How HTTP/3 Helps Feed SEO’s Need For Speed?

The web’s evolution is never static.

As new technologies emerge, consumer behavior shifts, forcing the internet’s core infrastructure to adapt. Each iteration of the HTTP protocol, which is used to transfer data between client and server, has added new and exciting features to the core functionality.

What is HTTP/3?

HTTP/3 is, at its core, a rewrite of the underlying transport layer that handles file transfer. The HTTP protocol governs how communication platforms and devices exchange data and retrieve resources on the Internet. It is, in a nutshell, what allows users to access websites.

It denotes a transition from TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) to UDP (User Datagram Protocol), which addresses several TCP flaws while also improving user performance and security.

What New In HTTP/3?

HTTP/3 will be the first major upgrade to the hypertext transfer protocol since HTTP/2 was approved in 2015. The use of QUIC, a new transport protocol, in HTTP/3 is a significant difference. QUIC is for people who use their smartphones to switch between networks while going about their daily lives. This was not the case when the first Internet protocols were developed: devices were less portable and switched networks less frequently.

With the use of QUIC, HTTP/3 is based on the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) rather than the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) (TCP). Switching to UDP will result in faster connections and a more enjoyable online browsing experience.

HTTP/3 Different From HTTP/2

• User Experience: Most people today are well aware that they only have a few seconds to capture someone’s attention. As time passes, people’s attention spans become shorter and shorter. People are only willing to wait 0.4 to 0.6 seconds for a website to load. If your site takes longer than this to load, you risk losing a sale. Customers may perceive HTTP/3 to be faster than the outdated HTTP/2 technology, which is capable of delivering these times. The entire experience may appear faster when a user visits a page using the HTTP/3 protocol. When network conditions are less than ideal, this is especially true.

• Supported By The Most Popular Browsers: Nowadays, everything revolves around convenience. Isn’t that why businesses use all of these technologies in the first place? They want their customers to have a more pleasant and convenient experience. It is self-evident that HTTP/3 is capable of doing just that. Customers also use specific browsers for this reason. You can conduct as much research as you want and still see that Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox are the most popular browsers today. This is because they significantly improve and enhance the browsing experience. This is just one of the many reasons why businesses should consider switching to this new protocol for their websites. HTTP/3 and QUIC are supported by both Chrome and Firefox.

• Supported Web Servers: You’re probably already aware that HTTP/3 and QUIC offer a better browsing experience thanks to faster speeds, lower latency, improved packet error handling, and built-in encryption. Your site will be more accessible than ever when you combine this with Chrome or Firefox’s improved browsing experience. All of this is to say that, like any other technology, HTTP/3 and QUIC have some flaws. Speed is the first part of any successful campaign, as any premium web hosting company knows. You’ll need fast and responsive pages if you want to attract customers and keep them coming back again and again. It’s obvious that the newer HTTP/3 protocol could be the ideal solution for you.

HTTP/3 Matter For SEO?

Googlebot has not supported HTTP/3 since November 2020, despite HTTP/2 accounting for half of all URLs crawled. HTTP/2 is only used when there is a clear benefit, such as when using HTTP/2 will save significant amounts of resources for both servers and Googlebot.

This will undoubtedly grow over time, but HTTP/3 is still a long way off, given the five-year delay between the release of HTTP/2 and Googlebot support. If HTTP/3 improves Core Web Vitals scores, it may still have an indirect SEO benefit. One of many possible improvements you can make to make your website as fast as possible is to upgrade your server infrastructure to support HTTP/3 – or, for that matter, HTTP/2.

Final Thoughts

HTTP/3 is a significant step forward for the web, providing a much-needed performance boost to support its ongoing evolution. As SEO and digital marketing professionals, we should be aware of the protocol’s benefits ahead of its upcoming publication so that we can begin recommending its use and allow our users to reap the benefits for years to come.  Alkye recommends bringing the most up-to-date technology to our clients as a business partner to help them grow their business.