HTTP3 is an update to make your website load faster. Unfortunately, this is a fairly geek subject, but there are clear benefits for your website and its Google performance so knowing about it is a good thing.
What is HTTP?
Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is how a browser connects and passes information back and forth from your website. HTTP really is the unlying communications that much of the internet is built on.
If you check the browser’s address bar you’ll see HTTP as part of the browser’s connection for all website you visit. In this case its HTTPS, a modified version of HTTP.
What is HTTPS?
Your browser might also be showing HTTPS which is the secure version of HTTP. The communications between your browser and the website is encrypted to prevent anyone lurking around to see what information is being passed back and forth between your browser and the website.
An important point here is that your website is responsible to tells the visitor’s browser to switch to communicate using HTTPS. Your website needs to be configured specifically to do this as typically its not done by default.
HTTPS has become very popular as we become more aware of personal security. While there no denying that personal security is important, I suspect most people have transitioned to HTTPS to take advantage of Google’s small ranking advantage in recognition of your website’s good security.
Whats is HTTP3?
HTTP3 in the third generation of HTTP. The difference between HTTP3 and the eariler versions are quite technical but essentially HTTP3 is designed to streamline communication on the internet – in our case between a browser and your website
HTTP3 improves performance by using a new transport protocol developed by Google called ‘QUIC’. This name was derived as an acronym for “Quick UDP Internet Connections”. QUIC is designed from the ground up to avoid bottlenecks in a series of exchanges between your browser and the website. If you feel you need to know more please read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QUIC
It notable that HTTP3 is already in use by Google for Chrome connections to some of Google’s infrastructure.
What does HTTP3 mean for my website?
If you want your website to rank higher in Google then you should be keen to migrate your site to HTTP3.
HTTP3 is all about speeding up the internet, and Google and people value faster websites.
Testing for HTTP3
You can test your website to see if it can support HTTP3 here:
- A free HTTP3 testing service: https://http3check.net/
- Alternatively, you can use FireFox’s Developer interface
Watch this post for further development on http3 testing and use.
An online marketer with deep experience in Sales & Marketing as well as technical skills accumulated over the many years of working in this industry. He has been knee-deep in websites and online marketing since the mid 80’s.
Peter is a lateral thinker who sees solutions where many don’t.
Website Concierge is a reincarnate of Succinct Ideas, providing quality website support and online marketing for small businesses.
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