Symptom

BoltAudit flags missing or short Cache-Control headers on static assets (CSS, JS, fonts, images). The Lighthouse "Serve static assets with an efficient cache policy" audit will also flag this.

Impact

  • Every repeat visit re-downloads the same files instead of using local copies.
  • TTFB stays the same, but render time on second visit can be 2–4× slower than necessary.
  • Mobile and high-latency users pay the most.

Manual fix

Apache (.htaccess)

CODE0

NGINX

CODE1

Apply Fix

One-click in the dashboard for stacks where BoltAudit can write .htaccess rules safely. For NGINX-only stacks, the dashboard surfaces the snippet but you'll need to add it to your server config and reload NGINX yourself.

Caveat

Use long max-ages (1 year) only on files whose URLs change when the content changes (e.g. style.min.css?ver=4.2.0). For files with fixed URLs, cap at 1 hour or use ETag.

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