ThinkPress WordPress Enlightenment

With the Firebug add-on YSlow, one of the components that gets rated is something called Compress components with gzip. When you run YSlow to optimize your website or blog, you may be getting dinged on that component. Here is how to improve your site’s speed a bit – with two huge caveats:

1. You web server must be running Apache 1.3
2. Your Apache 1.3 must use mod_gzip

If those two items are true, then to set up gzip compression, paste the following into you .htaccess file**.

<IfModule mod_gzip.c>
mod_gzip_on Yes
mod_gzip_dechunk Yes
mod_gzip_keep_workfiles No
mod_gzip_can_negotiate Yes
mod_gzip_add_header_count Yes
mod_gzip_send_vary Yes
mod_gzip_command_version '/mod_gzip_status'
mod_gzip_min_http 1000
mod_gzip_minimum_file_size 300
mod_gzip_maximum_file_size 512000
mod_gzip_maximum_inmem_size 60000
mod_gzip_handle_methods GET POST
mod_gzip_temp_dir /tmp
mod_gzip_item_include file \.html$
mod_gzip_item_include file \.php$
mod_gzip_item_include file \.pl$
mod_gzip_item_include file \.rb$
mod_gzip_item_include file \.py$
mod_gzip_item_include file \.cgi$
mod_gzip_item_include file \.css$
mod_gzip_item_include file \.js$
mod_gzip_item_include mime ^application/javascript$
mod_gzip_item_include mime ^application/x-javascript$
mod_gzip_item_include mime ^text/.*
mod_gzip_item_include mime ^httpd/unix-directory$
mod_gzip_item_include handler ^cgi-script$
mod_gzip_item_include handler ^server-status$
mod_gzip_item_include handler ^server-info$
mod_gzip_item_include handler ^application/x-httpd-php
mod_gzip_item_exclude mime ^image/.*
</IfModule>

If all goes well, you should now get an A for Compress components with gzip*.

*If you don’t get an A, () it is likely due to the fact that you are calling in external files like JavaScripts, style sheets or images. If that’s the case, you are out of luck unless you have some control or influence over the external file.

**If you do not have an .htaccess file in you file system, you can create one. Simply create a file called “.htaccess” in your web root. Open the file in your favorite editor and paste in the code above, save and close. Sometimes, the .htaccess file is hidden from view. If so, you may need to turn on a toggle for “Show Invisible Files” or something similar in you FTP application or Web File Browser.

With the Firebug add-on YSlow, one of the components that gets rated is something called Entity Tags or ETags.  When you run YSlow to optimize your website or blog, you may be getting dinged on that component.  Then you click on the “read more” link to learn how to fix the issue.  But when you actually read more instead of being enlightened you just get confused.  Don’t sweat it, I was baffled too.  Essentially what all that “read more” blurb boils down to is that ETags are not really useful, so cut them out all together.  To do this, all you need to do is add

to your .htaccess file**.  If all goes well, you should now get an A for Configure entity tags (ETags)*.

*If you don’t get an A, () it is likely due to the fact that you are calling in outside files that have issue with ETags, external files like JavaScripts, style sheets or images.  If that’s the case, you are out of luck unless you have some control or influence over the external file.

**If you do not have an .htaccess file in you file system, you can create one.  Simply create a file called “.htaccess” in your web root. Open the file in your favorite editor and paste in FileETag none, save and close.  Sometimes, the .htaccess file is hidden from view.  If so, you may need to turn on a toggle for “Show Invisible Files” or something similar in you FTP application or Web File Browser.

Brandon and I just got back from WordCamp in San Francisco. Boy howdy did we learn a lot of great tips and tricks for WordPress (and met a lot of great new people!).  One of the speakers I saw was Steve Souders, an originator of something called YSlow. So, here’s the first tip I’ll clue you in on – YSlow. YSlow analyzes your website and give suggestions for ways to improve the speed and performance based on a set of rules for high performance web pages.

YSlow is a Firefox add-on integrated with the Firebug web development tool.  So, right off the bat, we’ll need two things.  One, you need to be on FireFox (sorry, IE users, but it’s time to upgrade anyway).  If you don’t have it, get it here.  Next, you’ll need to install Firebug. (It’s easy, FireFox does most of the work for you.)  Finally, install YSlow.

Once all that is set, running YSlow is super easy.

1. Load the page you want to inspect (in FireFox, of course).
2. Click the YSlow icon in the bottom bar of the browser ().

When loaded, you’ll get a letter grade for each “speed element” as well as an overall grade for the speed of the site.  (See a snipit below)  With each of the speed elements, there are tips on how to improve the grade.  In just a few minutes I took Think-Press.com from an “E” graded site that took 6-7 seconds to down load to a “C” graded site that loads in about 2-3 seconds!  Some of element are beyond your control, but there are a lot of good little tidbits in there to help you speed up your site.

You’ll even see a quick stat for each page load in the bottom right corner of the browser like so .  This gives you the overall grade of the site, the size of the load and the time of the load.  What you see there is the new and improved Think-Press.com.

Happy optimizing!

This might seem a bit odd, but I’m going to write a plug here for an amazing WordPress related eBook. I happened to be doing some research around the net for some of our upcomping screencasts and tutorials when I happened upon this very reasonably priced eBook. Given that it is co-authored by the one-and-only Collis Ta’eed of Envato fame, I thought $29 was well worth it. But it gets better. I thought the site was worth folowing, so I signed up for their email list and BAM! I got a $10 coupon code in my email. Once I got the book, I was totally stoked by not only the great content, but the rediculous aount of source files that accompany the eBook. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve bought a book only to find that the code listings aren’t accurate. I also found it easy to dive right in to the eBook due to Collis’ easy to follow writing style. The code listings could have used a better graphical treatment in my mind, but seeing as they give you fully coded source files, I just opened them up in TextMate and followed along. I liked that they covered the entire design process of a WordPress theme, from PhotoShop to final code. Too bad they didn’t plug our Favicon Generator plugin on page 100! I highly recommend this eBook for WordPress designers and developers, both seasoned professionals and those just starting out. It’s a great tool to have in your arsenal.

Just so you all know this isn’t a paid advertisement, but if you buy the book through this site, we’ll get a little commission.

Do you think you’ve done all that you can do to get your WordPress website noticed, yet aren’t seeing the results you want? So many times, we’ve seen our customers set up WordPress for themselves and miss myriad opportunities to get their website noticed by search engines and potential customers. We have come to realize that there is no easy-to-find, easy-to-follow, complete resource that can give people the information they need to get their site in front of the people they want to reach. Well we say, “no more!” We’ve been busy working on a series of screencasts for our readers that is going to end this drought of knowledge. Continue Reading