diff --git a/pkgs/plt-services/meta/new-web/sync.rkt b/pkgs/plt-services/meta/new-web/sync.rkt
index da999922dd..e7186976ea 100644
--- a/pkgs/plt-services/meta/new-web/sync.rkt
+++ b/pkgs/plt-services/meta/new-web/sync.rkt
@@ -3,7 +3,37 @@
 ;; This script uses the "s3-sync" package, even though the enclosing
 ;; package does not depend on it, and this module is written with
 ;; `racket/load` to avoid the dependency.
-(require s3-sync)
+
+(require racket/cmdline)
+
+(define dry-run? #f)
+
+(command-line
+ #:once-each
+ [("--dry-run") "Don't actually upload"
+  (printf "Dry-run mode enabled\n")
+  (set! dry-run? #t)])
+
+;; Manually check package install and version:
+(define s3-sync-pkg "s3-sync")
+(define min-s3-sync-vers "1.1")
+(require pkg/lib
+         setup/getinfo
+         version/utils)
+(let ([dir (pkg-directory s3-sync-pkg)])
+  (unless dir
+    (error 'sync "please install the ~s package" s3-sync-pkg))
+  (let ([i (get-info/full dir)])
+    (unless (and i
+                 (let ([v (i 'version (lambda () #f))])
+                   (and v
+                        (version<=? min-s3-sync-vers v))))
+      (error 'sync
+             "please update the ~s package to get version ~a or later"
+             s3-sync-pkg min-s3-sync-vers))))
+
+(require s3-sync
+         s3-sync/gzip)
 
 (define (step . s)
   (displayln (make-string 72 #\=))
@@ -25,22 +55,29 @@
   (dynamic-require 'meta/new-web/all #f)
   (dynamic-require '(submod meta/new-web/all main) #f))
 
-(define (upload dir site)
+(define-values (gzip-web-in gzip-web-enc) 
+  (make-gzip-handlers #rx"[.](css|js)$" #:min-size (* 1 1024)))
+
+(define (upload dir site #:shallow? [shallow? #f])
   (step (format "Uploading ~a" site))
   (s3-sync (build-path "generated" dir)
            site
            #f
+           #:dry-run? dry-run?
+           #:shallow? shallow?
            #:upload? #t
            #:reduced-redundancy? #t
            #:acl "public-read"
            #:link-mode 'redirect
+           #:make-call-with-input-file gzip-web-in
+           #:get-content-encoding gzip-web-enc
            #:log displayln))
 (upload "www" "racket-lang.org")
 (upload "www" "www.racket-lang.org")
 (upload "pre" "pre.racket-lang.org")
 (upload "con" "con.racket-lang.org")
 (upload "drracket" "www.drracket.org")
-(upload "download" "download.racket-lang.org")
+(upload "download" "download.racket-lang.org" #:shallow? #t)
 
 ;; ----------------------------------------