What Is CDN and Why Do You Need It for Your WordPress Blog?

Shaving some milliseconds off of your online store’s load time has a massive impact on user experience and conversion rates. A study showed that the first 5 seconds of the webpage load time have a huge impact on conversion rates.* It has also been revealed that about 70% of consumers agree that page load time influences their willingness to buy online.** For any website or online store, speed and reliability are indisputable priorities. Though there are several ways to enhance the website speed, your first consideration should be a Content Delivery Network or CDN. A Content Delivery Network is a term you usually come across when you are into web hosting or managing websites. It is important to keep in mind that WordPress Hosting services and WordPress CDN are two different things. If you are a beginner in the world of hosting websites and are wondering what exactly a Content Delivery Network (CDN) is, read on.

What is a CDN? How does it work?

To state in simpler terms, a CDN is used for quicker and more reliable delivery of website content to the target users. It is a network of servers located globally, which help store the cached static content of websites to deliver them to the users based on their geographic location. The servers placed in a CDN network are termed as Point of Presence (POP) or Edge server. An edge server basically serves as a cache in a CDN network. It’s Working How does a CDN help a website or blog? Assume that there are two geographical locations ‘A’ and ‘B’. The distance between these two locations is approximately 3000 miles. If the content of your website is stored in a server situated at ‘B’ and a user from the location ‘A’ tries to access your blog using his/her device, a request will be sent from ‘A’ to ‘B’. The response time of the website is directly affected by the distance in this scenario. In short, the greater the distance, the greater will be the content delivery time. For this purpose, the word ‘time’ is measured in milliseconds here. If your website comprises complex codes and media, the response time will be longer. A website that loads slowly will get a big thumbs down, and it will adversely affect your website’s performance. This is where a CDN comes into the picture. When you use a CDN for storing your website, the files will be stored in the edge servers of that network. Let’s re-assume the previously mentioned scenario with a CDN. When the user from location ‘A’ sends a request to access your website, the request is sent to the nearest edge server of a CDN network. If the nearest edge server is located at a distance of 250 miles, and if the files requested by the user are available there, the response time will be much faster. Now that you know what a CDN is and how it works, let’s understand why you need a CDN for your WordPress website.

Why do you need a CDN for your WordPress website?

Using a CDN for your WordPress website will make it faster with better tractions. Apart from this, a CDN safeguards your website from cyberattacks and provides a temporary backup of files if your actual server faces an issue.

1. Saves bandwidth

Having the best CDN for your WordPress website reduces the total bandwidth usage of your actual server due to caching of files in the edge servers. This saves the bandwidth to a good extent and reduces the load on your server.

2. Improved website performance

A Content Delivery Network (CDN) comprises servers distributed across various geographical regions. When a user visits your WordPress site, the CDN serves the requested page from the server nearest to the user’s location. This minimizes latency and enhances the site’s loading speed, ultimately improving the user experience. For a blogging site, a WordPress CDN can be very helpful. If you are looking for a free CDN for WordPress, there are many options available. For instance, you can find free premium Cloudflare CDN offered with Bluehost hosting plans. However, you ought to check the features before opting for one. A WordPress CDN can be managed with the help of WordPress plugins that help make site handling easier.

3. SEO benefits

The speed at which a website loads plays a vital role in search engine optimization (SEO). Websites that load faster generally achieve higher rankings in search engine results. By enhancing the performance of your WordPress website through a CDN, you enhance the likelihood of improved search engine rankings, which translates to increased visibility and organic traffic.

4. Enhanced security

CDNs provide added security measures to safeguard your WordPress site against online threats like DDoS attacks, bot traffic, and malicious requests. By filtering out harmful traffic before it reaches your server, CDNs effectively mitigate these attacks and ensure the security and availability of your site.

5. Scalability

CDNs are built to handle heavy traffic and sudden surges in demand. When your WordPress site encounters a spike in visitors, the CDN effectively distributes the load across its servers. This prevents server overload, guaranteeing that your site remains accessible and responsive to users. You can find the best CDN for WordPress websites, along with the best WordPress Hosting service at an affordable rate. Bluehost’s web hosting plans offer free premium access to CDN.  A CDN for your WordPress site will benefit you with better caching of files, minifying of scripts used in your site, media, and content optimization. All these enhance the overall performance of your WordPress website, which will have improved uptime, higher ranking, and better user experience. For more information and tips, head to our WordPress Category page. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to drop them below.