Here’s how we boosted our website speed by 50%

The web and all the wonderful things that come with it has changed vastly since it was first introduced. It has since developed into a world-wide phenomenon that has changed the fundamentals our society. There is an endless amount of websites at our fingertips, all which are worlds away from the form they once appeared in; design and coding has come a long way to enable websites to be of a standard that we once dreamed of.

What is HTTP/2 and why are we using it?

While we may be able to build these fantastic websites, there’s still a problem – the way they load. Up until now we have relied on the HTTP/1 to load our websites, which has proven to be inefficient, slow and sometimes unresponsive. It only makes sense that the HTTP/1 is updated too, in order to provide a service that is able to match the level of sophistication found on these amazing websites.

This is why we have chosen to implement HTTP/2, which is a much-needed refresh, as the web has changed over the years. The update brings with it advancements in efficiency, security and speed¹. Such as its single connection which means that only one connection to the server is used to load a website, and that connection remains open as long as the website is open¹. This ultimately reduces the number of round trips needed to set up multiple TCP connections¹, meaning a quicker load time and less impatient customers. In addition to utilizing HTTP/2 we have also upgraded our SEO to PHP 7.

The changes we have recently made are already showing to be worthwhile. Our client A3M, a printing company who hired us to design and build their website, has been the first to use HTTP/2 and is currently loading in 689 milliseconds. With an estimated 50% boost in speed utilising HTTP/2 is success and will help many more of our client’s website speed increase.

As SEO experts we work with long-term strategies that ensure that our client’s website are getting the best exposure possible with a continued growth in organic traffic – but none of that is any good if your site takes ages to load. This can cause your audience loses interest and divert to another page, fortunately HTTP/2 is proving to be the winning solution.

Sources

1 http://searchengineland.com/everyone-moving-http2-236716

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