Add the “expires” headers to the NGINX server in Plesk using the method explained in this post. Bobcares, as a part of our Plesk Hosting Support, offers solutions to every query that comes our way.

Add the “expires” headers to the NGINX server in Plesk

We can set up the Apache expires header in Plesk to control the duration in which the web browsers keep the caches of the web content before requesting it again from the server. Setting up the header in the right way will definitely increase the performance of the website. If we set the expiration duration as 5 days, then the content will be available in the browser cache for the next 5 days from the day it was first fetched. Only on the sixth day, the browser will again request the content from the server.

It is better to activate “response with Expires headers for static files only” when setting the ‘expires’ header for the dynamic webpages. Otherwise, the visitor’s browsers will cache all content, including dynamic content, for the duration of the expiration date. Due to the dynamic content’s tendency to be modified often, this is not good.

Only files served by Apache will have the expiration header if NGINX is enabled. The default configurations for Apache and NGINX control which files are handled as static if the Smart static files processing option is checked. NGINX will also serve files with the specified extensions if the Checkbox labeled “Serve static files directly by NGINX” is checked and any file extensions are entered.

How to add the “expires” headers to the NGINX server in Plesk?

We can run the following steps to set up the ‘expire’ header to the NGINX server in Plesk.

1. Access the Apache & NGINX Settings page under Websites & Domains.
2. Choose the Enter custom value radio button under Expires.
3. Set the preferred expiration date.
4. Make sure the response with Expires headers for static files only checkbox is selected if your website contains dynamic content.
5. Finally, click OK.

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Conclusion

We’ve included a five-step method from our Tech team to add the “expires” header to the NGINX server in Plesk.