Easy SSI Setup for Nginx and Apache VPS: Simple Step-by-Step Guide

Do you want to edit one header or footer and see the change on all pages at once? This is precisely what Server-Side Includes (SSI) does for you! If your website is hosted on a VPS using Apache or Nginx, it will greatly simplify your life. Let's think of it in a very basic way.

What Is SSI?​

SSI allows your server to automatically insert small pieces of HTML in your web page before it is served to the user.

For example:

• You have one header file
• One footer file

And you insert them into every page without copying/pasting. Then, when you edit the header file, your entire site updates automatically.

Why You Should Use SSI?​

SSI is awesome! Because:

• Your code is simple
• You do not repeat yourself everywhere
• Updating is fast
• You can easily insert tiny bits of dynamic things (like dates)

It's basically a very light CMS but don't want to have the complex setup of a CMS framework.

Enabling SSI in Apache​

Apache has built in SSI support

Enabling SSI

Open your site config file and ensure these options are set:

• Options +Includes
• AddType text/html .shtml
• AddOutputFilter INCLUDES .shtml

Then restart Apache.

Your .shtml files will be able to process SSI.

Enabling SSI in Nginx

Nginx supports SSI as well, but does it differently than Apache.

We just need to turn on SSI in the server block

• ssi on;
• ssi_silent_errors on;

We will then restart Nginx.

Important: Nginx only processes SSI in HTML files, and will not process in PHP files (unless you code additional rules)

Using SSI on Your HTML Page​

Once you have enabled SSI, you can include a header like this:

<!--#include virtual="/includes/header.html" -->

Now this file will be included in every page you include it in.

Other Uses for SSI​

SSI works best for:

• Small static websites
• Documentation website
• Landing pages
• Small projects

It’s a clean, quick way of keeping your site up to date.

Final Thoughts​

If you have SSI setup on your VPS (Apache or Nginx), it can help you easily manage repeated elements like header and footer files. You just need to change one file, and the entire site changes. SSI is easy, fast, and a great approach for small websites.