: Proper use of Content-Encoding I've heard it suggested that using setting a page's Content-Encoding to zip or gzip will drive down load times and reduce bandwidth. Is this worth implementing

@Sims2060225

To extend on Jason Birchs and Kinopikos answers: another increasingly important reason why you absolutely want to apply this (very simple) optimization is Googles announcement to use site speed in web search ranking as of April 09 2010. You surely don't wanna miss out on an improvement regarding your SEO efforts that easy ;)

Once you start looking at things from that angle you'll most likely benefit from (and enjoy working with) the respective tools giving you insights into how your pages perform and what you can do about it to improve them:


Yahoo! YSlow for Firebug
Google Page Speed for Firebug

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@Welton855

This is absolutely worth doing, even for sites with average to low traffic levels. Although it will reduce your bandwidth (with a slight increase in CPU usage), the real benefit is to your users. Even on broadband you can notice a performance improvement when accessing compressed pages, but your users on slower network speeds and newer smartphones will really appreciate it.

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