HTTP/2: an SEO perspective

Internet technologies are developing rapidly. New devices are emerging from which it is necessary to provide quick access to a variety of content. If you want to improve your website with cutting-edge technology, HTTP/2 is worth a look. Google currently uses it to crawl most websites. In this article, we'll look at its benefits from an SEO perspective.

Why do we need the HTTP/2 protocol, what is it anyway?

A URL has several parts, and the first element will always be an abbreviation such as "https://" or "http://". In the first case, we are talking about having an SSL certificate. This protocol regulates the exchange of data between the browser and the server. It was proposed by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989, and already in 1997 the HTTP/1.1 protocol was introduced and used for a long time.

With the development of mobile technologies and the growing load on network infrastructures, there is a need to improve throughput. In 2009, Google began working on a new experimental protocol, SPDY, which became the basis for HTTP/2. This protocol was introduced into use in the year, and a little earlier it became available in popular browsers.

Goals of HTTP/2, advantages of the new protocol

The HTTP/2 protocol is designed to improve the transfer of data between the server and the browser, while maintaining the integrity of the transmitted information. Its goals include:

• Reduce page loading time by 50%.
• Reduced load on servers, resulting in improved efficiency.
• Providing convenience for webmasters without requiring changes to the content.
• Maximum use of existing network resources.

Advantages of the protocol

Main advantages of HTTP/2:

• Multiplexed streams. Unlike older protocols, HTTP/2 allows multiple pieces of data to be transferred simultaneously over a single TCP connection.
• Binary protocols. All data is transmitted in binary format, which increases transmission speed by compressing and reducing the volume of information.
• Preparation of data by the server in advance. The server can pre-send files that the browser will request in the future, which makes pages load faster.
• Header compression. In HTTP/2, request headers are compressed, which saves resources when exchanging information between the server and the browser.

SEO Benefits

HTTP/2 greatly improves performance, but how does it impact SEO? Google has been crawling sites using the HTTP/2 protocol for years. In the Search Console, webmasters receive notifications that their site is being crawled using the new protocol. Let's look at what's important to know:

• Googlebot independently decides when to crawl a site via HTTP/2. At the same time, resources are selected that have clear advantages, for example, sites with a large number of pages.
• It is impossible to force Google to crawl a site using HTTP/2 - this happens automatically when you switch to this protocol.
• You can choose not to use HTTP/2 for crawling if the server is configured to encode the response with code 421. In this case, Googlebot will switch to HTTP/1.1.
• Refusal of HTTP/2 will not affect the quality of crawling or the crawling budget of the site.
• To find out which protocol is being used, you can check notifications in the search console or examine the server logs.

Features of implementation

The implementation of the HTTP/2 protocol depends on hosting providers, server administrators and web developers. The process may vary depending on the server type. To simplify the process, various guides have been developed, including setup tips from popular platforms.

HTTP/2 is currently being actively implemented, and developers are already thinking about the next step - creating HTTP/3, which will use a QUIC connection instead of the legacy TCP. You can learn more about this in various articles on the topic.

If you have any questions, you can contact the SEO studio "SEO COMPUTER" for any question by email info@seo.computer.

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