methodology / Performance / #10
Compression (Brotli / gzip)
#10 · Recommended · Web Quality · weighted · Performance · weight 0.7% · impl implemented · method v1.2.0
Web Quality factor
This factor is part of Web Quality — the weighted 0..100 score that sits above Web Standards. Its weight depends on what kind of site is being measured. Web Standards items take priority; this factor only enters the score once Web Standards passes.
- Base weight
- 1.0 applied to every site type unless overridden below
- Why this weight
- Compression (Brotli/gzip) is universally available and saves real bytes for real users.
What this means for your business
Without compression, your visitors download files that are roughly four times bigger than they need to be — burning their data plan and your search ranking. Every modern host supports this; it's almost always just a checkbox.
Plain title: Pages get squeezed before they're sent
What we measure
Compressed pages download 60-90% faster than uncompressed ones. Brotli is best, gzip is acceptable, no compression hurts mobile users on slow connections.
How to improve your score
Most hosts and CDNs enable Brotli automatically. If neither is active, enable in your web server config or front the site with Cloudflare.
Facts
Scoring
Scoring formulas are versioned with the methodology. The current method (v1.2.0) maps raw measurements to pass, warn, fail. Factor weights determine how much each contributes to the composite — see the methodology index for the full table.
Cited by these standards
Standards in the Standards Library whose satisfiedBy requirement tree references this factor. Each link goes to the standard's full entry — methodology, scope, and the other factors it relies on.
Version history
| Version | Change | Date |
|---|---|---|
| v1.2.0 | Factor introduced. Status: live. Scoring impl: implemented. | 2026-04-25 |