How to enable gzip compression via `.htaccess`?

To enable gzip compression via `.htaccess`, you need to add specific directives in your `.htaccess` file that instruct the server to compress certain types of files before sending them to the client. Gzip compression reduces the size of web pages and other files by around 70-80%, which can significantly speed up loading times and decrease bandwidth usage.

Here’s a detailed technical description of how to enable gzip compression in the `.htaccess` file:

Step 1: Open the `.htaccess` File

First, you need to locate and open your `.htaccess` file. This file is typically found in the root directory of your website on your server. You can access it via an FTP client such as FileZilla or through the File Manager in your web hosting control panel.

Step 2: Add Gzip Compression Rules

Next, you’ll need to add the following rules to your `.htaccess` file. These rules tell the server which file types to compress. Here’s an example configuration that covers many common file types:

```
# Compress HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Text, XML, and fonts 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-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 AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/xml

# Remove browser bugs BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4 gzip-only-text/html BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4.0⁶⁷⁸ no-gzip BrowserMatch bMSIE !no-gzip !gzip-only-text/html Header append Vary User-Agent ```

Explanation of the Configuration:

- ``: This directive checks if the mod_deflate module is enabled in Apache. Mod_deflate is the module responsible for gzip compression.
- `AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE`: This directive specifies the MIME types of files to compress. For example, `application/javascript` tells the server to compress JavaScript files.

Step 3: Verify Compression

After you’ve saved the `.htaccess` file with the new rules, you should verify that gzip compression is working correctly. You can use online tools such as [GTmetrix](https://gtmetrix.com/), [Pingdom](https://tools.pingdom.com/), or Google PageSpeed Insights to check if your files are being compressed.

You can also manually verify gzip compression by checking the HTTP headers of your site. For example, you can use the `curl` command in a terminal:

```
curl -I -H ‘Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate’ https://yourwebsite.com
```

If gzip compression is enabled, you should see `Content-Encoding: gzip` in the response headers.

Reliable Sources

1. [Apache HTTP Server Documentation – mod_deflate](https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/mod_deflate.html)
2. [GTmetrix: How to Improve Your Page Load Speed with Compression](https://gtmetrix.com/enable-gzip-compression.html)
3. [Google PageSpeed Insights](https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/)

By following the steps outlined above, you can successfully enable gzip compression for your website using the `.htaccess` file, which will enhance your site’s performance by reducing file sizes and speeding up page load times.