As a website owner, there is no greater frustration than losing the business of a potential customer – or the trust of a potential partner – because of a website that loads at a snail’s pace.
There can be a number of reasons why your website loads slowly for visitors, so having a website optimisation tool like a Content Delivery Network (CDN) in your toolkit can help minimise slow-loading content.
In this article, we’ll explain exactly what a CDN does and why it’s worth using one on your website.
What is a CDN?
Content delivery is basically the time it takes for content to be delivered to your website visitors, such as an image or video that needs a second or two to load.
A CDN is a group of interconnected servers distributed all over the world, referred to as a PoP or point of presence. These servers replicate and cache your website content to deliver it faster and more efficiently from the network edge (the point where a network connects with the Internet). These edge servers improve performance for your website visitors by loading content faster, no matter where they are located.
How does a CDN use caching to boost website speed?
A cache is a form of temporary data storage that speeds up delivery of requested content by pulling from the stored cache instead of sending that request to the server hosting the website.
A CDN uses caching as a way to optimise content delivery. It does this by strategically caching popular content (like an article on The New York Times) on Points of Presence (POPs) on its servers to decrease the time it takes to load for users who request this content from all geographic areas. Data is cached in these PoPs, which can be immediately served to website visitors without needing to retrieve data from the business’s main website server housed in one specific location.
What are the benefits of using a CDN?
1. Faster loading times
A CDN improves the performance of your website for visitors by increasing the loading speed of your content such as web pages, video and streaming platforms. This ensures that visitors can enjoy consistent, reliable load times no matter where they are in the world.
2. Better search rankings
Faster load times drastically improve your website’s SEO ranking. This is because search engines favour websites that are optimised for speed and usability. The quicker it takes to index, the more the search engines will crawl your site, which ultimately leads to better ranking placement.
3. Extra security
A CDN promotes safer browsing by delivering the content to your website more securely through its own network. Security measures provided by a CDN provider can include DDoS protection and encryption.
4. Improved reliability
A CDN works in a variety of ways to make your website more reliable for visitors. Caching at the edge allows you to serve content even if your services are interrupted. It also helps regulate traffic spikes so you can maintain your website load times during high traffic periods.
Users today expect a consistent, fast browsing experience. According to a recent survey, 53% of users expect a website to load in three seconds or less. You’ve already taken the time and effort to grow your business online. Make sure your customers experience it as you intended – by maintaining consistent load times and content delivery with a CDN.
Xneelo customers can now add CDN with just one click
Xneelo is collaborating with Fastly to bring website loading times on par with some of the world’s largest brands to web hosting customers. With the convenience of the xneelo control panel, you can add CDN to your domain instantly with the click of a button. No configuration needed. You can also use the Clear all cache feature in the xneelo Control Panel to clear your website cache instantly. Optimise the way your customers experience your website today.
Want to read more on this topic? Learn how website speed can affect your marketing efforts here.
