Yesterday (Thursday 29 August 2019), the main web server was upgraded to work with the HTTP/2 protocol, and you may say ‘so what’ or ‘wow’. For those in the ‘so what’ camp let me explain; there are many advantages to having your website use this protocol instead of the older HTTP/1.1; speed, speed, speed. HTTP/2 runs approximately 14 percent faster and it doesn’t work with old versions of PHP, only the newer 7.*. Which in turn runs faster than the older PHP5 versions (PHP benchmark tests). We have had to ensure that all the sites are PHP7 compatible which we’ve been doing over the last few months.
I have page speed tested one of our e-commerce websites and that’s showing a speed increase of 25% compared to the beginning of August which I think is a fantastic improvement.
Page speed is important to keeping your customer engaged, they are numerous figures banded about the internet on how long a user will stay on a slow site but suffice to say the faster your website the greater the chance you have of keeping the customer there. Page speed is a ranking factor for mobile search results, so this upgrade will help our clients improve their chances of getting a higher search engine ranking.
http v shttp2 Comparison from jonathan Griffin on Vimeo.
Some browsers will only work with HTTP/2 via a secure https connection making your site more secure and giving confidence to your users that any data they enter into any form will be securely transmitted to the server. All our hosted websites have SSL certificates, so this is covered.
If your website is still running on HTTP/1.1, and you can test it here HTTP/2 Test – Verify HTTP/2 Support, give us a call on 01733 270872 or fill in our contact form and discover more about out hosting packages and how we can help speed up your website.
If you are interested in learning more about HTTP/2 have a look at https://www.thewebmaster.com/hosting/2015/dec/14/what-is-http2-and-how-does-it-compare-to-http1-1/
From the Maintenance & Support categories Crisis management: have a contingency plan
Prepare for the unexpected. Have a contingency plan in place for potential crises, such as website crashes, security breaches, or negative publicity. Being proactive can minimize damage and downtime.
