Content Delivery Network

What Is A Content Delivery Network (CDN)?

A Content Delivery Network (CDN) is a series of servers that delivers web content to users based on their physical location.

Copies of your website are stored in hundreds of online servers around the world. When someone visits your website, the CDN serves the content from the server closest to them.

This reduces the physical distance data needs to travel, speeding up load times and improving user experience.

It allows for a much faster transfer of essential website assets such as:

  • JavaScript files
  • CSS stylesheets
  • HTML pages
  • Images
  • Videos

The bottom line is that a CDN speeds up file transfer.

A faster loading website can boost your SEO and improve your user experience.

Who doesn’t want that, right?

Content delivery networks are beneficial for websites with high traffic or visitors from all over the world.

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How Does A CDN Work?

A Content Delivery Network works by strategically placing digital servers all over the world to deliver content more efficiently.

The CDN copies your website’s static content (images, videos, CSS, JavaScript, HTML) to its network of servers.

This creates a cache of your website on thousands of servers in hundreds of cities worldwide.

Think of a cache as a “copy” of your website.

When a user visits your website, their request is routed to the CDN server closest to the user.

The CDN server then delivers the cached website version to the user.

How a content delivery network works

What happens if the website isn’t cached?

The content delivery network fetches the site from your website host and then delivers it to the user.

Every time you update your website, the CDN automatically creates a new cache. This means that no matter where your users are, they also get the latest version of your site delivered quickly.

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Is A Content Delivery Network The Same As Web Hosting?

No, a Content Delivery Network is not the same as web hosting. They are related but serve very different purposes when delivering your website files to users.

Here’s a breakdown of how they’re different.

Web Hosting:

  • Stores and holds your website’s files and databases.
  • Acts like a “home” for your website.

Content Delivery Network:

  • Stores copies of your website in a network of online servers.
  • Connects to your web hosting to deliver copies of your site.

Here’s the key difference…

Web hosting is where your site lives. A CDN distributes your website around the world much faster.

The truth is that you need both for optimal performance.

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What Are The Benefits Of A CDN?

These are the benefits of a CDN:

1. Improves Website Load Speed

This is the biggest benefit of a CDN…

They significantly reduce your website’s page load times, especially for users far from your main web hosting server.

The distance between the user and the server is significantly less because the content delivery network delivers the website from the closest server to the user.

That means even on slower internet speeds, the user can still load your website quickly.

Faster loading = happier visitors.

page speed

2. Enhances User Experience

When your site loads quickly, users are more likely to stick around and engage with your content.

CDNs are a great way to improve your user experience.

Statistics show that conversion rates drop by 7% for every second longer it takes to load your website.

Crazy, right?

Faster load times mean that you provide a better user experience, lower bounce rates, and generate more conversions.

3. Boosts SEO And Rankings

It’s no secret that Google loves a faster loading website.

CDNs are one of the key optimisations you can make to get a perfect Google page speed score.

pagespeed insights blog homepage results

The reality is that Google tracks website load times through Google Chrome and uses core web vitals as part of their primary ranking factors.

Simply adding a CDN to improve your website speed can boost your rankings in the SERPs.

4. Reduces Bandwidth Costs

Most website hosting companies charge for two main things:

  1. Storage
  2. Bandwidth

Content delivery networks store your website on multiple servers.

When someone visits your site, the CDN serves your website rather than your web host.

This reduces the load on your primary web host server and lowers the bandwidth usage.

If you run a high-traffic website, bandwidth hosting costs can add up quickly. CDNs relieve much of the bandwidth pressure, which can save you a significant amount on hosting.

5. Improves Website Reliability

CDNs store your website across many different servers. They are also constantly backing up the cache of your website.

How does that affect reliability?

Short answer – If one server goes down, another server immediately jumps in to take its place.

This means less downtime and higher reliability for your website.

6. Offers Better Protection And Security

Website security is a huge issue.

Over 13,000 WordPress websites are hacked every single day. And that’s just WordPress sites!

Most quality CDNs offer built-in security features like DDoS protection and Firewalls.

This adds an extra layer of protection against cyber threats, keeping your website and user’s information safe.

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Who Should Use A CDN?

Everyone who owns or manages a website should use a CDN.

This is especially true if your site has a global audience that visits from different locations around the world.

But some websites will benefit from more than others.

They’re particularly valuable for:

  • Global Business Sites – If you have users in different countries, a CDN ensures fast load times for all your website visitors and customers, regardless of location.
  • High-Traffic Websites – CDNs are essential to handle traffic spikes for websites with tons of traffic, like news sites, ecommerce platforms and large blogs.
  • Media-Heavy Sites – A CDN can significantly improve load times and save you money on hosting fees if your site uses many images or videos.
  • SaaS Providers – Content delivery networks are a must for web applications where speed is very important.

The thing to remember is this…

Whatever kind of website you own, a CDN is almost guaranteed to increase your website speed.

This will improve your user experience and your website search rankings.

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