[ ← blog / htaccess ](/) Feb 24, 2013  ·  \#htaccess  ·  4 min read 

# Speed Up WordPress Load Time



 I like that WordPress has a built in permalink builder, however I wish it had a built in way of adding your own custom rules. You can, however, write a function to hook with the *flush\_rewrite\_rules()* built in WordPress. I borrowed some of [Sergey Chernyshev's .htaccess lines](https://github.com/sergeychernyshev/.htaccess) and created a function to add gzip compression and caching rules to speed up WordPress load time. My Google PageSpeed analysis went up about 11 points after I applied the hitaccess rules. Speed up WordPress load time by adding this bit of code into your *functions.php.* You'll still need to flush the rewrite rules, so after you've saved your *functions.php* go to Settings -> Permalinks and click on *Save Settings*. For those who want proof, here is a screenshot of my page speed results ![glamanate-page-speed](http://glamanate.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/glamanate-page-speed.png)

```
/** Functions to add to htaccess through WordPress**/
add_action('mod_rewrite_rules', 'dooley_htaccess_rules');
function dooley_htaccess_rules( $rules ) {

//echo'<pre>'.$rules.'</pre>';

$custom_rules = 
"\n # BEGIN Dooley Rules -  See https://github.com/sergeychernyshev/.htaccess
 \n# --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 \n# Compression: http://code.google.com/speed/page-speed/docs/payload.html#GzipCompression
 \n# --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 \n<IfModule mod_deflate.c>
 \nAddOutputFilter DEFLATE application/atom+xml
 \nAddOutputFilter DEFLATE application/json
 \nAddOutputFilter DEFLATE application/xhtml+xml
 \nAddOutputFilter DEFLATE application/xml
 \nAddOutputFilter DEFLATE text/css
 \nAddOutputFilter DEFLATE text/html
 \nAddOutputFilter DEFLATE text/plain
 \nAddOutputFilter DEFLATE text/x-component
 \nAddOutputFilter DEFLATE text/xml
 \n
 \n# The following MIME types are in the process of registration
 \nAddOutputFilter DEFLATE application/xslt+xml
 \nAddOutputFilter DEFLATE image/svg+xml
 \n
 \n# The following MIME types are NOT registered
 \nAddOutputFilter DEFLATE application/mathml+xml
 \nAddOutputFilter DEFLATE application/rss+xml

 \n# JavaScript has various MIME types
 \nAddOutputFilter DEFLATE application/javascript
 \nAddOutputFilter DEFLATE application/x-javascript
 \nAddOutputFilter DEFLATE text/ecmascript
 \nAddOutputFilter DEFLATE text/javascript
 \n
 \n# .ico files and other compressible images
 \nAddOutputFilter DEFLATE image/vnd.microsoft.icon
 \nAddOutputFilter DEFLATE image/x-icon
 \nAddOutputFilter DEFLATE image/bmp
 \nAddOutputFilter DEFLATE image/tiff
 \nAddOutputFilter DEFLATE application/pdf
 \n
 \n# compressible fonts (.woff is already compressed)
 \nAddOutputFilter DEFLATE font/opentype
 \nAddOutputFilter DEFLATE application/x-font-ttf
 \nAddOutputFilter DEFLATE application/vnd.ms-fontobject
 \n</IfModule>
 \n# -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 \n# Browser Caching: http://code.google.com/speed/page-speed/docs/caching.html#LeverageBrowserCaching
 \n# --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 \n<IfModule mod_expires.c>
 \nExpiresActive On
 \n
 \nExpiresByType application/json\"access plus 1 year\"
 \nExpiresByType application/pdf\"access plus 1 year\"
 \nExpiresByType application/x-shockwave-flash\"access plus 1 year\"
 \nExpiresByType image/bmp \"access plus 1 year\"
 \nExpiresByType image/gif \"access plus 1 year\"
 \nExpiresByType image/jpeg \"access plus 1 year\"
 \nExpiresByType image/png \"access plus 1 year\"
 \nExpiresByType image/svg+xml \"access plus 1 year\"
 \nExpiresByType image/tiff \"access plus 1 year\"
 \nExpiresByType image/vnd.microsoft.icon \"access plus 1 year\"
 \n  ExpiresByType image/x-icon\"access plus 1 year\"
 \nExpiresByType text/css \"access plus 1 year\"
 \nExpiresByType video/x-flv \"access plus 1 year\"
 \nExpiresByType application/vnd.bw-fontobject\"access plus 1 year\"
 \nExpiresByType application/x-font-ttf\"access plus 1 year\"
 \nExpiresByType application/font-woff\"access plus 1 year\"
 \nExpiresByType font/opentype\"access plus 1 year\"
 \nExpiresByType image/webp\"access plus 1 year\"
 \n
 \n# The following MIME types are in the process of registration
 \nExpiresByType application/xslt+xml\"access plus 1 year\"
 \nExpiresByType image/svg+xml\"access plus 1 year\"
 \n
 \n# The following MIME types are NOT registered
 \nExpiresByType application/mathml+xml\"access plus 1 year\"
 \nExpiresByType application/rss+xml\"access plus 1 year\"
 \n
 \n# JavaScript has various MIME types
 \nExpiresByType application/x-javascript \"access plus 1 year\"
 \nExpiresByType application/javascript \"access plus 1 year\"
 \nExpiresByType text/ecmascript \"access plus 1 year\"
 \nExpiresByType text/javascript \"access plus 1 year\"
 \n</IfModule>

 \n# END Dooley Rules\n";

 echo $custom_rules;

return $custom_rules . $rules;

}
```

There you go. 

  ![](/themes/custom/mglaman/images/headshot.webp)Thanks for reading

I write about Drupal, PHP, and the quiet infrastructure behind large sites — caching, config, and testing. New posts land every week or two.

 [Subscribe via RSS →](/rss.xml) [About me →](/about-me) 

 



 

  [← Older

Modern IE, Aptana and SVN, and Responsive...Fonts?

 ](/blog/modern-ie-aptana-and-svn-and-responsivefonts) [Newer →

A better responsive sidebar

 ](/blog/better-responsive-sidebar)