Gzip compression is typically disabled by default in Nginx for file serving. When CSS and JavaScript files aren't minified or pre-compressed, enabling gzip compression can significantly reduce file sizes and improve page load times. This guide shows how to enable gzip compression for individual sites on a Plesk 12.5 or Onyx server.

How to do it

  1. Step 1: Log into Plesk

    Access your Plesk server control panel.

  2. Step 2: Select the domain

    Choose the domain from the left-hand side menu for which you want to enable gzip compression.

  3. Step 3: Navigate to Apache and Nginx settings

    Go to the Apache and Nginx settings section for the selected domain.

    Apache and Nginx settings

  4. Step 4: Add gzip directives

    Scroll to the bottom and locate the "Additional nginx directives" field. Add the following configuration:

    gzip on;
gzip_disable "MSIE [1-6]\.(?!.*SV1)";
gzip_proxied any;
gzip_types text/plain text/css application/x-javascript application/javascript text/xml application/xml application/xml+rss text/javascript image/x-icon image/bmp image/svg+xml;
gzip_vary on;

  5. Step 5: Save the configuration

    Click OK to save the changes.

  6. Step 6: Verify gzip compression

    You can verify that gzip compression is working by inspecting the page source through your browser's debugging tools (Network tab) or by using online tools like GTMetrix.