HTTP is a protocol responsible for managing communication between a browser that makes a request and a server that contains the requested information. It is over 15 years old and has now been updated, with the HTTP2 model offering some improvements.
The new HTTP2 standard was officially launched in 2015, but it wasn’t until 2020 that Google signaled it would start crawling websites using this protocol. In May 2021, John Mueller, SEO expert at Google, explained in an interview that more than half of all URLs in the world were already being crawled using the new protocol.
The traditional HTTP protocol can only process a finite number of requests and must process them one at a time. HTTP2 not only improves the processing speed of each request but allows the processing of multiple requests at the same time. In short, it is as if HTTP1 is a one-way highway and HTTP2 is a dual-lane highway, allowing for much smoother round-trip traffic. This is due to a feature of HTTP2 called Multiplex.
Server Push
Another feature, Server Push, allows the server to respond to the same request with more than one response at the same time. In HTTP1, the server sent a response to load HTML, another for CSS, and another for JavaScript. However, with Server Push, you can send all requests together.
Similarly, HTTP2 can convert syntactic text commands to binary, which makes it easier to respond to loops and command implementation. On the other hand, it is capable of compressing the headers of the sites (header). This way, it can reduce the usual information overload when loading these elements.
Headers often contain many images and content, making many requests that cause latency and consume many network resources. Thanks to this compression mechanism, redundant frames are joined into a compressed block and sent to the client.
How does HTTP2 affect SEO?
Naturally, this new communication protocol will affect SEO and user experience. First, the performance of most websites will improve. For example, responses and requests will not block each other’s paths, reducing network latency.
At the same time, by sending and receiving requests in bulk, it will be possible to improve network resources. This improves the loading and response speed of websites.
On the other hand, it is a perfect protocol for mobile Internet. Some improvements such as Multiplex or the ability to compress the headers improve the performance of the Internet on the mobile. They facilitate the exchange of the heaviest information packets.
Google has already reported that using the HTTP2 protocol will not have a direct impact on SEO. That is, it will not be an SEO factor. However, indirectly it will be one factor to consider in the update ” Page Experience .”
