With WordPress accounting for a staggering 25.3% market share of the website world, and an ever more impressive 58.8% of the CMS landscape (
What Is A CDN And How Does it Work?
Content Delivery Network, or CDN for short, is a network of servers, and CDN delivers cached static content from sites to users of websites, and it is based on geographic location of each user. This may sound confusing at first. With that said continue to read on to learn more.
When someone visits your WordPress blog, they are redirected to your site’s host’s server, such as HostGator. The server’s host is located in a specific location, such as Houston, Texas for example. This means every one of your visitor is accessing that one server in order to view your site. If you have a lot of traffic coming to your site, then the server could become overloaded and this can lead to your server crashing or your site may be slow to load.
CDN can come in handy because it isn’t just a single server, as it’s a network of servers, and they are not located in just one section of the world. Static content is stored on all of those servers, and this content includes things such as images, javascripts, stylesheets and so forth. When people go to your site, the CDN technology will redirect them to the nearest server.
A good example of this is if your server is hosted in San Antonio, TX, and someone from Dublin, Ireland, visits your site, then they will be redirected to the server that is closest to them. This may very well be in Dublin. This means there are limits on internet hops’ numbers needed to transmit files to the user.
How close a user is to a web server impacts load time. When content is dispersed in various servers, then your pages should load faster for people who visit your website. This is why CDN is great. In other words, users get content faster when they are closer to a CDN server, and this is why CDN is useful.
#1. It can speed your WordPress website up beyond recognition
WordPress is considered, quite rightly, as a real force to be reckoned with within the CMS world, with everyone from the novice blogger to multinational company harnessing the platform and the incredible flexibility it can provide. Yet despite its many (many) advantages, there is one universal issue that can often be experienced with WordPress, and that is the issue of speed. Where even more than handful of plugins are used a WordPress website can suffer from a lacklustre performance, however when coupled with a CDN your WordPress website’s speed could be boosted by as much as two thirds… impressive, right?
#2. It can reduce load issues and deliver consistent speed
A CDN can deliver unparalleled consistency when it comes to a website that has even the most unpredictable of traffic spikes, making crashes owing to a wave of traffic a thing of the past.
That said you do need to be aware that if your website requires the main server for providing plenty of dynamic files, then a traffic spike may well still take the website down if the primary server isn’t with the programme. As such plenty of load testing is always advisable for heavily dynamic websites.
#3. It can help you connect with a global audience
For the WordPress website owner who wants to connect with a truly global audience with visitors from around the world a CDN provides the ideal solution for presenting a consistent experience to all. This is due to the distributed layout of a CDN network, and the fact that your website will be served up from each visitor’s closest server, rather than one central one that may be around the other side of the world to some.
#4. A CDN powered WordPress website can provide impressive cost savings
The load reduction that a CDN provides can actually mean that this solution saves you money. To this end a CDN will effectively cut down upon your server and/or hardware needs and in the most basic sense bears the brunt of the work without you having to do so much as a hosting package upgrade.
#5. CDNs are super easy to integrate with WordPress
WordPress is a platform known for its ease of use, and so it should come as no surprise that a CDN can be easily integrated, and in fact is installed by one of the many CDN plugins that you can find over in the WordPress repository. And after that it’s a one-click install and the entering of a few simple bits of information from your CDN provider, and hey presto – one super speedy and seriously powerful WordPress website.
#6. A CDN can provide rock solid Analytics
For those website owners who need data to analyse a CDN provides for an ideal solution. Data from such a network may reveal valuable trends that could then lead to advertising sales or may be capitalised upon to craft the experience for certain users.
#7. CDNs are today cheaper than ever
Finally it’s worth taking stock of just how affordable CDNs are today. And when you weigh up this reasonably priced service against the benefits that it delivers, then you have yourself one savvy business decision to make.
A good CDN should perfectly pair up with WordPress to deliver impressive speed and performance. Ideally you want a CDN that creates faster websites whilst consuming anything up to 70% less in bandwidth. This will allow your WordPress site to run smoothly, securely and consistently, making it easier for your global audience to see your site.
Images “Notepad with words Cdn Content Delivery Network on a wooden background / Shutterstock.com“
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