Recently, I had the chance to use both MaxCDN and CloudFlare CDN. They are good and offer great CDN service for your website. Well, if you are reading this, you know what a CDN is, right? It supercharges your website and that’s it.

But, today, I will go further deep into the topic of CDN and how it powers your blog into a super-blog.

Excited? Let’s start our journey.

You will find a ton of articles on CDN. Many of them are comparisons, some are installation guide, etc. But, there are few resources that actually discuss the reasons or benefits of having a CDN on your blog. If you are just starting our your WordPress blog/website, CDN can be a game changer.

Before we move on to the actual question of how CDN helps your website. Let’s discuss CDN term itself, what it is and the concept behind it.

What is Content Delivery Network?

Content Delivery Network(CDN) are a network of servers scattered geographically so that it can deliver static content to the users that are visiting the website.

Too complex? Let’s break it down.

Content Delivery Network is a special group of network that are placed strategically across the globe. For example, CloudFlare currently has 30+ CDN server. The servers are located at major locations helping the nearby users to access the website at blazing fast speeds. And, how does it achieve it?

Let’s take an example.

Let’s say, John is accessing IndexWP from the SriLanka. But, IndexWP is hosted in the UK. Thats a lot of distance for the signal to travel and hop back.

IndexWP, on the other hand, has CDN installed. So, when John request reaches the UK hosting server, it redirects the request to the CDN server near SriLanka, in this case, let’s say India is the nearest possible CDN right now.

With the request redirected, the requester starts to download the static files from the CDN and waiting for any dynamic content from the UK hosting server. The end result? The site loaded faster.

In case, you don’t have any idea what static content is. Then, let me just give you a brief introduction.

Static files are the files that don’t change over time. This means that they remain same for a long period of time. For example, the CSS files, JavaScript files, images, videos, etc. can easily be called static content.

The static content is the majority of the website and thus it takes extremely less time to load the website.

In the end, the end-user is benefitted the most.

But, does the benefit of CDN ends here? Nope.

We will dive deep into the how CDN benefits the website and also get into reasons why you need a CDN for your website.

4 Reasons Why You Need A CDN

Undoubtedly, the most important gain of using a CDN is website loading time. Also, if you are confused on why you need a CDN when you already have a hosting server, then let me make it clear for you.

Hosting server and CDN server are different. The hosting server is where you host your website. It handles all the important aspects of web hosting and provides you the perfect environment for your website. It also handles the majority of the traffic(if you have a CDN installed).

Whereas, CDN can be seen as a temporary server that takes care of the static files of the website. There is a huge difference in how they operate.

Now, let’s jump into the reasons why you need a CDN.

CDN Improves the Loading Time of the Website

With so much discussed until now, there is no doubt that it improves the loading time of the website. The loading time helps the user and help them invest more time on the website.

CDN Improves User Experience and Reduces Bounce Rate

With better website loading time, the user experience is also improved. No one loves a website that take ages to load. Also, any website that loads slower than 2 sec have a negative impact on the user experience and there are chances that user can move on to a better website offering the same service or content.

With better user experience, bounce rates are decreased as users are more inclined to stay and explore content with better loading times.

CDN Improves SEO

Google loves user experience and easily tells the story. Google will rank websites better if they have less loading time. Google takes website loading time very seriously and thus any website that takes a lot of time to load are penalized in the Google rankings. With CDN installed, Google will surely rank the website higher than websites that have poor loading times.

Hosting Servers are Protected

CloudFlare is one of the most popular free CDN service out there. When you install the CDN into your website, you will get security functionality for free. This includes DDOS protection, SQL injection and more. Other CDN providers also offer security, but might not have the same protection scheme. Overall, your website is protected.

Also, there are scenarios, where a huge traffic rushes in. With the help of the CDN, the rush can be easily managed as most of the traffic is redirected to the CDN server, enabling the website to serve content under huge pressure.

Overall, it is a win-win situation for you and these are the benefits you just cannot ignore. All of my websites are using CDN and there is no reason for me to not use CDN.

Wrap Up

I love CDN, not only because they provide the necessary speed boost, but they also help provide some protection the website. Other benefits such as SEO improvement, user experience improvement, and reduced bounce rate can really help website. Any business that understands the fact that better user experience, more time on the website, less bounce rate are crucial to have better sale should not ignore CDN at all.

So, are you planning to use the CDN? Do comment below which CDN you are using(or in future).

Also, share the article with your friends!