You can enable Enable HTTP (gzip) compression through caching plugins like W3 Total Cache or a specific compression plugin like GZip Ninja Speed Compression. Alternatively, you can enable Gzip compression by editing your .htaccess file.
1. Log into your cPanel.
2. Under the Files section, select the File Manager menu.
3. cPanel will pop up a message asking where you would like to land within your website directories.
In the same window, you will see the checkbox asking if you want to show hidden files. Check the checkbox Show Hidden Files and click Go.
4. Under the public_html folder of your website, find and edit the file called .htaccess.
Paste the following code into the .htaccess file at the end of your existing content.
<IfModule mod_deflate.c>
# 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-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
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/xml
# Removing browser bugs for older browsers
BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4 gzip-only-text/html
BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4\.0[678] no-gzip
BrowserMatch \bMSIE !no-gzip !gzip-only-text/html
Header append Vary User-Agent
</IfModule>
6. Save the changes.
→ Is your WordPress site slow?
Don't sweat it; check out the 10 Effective and Easy Ways to Speed up WordPress Site.
→ Looking to compress browser caching in cPanel?
Please refer to enable browser caching in cPanel for more details.
