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Uncompressed Text Files

Priority: Critical

Impact: Negative

What issues it may cause​

  • Uncompressed text-based resources contain unnecessary whitespace, comments, and other characters that inflate their file size. Larger file sizes require more bandwidth to transfer over the network and can result in longer download times, especially for users on slower network connections or devices with limited bandwidth.

  • Uncompressed JavaScript and CSS files can be render-blocking, meaning the browser must download and execute them before it can render the visible parts of the page.

  • Hosting larger text-based resources consumes more server resources and bandwidth, resulting in higher hosting costs. Additionally, increased bandwidth usage may lead to overage charges from web hosting providers.

  • Uncompressed text-based resources are also larger in size, and may lead to reduced efficiency of browser caching mechanisms. Cached resources may take up more storage space in the browser cache, leading to more frequent cache evictions and increased reliance on server requests for fetching resources.

How do you fix it​

  • Enable text compression for text-based resources served by your web server. This can typically be done by enabling gzip or Brotli compression in your server configuration settings. Gzip and Brotli are widely supported compression algorithms that can significantly reduce the size of text-based resources without sacrificing quality.

  • If you are using a content delivery network (CDN), ensure that text compression is enabled at the CDN level as well to optimize the delivery of cached resources to users.

  • Regularly monitor and test your website's performance using tools like Lighthouse to identify any text compression issues and ensure that text-based resources are being compressed effectively.

Learn more about text compression.

What is the positive impact​

  • Faster page load times and improved overall performance, leading to a better user experience and higher user satisfaction.

  • Reduced data transfer times and bandwidth usage, resulting in lower hosting costs and improved server efficiency.

  • Improved search engine rankings, as page speed is a factor considered by search engines when ranking websites in search results.

  • Enhanced accessibility for users on slower network connections or mobile devices, ensuring that they can access and interact with your website more efficiently.

How to fetch the data for this report template​

You will need to run a crawl for report template to generate report. When report has been generated and you have crawl id you can fetch data for the report using the following query:

query GetReportForCrawl($crawlId: ObjectID!, $reportTemplateCode: String!) {
  getCrawl(id: $crawlId) {
    reportsByCode(
      input: {
        reportTypeCodes: Basic
        reportTemplateCodes: [$reportTemplateCode]
      }
    ) {
      rows {
        nodes {
          ... on CrawlSiteSpeedAuditOpportunities {
            opportunityDigest
            element
            title
            auditId
            exampleUrl
            wastedKibAvg
            urlCount
            wastedKibSum
            gaPageviewsSum
            savingsScoreSum
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

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