb 14 '14 at 14:28
  • I'm still struggling with this. Added it, but the gzip compression has been undetected so far. Actually, the only thing that worked was a plugin called Force Gzip, but that slowed my site down to half the original speed... – Zetland Feb 15 '14 at 8:43

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