CDN stands for Content Delivery Network, which contains many servers on different location and the requested object (file, script, page) is served by the nearest node of the network to the end user. Pretty confusing!! Let’s make it simple.
For example, one website xyz.com is hosted on the host of ABC Company, whose server is located on the X city of this world. Now there is no problem in this case until the traffic is normal and handled tremendously by central server of ABC. Now if this website xyz.com is getting huge number of users at a single point of time, then it will take more time to load the pages of the site. Here the CDN comes into the picture.
In CDN technology, many numbers of servers are placed at various locations. The static content like stylesheet, script, images, etc are cashed on these all servers. Now when a user will enter any search query regarding your site, the request will be served by the geographically closest server of the network, instead of directly requesting to the origin server. In short the closer the user of the website is, the faster the page will be loaded.
If your requested object is not available on the closest node of the network, then it will try to find that object within other nodes of CDN. If it doesn’t get that content from nodes of the network the it will ask to the origin server for that content and serve that to the end user.
How CDN Works?
As we know this technology is used to minimize the distance between user and website’s server so speed can be enhanced. Every content of the site is cached on multiple geographical locations which is known as PoP (Point of Presence). Each PoP has a number of caching servers in order to deliver the content to visitors within its proximity.
Then the content is provided to the visitor as per their request. In a nutshell, we can say CDN technology is like the concept of Main branch and sub-branches of a store or brand. Learn more about what is CDN on Huffingtonpost
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Many people are also confused that if I want to go for CDN technology then, am I supposed to purchase host like Hostgator or Bluehost? The answer is Yes, because CDN technology works on the upper layer of this base host.
Why One Should Use CDN?
After reading the above content about CDN you would have understood that CDN makes great impact on our websites. Now let’s discuss the advantages of CDN networks.
Speed
As the load on the server will be less, the page will load faster. You request will be directed to the closest server only which will take less time.
Crash Resistance
Your task is not complete after getting huge amount of visitors on your site, now you need to manage that traffic so, you can avoid the cashing problem. If all the requests of users are going to the origin server then there is chance of crashing your website.
Nobody would like to have this problem, right? SO, CDN is the solution. As the request your site will get, it will be diverted according to its geographical location so the traffic will be managed well.
Improved SEO
Even Google has also stated that faster pages are tends to rank faster and higher. So in terms of ranking high in Google’s search results, you need to make your page load faster, which is possible with CDN.
Amazing User Experience
User would love to see your amazing website if it is loading fast, because nowadays nobody likes to wait for a site to load. So, faster loading site will lead to low bounce rate.
Here’s a real life example – A blog with 5 MB size took 3.6 seconds to load on an average Internet speed. Once the CDN layer is applied to the blog, the major file components of a blog as mentioned above are stored in the server nearest to the location of user.
This will in turn reduce the delivery time of these files. The loading time of blog went down to a mere 1.9 seconds. This is the power of CDN.
So, what are you waiting for? Make your website faster loading so it can rank better, using CDN. Feel free to share your experience in the comment section if you are already using CDN technology.
This article is provided by Spacecdn.
