Server Rewrite (.htaccess)

Server Rewrite (.htaccess)

Server Rewrite adds rewrite rules to your .htaccess file so Apache (or LiteSpeed) serves WebP/AVIF directly — before PHP executes. This is faster than PHP-based delivery and eliminates the need for WordPress to process image URLs on every page load.

Nginx users: .htaccess rules don't apply to Nginx. Use PHP delivery mode or configure Nginx rewrite rules manually.

Table of Contents#

• When to Use Server Rewrite
• Enable Server Rewrite
• What Gets Added to .htaccess
• Verify It's Working
• Disable Server Rewrite
• Troubleshooting

When to Use Server Rewrite#

Enable Server Rewrite#

1. Go to GetWebP → Settings → Delivery.
2. Click Server Rewrite tab.
3. Review the rules preview.
4. Click Write .htaccess Rules.

GetWebP writes the rules inside a clearly marked block:

# BEGIN GetWebP
... rules ...
# END GetWebP

This block is preserved across WordPress updates and WP-CLI operations.

What Gets Added to .htaccess#

# BEGIN GetWebP
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
  RewriteEngine On
 
  # AVIF: serve .avif sibling when browser accepts image/avif
  RewriteCond %{HTTP_ACCEPT} image/avif
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} \.(jpe?g|png|gif)$
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}\.avif -f
  RewriteRule ^ %{REQUEST_URI}.avif [T=image/avif,L]
 
  # WebP: serve .webp sibling when browser accepts image/webp
  RewriteCond %{HTTP_ACCEPT} image/webp
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} \.(jpe?g|png|gif)$
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}\.webp -f
  RewriteRule ^ %{REQUEST_URI}.webp [T=image/webp,L]
</IfModule>
 
<IfModule mod_headers.c>
  Header append Vary Accept env=REDIRECT_accept
</IfModule>
# END GetWebP

The Vary: Accept header tells CDNs and proxy caches to store separate versions for clients that support WebP/AVIF and those that don't.

Verify It's Working#

1. Open your browser DevTools → Network tab.
2. Load a page with images.
3. Click an image request and check the Response Headers.
4. You should see Content-Type: image/webp (or image/avif).

Alternatively, run:

curl -I -H "Accept: image/webp" https://yoursite.com/wp-content/uploads/photo.jpg

The response Content-Type should be image/webp.

Disable Server Rewrite#

1. Go to GetWebP → Settings → Delivery → Server Rewrite.
2. Click Remove .htaccess Rules.

The # BEGIN GetWebP ... # END GetWebP block is removed from .htaccess. PHP delivery continues to function if it was enabled.

Troubleshooting#

Images are still served as JPEG/PNG after enabling Server Rewrite

• Confirm mod_rewrite is enabled on your server.
• Check that the .htaccess file in your WordPress root is writable.
• Make sure the .webp sibling files exist — run a batch conversion first.

Getting a 404 or broken image

• The rewrite rule fires before checking if the file exists. Verify that %{REQUEST_FILENAME}\.webp -f condition is matching correctly.
• On some shared hosts, RewriteBase may be required. Add RewriteBase / inside the <IfModule mod_rewrite.c> block.

CDN serving the wrong format

• Ensure your CDN respects the Vary: Accept header and stores format-specific cache entries.
• CloudFlare: Enable Polish with WebP support, or whitelist Vary: Accept in your page rules.