HTTP/2

Silktide loads your pages in a real browser and checks which version of the web protocol delivers each file. Files served over the older HTTP/1.1 protocol are reported, because newer versions load pages faster.

Why this matters

HTTP is the protocol browsers use to fetch every file on your page, and its older version, HTTP/1.1, handles requests largely one at a time per connection. HTTP/2 lets a browser request many files over one connection at once, along with other efficiencies, so the same page loads faster with no change to its content. Since pages routinely involve dozens of files, this compounds: every visitor waits longer on every page than they need to.

HTTP/2 has been a standard since 2015 and is supported by all modern browsers, so there is rarely a good reason to still serve files the old way.

How to fix it

Enable HTTP/2 (or its successor, HTTP/3) on your web server. All mainstream servers support it, usually as a one-line configuration change, and it requires , which you should have anyway.
If you use a or managed hosting, this is a platform setting - most enable it by default.
For reported files served by third parties, you cannot change their servers; consider whether you need those files at all.

No changes to your website's content are needed - HTTP/2 is fully backwards compatible.

How Silktide tests this

Load the page in a real browser and record the protocol used to deliver each file.
Identify files that were served over HTTP/1.1 when they could have used HTTP/2 or newer.
Report each such file along with the protocol it currently uses.

Troubleshooting

My server supports HTTP/2 but files are still reported

Support has to be active on the exact server that delivered the file. Common causes: the file comes from a subdomain or third-party server without HTTP/2, a proxy or load balancer in front of your server is downgrading connections, or the file was served over plain HTTP rather than (browsers only use HTTP/2 over secure connections).