If you’re a dedicated online businessman, digital marketer or a blogger, then you must know the importance of having a website that loads lightning fast and yes, it is one of the Google ranking factors.
However, I wonder, have you heard about the CDN service and what it is for?
I came across several questions regarding CDN and some of my readers have asked me to explain its basics and benefits!
Since it is related to WordPress Site Speed optimization, I have taken a nice opportunity to explain
What is CDN & How It Works?
Why CDN Is Essential For WordPress?
What Is The Role Of CDN In SEO & Security?
And Much More!
So, let’s get into the details now!
What Is CDN?
“What does a CDN do?” – It’s a million dollar question! Let me explain
CDN stands for Content Delivery Network which is a network of geographically distributed servers that deliver the web content to the user according to their geographic location.
The main purpose of this system is to reduce the latency time of the content delivery to the visitors at the browsing side who are located away from the hosting server origin and hence they will get the fast loading website.
You should not get confused with the web server and CDN because both are different.
Web Server – To get a place for the website on the internet.
CDN – To deliver the content quickly for the users from their nearest location. (CDN works with the hosting server)
For example, if a person is accessing the website from the USA and the origin web server is located in Australia, the globally available CDN will store the files in its network and will deliver the website content to the user through their USA based server.
According to PRNewswire, the CDN market is estimated to grow up to US$ 30.89 Billion by 2022 because of the rapid expansion of various kinds of content on the web.
Now, let’s see how it works!
How CDN Works?
As I said earlier, the CDN is responsible for reducing the distance between the website’s hosting server and the visitor’s server.
If you use a CDN, then it stores the cached version of your website’s content to their server and distributes it further to their different geographical locations known as PoP (Point of presence) across the globe.
The PoPs which are nothing but the thousands of servers or data centers that delivers the content quickly to the visitors based on their location.
Let’s assume that you’re not using the CDN. When your website server is located in a country like Australia and the visitor from the USA is trying to access your site content, then your website may load slowly to the user due to the large geographical distance between the servers.
It may affect the overall user experience of your website and you may lose the website traffic which in turn affects your revenue growth.
I hope you understand how a CDN works!
In simple terms – It caches and stores the content of your website on its distribution network and whenever, a visitor access your site, it serves your data from the closest server to the location of that visitor.
Why CDN For WordPress?
As a WordPress user, you might ask – Is Using A CDN Worth It?
Undoubtedly, WordPress is currently the most popular free open-source Content Management System which is being widely used around the globe. WordPress standalone doesn’t use much server resources.
However, we always used to extend the functionality of the WordPress through several 3rd party plugins and yes, they would affect its loading speed which results in the poor user experience.
Here is where the CDN comes into play!
As we all know that it’s not possible for bloggers and webmasters to rely on just the basic WordPress installation, so, the functionality plugins become a necessity. Hence, CDN is something which every WordPress user should opt for.
Here is an example of the GTMetrix test used to test the performance of our blog!
Check our blog speed score last year without any CDN service.
Now, we have integrated the CloudwaysCDN, have a look at the current page speed score of WPGlossy
As you can see, the load time and page speed score have been improved much. This is what a CDN does!
So, if you still ask – Do I need a CDN For WordPress?
Then I would say “Yes“
CDN will not only reduce the response time of your WordPress but it will also lessen the load on your server eventually saving the bandwidth.
Besides, the CDN has other benefits for the WordPress sites; What are they?
CDN & WordPress SEO
Some of you might be concerned about the SEO status for your WordPress site using the CDN. Although it doesn’t affect the SEO rankings on a major scale, it does help your site a bit.
Consider this – Google Search prefers the website which is highly optimized and loads faster. If your website’s overall experience is optimized, Google will prefer it over the unoptimized websites.
According to Moz, CDN will improve the visibility of your website on Google Search if properly implemented.
If set up correctly, a CDN can be an easy and cost effective way to speed up your website and get your content and images indexed faster.
For WordPress SEO, the CDN offers
- Optimized site with faster loading times
- Duplicate file storage to improve the site reliability and avoid downtime
- Faster search engine crawl rate and indexing of your media and other files
Hence, CDN may play a vital role in improving the SERP (search engine ranking page) of your site.
The only thing which you need to take care of is the proper Installation of CDN. You may directly go to the official website of your preferred CDN provider and read their official Installation Guide.
While installation isn’t that hard, you can still ask for help through online forums if you’re stuck somewhere. You can also request for assistance through our comments sections so that we can assist you further.
In our case, we have done the CDN integration by ourselves!
Yes!
The CloudwaysCDN is easy to integrate, and the process has been done within an hour through the W3 Total Cache and Autoptimze WordPress plugins.
The support team has helped us to fix the issue that we experienced, and CDN for our blog is working fine now.
CDN & Security
One of the significant advantages of using CDN is it enhances the security of your website and hosting server.
Yes, it is capable of detecting and preventing various forms of DDoS attacks by using techniques such as Load balancing, two-factor authentication and restricting the suspicious IPs.
Most of the CDN providers have some improved security features for WordPress like
- Anti-Leech & Hotlink Protection to prevent bandwidth theft
- Web Application Firewall (WAF) to backlist the IPs
- Rate Limiting to monitor and limit the traffic from a particular IP
- Bot Detection to control the bots from utilizing the resources
- SSL and TLS (Transport Layer Security) to protect the data transfer
As the CDNs are always on the watch for the recent threats from the hackers, spammers and abusive bots, you can stay relaxed from the potential intrusions and data breach.
Benefits Of CDN For WordPress In A Nutshell
- Data is secured by stopping DDoS attacks and other security threats
- Faster server response time in delivering the website to users.
- Improves overall user experience which is a good SEO
- Reduces the server load during traffic hikes and saves bandwidth
Frequently Asked Questions About CDN
- Why Is CDN used For WordPress?
CDN is used to speed up the WordPress site and thereby offering faster content delivery for the visitors to improve the user experience. Faster sites will have increased sales/conversions.
- Do I Get Duplicate Content Issue With CDN?
No, If you set up the CDN correctly, then you don’t have to worry about the duplicate content issue. However, make sure that you have enabled the canonical header provided by the CDN network.
- Is CDN Expensive?
NO, the CDNs services have FREE and AFFORDABLE Pricing plans suitable for the startups.
- Is CDN hard to set up?
No, you don’t need to be a tech-savvy person to fix the CDN to your WordPress site. You can do it easily by following the installation guide or get the things done with the help of the Support team.
- How To Enable CDN In WordPress?
Every CDN service has their own integration technique. As I said earlier, you may follow the documentation or reach the customer support team to integrate the CDN to WordPress.
- Do The Hosting Companies Offer CDN Service?
Some of the web hosting companies like A2hosting, Siteground, Cloudways, and Kinsta are providing the CDN service for their customers.
- Do I need the CDN?
If you are making income from your blog or business/e-commerce website that has a lot of content and media files, then you should get the CDN service to make your site load faster for your audience.
- Is Free CDN Worth Using?
You should understand the Free sources have limited features! However, the Free CDN service like Cloudflare is worth trying. You could explore the features and reap the benefits of the content delivery network.
- Does The CDN Improve Speed and Security Of A Website?
Yes! It does both and hence you could perform well.
- Which Is The Best CDN For WordPress?
KeyCDN and MaxCDN are the excellent premium CDN providers for WordPress. They both are delivering exceptional service for the money they charge.
However, if you would like to go with the CDN offered by hosting company itself, then you may get CloudwaysCDN ($1 per 25GB) which is easy to integrate, powerful and affordable as well.
Wrapping Up
The site loading speed plays a key role in getting higher search engine ranking results and making huge sales or subscribers.
Thus, I always insist you make your WordPress site load ultra-fast and get the kindness from your audience and search spiders as well.
I have approached a blogging expert and asked to share his viewpoint on the site loading time. Check his valuable reply!
Adam Connell From BloggingWizard
We live in the age of on-demand content. People are used to not having to wait. And if they have to wait too long, they’ll leave. Fast page load times mean better conversions and more revenue.
With the help of caching plugins and content delivery networks, it’s easier than ever to speed up your site.
Always aim to deliver the best possible experience to your visitors. The results will speak for themselves.
Integrating the CDN is one of the best WordPress speed optimization strategies and every dedicated webmaster should consider getting the reliable service.
I have done my best in explaining the Working and Benefits of CDN so as to emphasize the WordPress speed up process.
Now you tell! did you get my points about CDN? Would you like to get it for your site? Share your priceless thoughts in the comments section.
The post What Is CDN And Why It Is For WordPress? appeared first on WPGLOSSY.
