A detailed tutorial on how to speed up your WordPress blog has been requested numerous times. We’ve stressed CDN a lot in previous presentations, but it still appears that we’re not clear enough. Many newcomers still don’t understand what a CDN is because we are frequently asked, “Would I still need hosting if I get a CDN?” This is partially our fault for not being clear. It was pointed out to us that whenever we write about CDN, we always skip over the fundamentals. So, in this article, we’ll try to explain what a CDN is and why you need one for your WordPress blog.
Update: To be clear, CDN is something you use in addition to having a web hosting account to help speed things up. A CDN does not take the place of a web hosting account. You will still need a hosting provider such as SiteGround, Bluehost, or others.
What exactly is a CDN?
CDN is an abbreviation for Content Delivery Network, which is a network of servers that delivers cached static content from websites to users based on their geographic location. Isn’t it perplexing? Let us put it in simpler terms.
When an user enters your WordPress blog, they are usually redirected to your web host’s server (i.e HostGator). Your web host’s server is in a central location, such as Houston, TX. So, in order to view your website, every user on your website connects to this single server. If you have a high volume of traffic, your server may become overloaded, resulting in a slow loading site or even a server crash.
This is where a CDN comes in handy because it is a network of servers that are distributed throughout the world. All of these servers cache and keep your static content when you use a CDN. Images, stylesheets (css files), javascripts, Flash, and other static content are examples. When a user visits your site (original server), the CDN technology redirects them to the server that is closest to their location.
For example, if your primary server is located in Houston, Texas, and someone from Durham, England attempts to access it, they will be redirected to the nearest server, which may be located in London. This reduces the number of internet hops required to deliver static files to your end user.
The user’s proximity to your web server influences load time. You can make your pages load faster from the user’s perspective by distributing your content across multiple geographically dispersed servers. This is where CDN comes in. Simply put, the closer the CDN server is to your user, the faster the user receives the content.
Why you need a CDN for your Website
Speed – Our site became faster after we began using a CDN.
Crash Resistance – As a result of your sharing our articles, we have received massive amounts of traffic from social media on some of our articles. Our site would have crashed so many times if we didn’t have a proper CDN and caching setup. CDN allows us to distribute the load across multiple servers rather than having all traffic directed at our main server, making it less likely to crash.
Improved User Experience – Since implementing a CDN, we have seen a decrease in our site’s bounce rate. In addition, we have seen an increase in pageviews and the number of pages viewed by each user. So, obviously, a faster site means a better user experience.
SEO enhancement – Google has stated unequivocally that faster sites rank higher in Search Engines. We noticed that our site was ranking higher after we optimized it.
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