CDN: Content Delivery Network. Chances are that if you integrated a 3rd party service or app (like Google Analytics or Facebook) with your WordPress website, you are already partially using a CDN. There are some complex mechanics involved, but the point of CDN services is to house cached copies of your content in a network of servers (Points of Presence or PoPs) across the globe and serve the pages to visitors requesting for it that are nearest.
That approach has a lot of benefits. In this post, we’ll take a look at what you gain from CDN integration and why you should go for it (given sufficient global traffic to justify its use).
Below are the reasons why you should use CDN Services with your blog. Let’s start with the enormously obvious point everyone is harping on about anyway.
1. Page speed
On the internet, a couple of milliseconds can make a difference.
CDNs can make your page load time damn near-instantaneous, and it’s not all about huge, noticeable improvements like a reduction from 18 seconds to 4 seconds. CDNs can also improve page load times on the scale of milliseconds. While that’s not immediately perceivable, you’ll notice the improvement in terms of UX and reduced bounce rates.
Keep in mind that CDNs can only take you so far without sincere efforts in page speed optimization on your part. CDN can make dramatic improvements in page speed, but the rest depends on your server configuration and the size of your web pages. Managed WordPress hosting providers sometimes provide a CDN setup that can be easily integrated with the website, so confirm this with your hosting provider.
Also Read: How You Can Increase Your Web Page Speed
2. Reduced chances of downtime
The CDN servers spread across the map help reduce the load on your server, causing less breakage or downtime due to something as generally profitable as traffic surges.
It often happens that a website experiences downtime or extremely slow loading times due to unexpected surges in traffic: especially if your website is hosted on a private server of your own. CDNs can help mitigate this problem.
However, you should note that implementing CDN doesn’t make your website downtime-resistant. The PoPs will still need to load files from your original server for a dynamic website, which could result in the downtime although chances of that happening are low.
WordPress lets you power your way through this pit of complications with efficient caching tools. You can ask your WordPress Development Company or developer-team to load-test the setup exhaustively before going live.
3. Coverage
With a Content Delivery Network, you get an entire contingent of servers spread across the world and serving your pages to users on demand. So even if your original server is housed in San Francisco, USA, your visitors in Europe or Asia will have to wait for just the same time as their American counterparts for your page to load.
Localization (translation) aside, this truly helps make your website globalization ready.
4. Cost
I should have started with this…
A lot of WordPress site owners I have come across seem to believe that content delivery networks aren’t their cup of tea because, and I’m quoting, “It sounds a bit out of our budget.” That’s a very reasonable concern.
But you see, CDN services providers make their money in the same way as shared hosting providers: by availing a brilliant service at reduced costs to hundreds of thousands of people. A network of servers is not dedicated to serving only your content. This is why a high-end service like CDN won’t burn a hole in your pocket.
Then there’s the upside of reduced downtime, which will, again, keep you from losing valuable visitors and potential business. If you research and make clear estimates of your requirements and traffic, you will be able to make the most out of your plan without having to upgrade unexpectedly.
There are also additional benefits. CloudFlare, for instance, is a popular CDN service with features like DDoS protection, parallel downloading, asynchronous loading, and other page speed optimization controls, other than the army of servers, of course.
Also Read: 10 Essential WordPress Plugins Every Blogger Should Have
EndNote
Those who have their WordPress websites on managed hosting just need to drop their hosting provider a call. Those who manage their server-side situations themselves can still rest easy knowing that a lot of CDN services providers have WordPress-plugins for 2-step integration (install plugin >> activate).
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