Enable Text Compression

Like image compression, text compression is used to reduce the size of any elements that are text-based, such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code. Like other web page elements, the larger the file, the longer it will take to download and process. And the more “weight” your page has, then the longer it is going to take to download and render. When it comes to the user experience, every millisecond counts. Optimizing text-based elements is just another easy technique that can be carried out to reduce web page load times for users.

Image compression works by reducing the amount of duplicate text and redundant characters. For text-based items, like HTML, there are a lot of repetitive characters, so the ability to reduce this down can really improve page load times. One of the tools, or algorithms used, is called GZIP. There are other compression algorithms as well, Brotli and Deflate, but GZIP is the most widely used compression algorithm for web developers. These tools can reduce the file size of some items by up to 70 percent, or more in some cases. GZIP is supported by popular web servers, like Apache and NGINX, and can be easily enabled. For CMS platforms like WordPress, there are plugins that web developers can utilize to modify and compress server-side files automatically.

Whatever your method for text compression, this is just another optimization technique to help your pages load faster and deliver content quicker to your visitors. Not sure if your pages are utilizing compression? You can check by reviewing the Network tab within the Developer tools option to review a list of resources. If your page uses text compression, you should see GZIP listed in the content-encoding header. Another method is to run a quick website speed test. This test can uncover whether compression is being used, as well as identifying any other elements that could be slowing your pages down.