What is Compression (Gzip and Brotli)?
Compression reduces file size so pages load faster. Learn how Gzip and Brotli work and why BearAudit reports Content-Encoding.
Compression means sending HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in a compressed form (e.g. Gzip or Brotli) so less data is transferred over the network. The browser decompresses the response. Smaller responses mean faster load times, better Core Web Vitals, and often better rankings and UX.
Gzip vs Brotli
- Gzip — Widely supported, very common on servers and CDNs. Great for text-based assets.
- Brotli — Often gives smaller sizes than Gzip for the same content. Supported in all modern browsers; more CDNs and servers support it than before.
Both are lossless: the decompressed content is identical to the original.
Why it matters
- Speed — Less data = faster TTFB and LCP, especially on slow connections.
- Bandwidth — Saves bandwidth for you and the user.
- SEO — Page speed and Core Web Vitals are ranking factors; compression is an easy win.
Most hosts and CDNs can enable Gzip (and often Brotli) for text/html and related MIME types with a few clicks or a config change.
How BearAudit checks it
BearAudit checks the Content-Encoding header on each response. We report whether the page is served as Brotli (br), Gzip (gzip), Deflate, or uncompressed. It’s an informational check—we don’t fail the page for missing compression—but we surface it so you can enable or improve compression and performance.