What is a CDN? Web speeds and SEO

[rokassha.k.h@11]

Not all websites are blogs, and not all blogs are built with WordPress, so today we will not discuss the correct configuration of the W3 Total Cache plugin, but rather we will talk about using a CDN , regardless of how your website is programmed.

To start , I'm going to show you an example to motivate you in reading this article.

Wordpress speed with or without CDN
My Wordpress before setting it to use a CDN and without the caching plugin. Total load time 5.74 seconds from Amsterdam:


cdn-web_speeds
Now let's look at the numbers for the same paraguay mobile phone numbers database website after setting up a free CDN and without a caching plugin. Total load time 2.10 seconds from Amsterdam:


web_speeds_and_seo.
An improvement of 3.64 seconds!

If the results have surprised or convinced you, let's move on. Please excuse me for a few technical licenses to better explain the advantages and operation of a CDN.

What is a CDN?
A CDN is a content delivery network. It is based on a series of servers spread across the globe that contain a version of the static content (images, CSS, JavaScript) of our website.

Thus, when a person visits our page, they receive information from the server that is geographically closest to it, thus obtaining a faster response when sending the data, since we reduce distances and avoid intermediate jumps.

In addition to reducing the load on your server, using a CDN will provide users around the world with faster loading times and therefore a better user experience globally.

Every CDN service is different, and there are many, both free and paid.

They will be faster or not, depending on which regions you are in. This all depends on the number of servers they have and where they are located.

In the following image we see a diagram of an example CDN.

In this case, the service has good coverage in China and the USA, but it has only one server in Europe and none in Spain, which makes it not a good CDN for a website if our target audience is Spanish or European.


What is a CDN?
What is clear is that a website will be faster when visited from the USA or Australia, if it is within that CDN, than if it is on a Spanish Hosting.

What is a CDN used for?
So far it is clear, just by definition, that a CDN must improve the response and loading speed of our website from other points on the planet.

Let's now suppose that we put our website on a CDN with a server, this time in Spain.

If our usual Hosting was already located in Spain, what advantage is there for my Spanish visitors?

In other words, is it worth using a CDN if the speed at which my website loads for a potential visitor in China is of no concern to us?

The answer is YES… and one reason is cascading loading .