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Thursday, September 04, 2014
Everyone wants to use less bandwidth: hosts want lower bills, mobile users want to stay under
their limits, and no one wants to wait for unnecessary bytes. The web is full of opportunities to
save bandwidth: pages served without gzip, stylesheets and JavaScript served unminified, and
unoptimized images, just to name a few.
So why isn't the web already optimized for bandwidth? If these savings are good for everyone then
why haven't they been fixed yet? Mostly it's just been too much hassle. Web designers are
encouraged to "save for web" when exporting their artwork, but they don't always remember.
JavaScript programmers don't like working with minified code because it makes debugging harder.
You can set up a custom pipeline that makes sure each of these optimizations is applied to your
site every time as part of your development or deployment process, but that's a lot of work.
An easy solution for web users is to use an optimizing proxy, like
Chrome's.
When users opt into this service their HTTP traffic goes via Google's proxy, which optimizes their
page loads and cuts bandwidth usage by 50%. While this is great for these users, it's limited to
people using Chrome who turn the feature on and it can't optimize HTTPS traffic.
With
Optimize for Bandwidth,
the PageSpeed team is bringing this same technology to webmasters so that everyone can benefit:
users of other browsers, secure sites, desktop users, and site owners who want to bring down their
outbound traffic bills. Just install the
PageSpeed module
on your Apache or Nginx server1,
turn on
Optimize for Bandwidth in your configuration, and PageSpeed will do the rest.
If you later decide you're interested in PageSpeed's more advanced optimizations, from
cache extension
and
inlining
to the more aggressive
image lazyloading
and
defer JavaScript,
it's just a matter of enabling them in your PageSpeed configuration.
1: If you're using a different web server, consider running PageSpeed on an
Apache or Nginx proxy. And it's all
open source,
with porting efforts underway for
IIS,
ATS, and others.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],[],[[["\u003cp\u003eThe PageSpeed optimization tool helps reduce bandwidth usage by automatically optimizing website elements like images, stylesheets, and JavaScript files.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003ePageSpeed offers an "Optimize for Bandwidth" feature, similar to Chrome's data compression proxy, to reduce bandwidth for all users, including those on different browsers and secure sites.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eWebsite owners can easily install the PageSpeed module on their Apache or Nginx servers and enable the "Optimize for Bandwidth" feature to benefit from these optimizations.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eBeyond basic bandwidth optimization, PageSpeed offers advanced features such as cache extension, inlining, image lazyloading, and deferred JavaScript execution, which can be enabled as needed.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003ePageSpeed is open source and available for various web servers, with ongoing efforts to support even more platforms.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],["Webmasters can reduce bandwidth usage for all users by installing the PageSpeed module on their Apache or Nginx server. This module, with the \"Optimize for Bandwidth\" feature enabled, automatically optimizes pages, similar to Chrome's optimizing proxy. This solution benefits all browsers, secure sites, and desktop users, reducing outbound traffic. The module can be configured for more advanced optimizations like cache extension, inlining, lazyloading, and deferring JavaScript. PageSpeed is also open-source, and porting efforts are underway for other web servers.\n"],null,["# Optimizing for Bandwidth on Apache and Nginx\n\nThursday, September 04, 2014\n\n\nEveryone wants to use less bandwidth: hosts want lower bills, mobile users want to stay under\ntheir limits, and no one wants to wait for unnecessary bytes. The web is full of opportunities to\nsave bandwidth: pages served without gzip, stylesheets and JavaScript served unminified, and\nunoptimized images, just to name a few.\n\n\nSo why isn't the web already optimized for bandwidth? If these savings are good for everyone then\nwhy haven't they been fixed yet? Mostly it's just been too much hassle. Web designers are\nencouraged to \"save for web\" when exporting their artwork, but they don't always remember.\nJavaScript programmers don't like working with minified code because it makes debugging harder.\nYou can set up a custom pipeline that makes sure each of these optimizations is applied to your\nsite every time as part of your development or deployment process, but that's a lot of work.\n\n\nAn easy solution for web users is to use an optimizing proxy, like\n[Chrome's](https://developer.chrome.com/multidevice/data-compression).\nWhen users opt into this service their HTTP traffic goes via Google's proxy, which optimizes their\npage loads and cuts bandwidth usage by 50%. While this is great for these users, it's limited to\npeople using Chrome who turn the feature on and it can't optimize HTTPS traffic.\n\n\nWith\n[Optimize for Bandwidth](/speed/pagespeed/module/optimize-for-bandwidth),\nthe PageSpeed team is bringing this same technology to webmasters so that everyone can benefit:\nusers of other browsers, secure sites, desktop users, and site owners who want to bring down their\noutbound traffic bills. Just install the\n[PageSpeed module](/speed/pagespeed/module)\non your Apache or Nginx server^[1](#1)^,\n[turn on](/speed/pagespeed/module/optimize-for-bandwidth)\nOptimize for Bandwidth in your configuration, and PageSpeed will do the rest.\n\n\nIf you later decide you're interested in PageSpeed's more advanced optimizations, from\n[cache extension](/speed/pagespeed/module/filter-cache-extend)\nand\n[inlining](/speed/pagespeed/module/filter-js-inline)\nto the more aggressive\n[image lazyloading](/speed/pagespeed/module/filter-lazyload-images)\nand\n[defer JavaScript](/speed/pagespeed/module/filter-js-defer),\nit's just a matter of enabling them in your PageSpeed configuration.\n\n\nLearn more about\n[installing PageSpeed](/speed/pagespeed/module) or\n[enabling Optimize for Bandwidth](/speed/pagespeed/module/optimize-for-bandwidth).\n\nPosted by Jeff Kaufman, Make the Web Fast\n\n\n1: If you're using a different web server, consider running PageSpeed on an\nApache or Nginx proxy. And it's all\n[open source](https://github.com/apache/incubator-pagespeed-mod),\nwith porting efforts underway for\n[IIS](https://www.iispeed.com/),\n[ATS](https://www.atspagespeed.com/), and others."]]
