What Are the Benefits of Content Delivery Network (CDN) Services?

[lkovnih226]

My hosting provider suggested me to use one of CDN (Cloudflare, Incapsula) to help improve my site's performance but I don't know more about CDN. Do they really work for sites?
My question is, what are the benefits of Content Delivery Network (CDN) services?

 

[RDO Servers]

A CDN will cache (store) your static content (images, scripts, CSS, html) and serve these files directly from their servers vs requesting it from your hoating account. This does give better loading speed, especially if the visitor is a far distance away from your server.

 

[hostslim]

It will give a better response time of your content for people that are on the other side of the globe compared to your actual hosting location.

 

[Khileshhpandey]

The goal of a CDN is to serve content to end-users with high availability and high performance. CDNs serves a large portion of the Internet content today, including web objects (text, graphics and scripts), downloadable objects (media files, software, documents), applications (e-commerce, portals), live streaming media, on-demand streaming media, and social networks.

 

[Samm]

To make the most out of a CDN, please consider a WordPress theme (if that's your CMS) that gets regular updates, is fast and doesn't use too many fancy effects that bog down performance. The longer it takes to load a web page, the worse the experience for your visitors.

I currently use Cloudflare on my biggest site and it's made an improvement that's noticeable. If you can find a very fast WordPress theme, you'll be making your brand more accessible than your competitors.

In this age, speed is really valuable for online businesses.

 

[wms]

A CDN will cache (store) your static content (images, scripts, CSS, html) and serve these files directly from their servers vs requesting it from your hosting account. This does give better loading speed, especially if the visitor is a far distance away from your server.

I found a small issue when using cache (store) both static and dynamic content, I tried to update an image with same name or changed content of a PHP file then it didn't change, I have to purge cache from CDN (cloudflare) or change image file name.

Have you faced this problem before?

To make the most out of a CDN, please consider a WordPress theme (if that's your CMS) that gets regular updates, is fast and doesn't use too many fancy effects that bog down performance. The longer it takes to load a web page, the worse the experience for your visitors.

You are right, some people always like using attractive WP themes with more effects but it will make site load slowly and down performance.

In this age, speed is really valuable for online businesses.

I agree with you on this, I am consider loading speed are very important for my sites. That's reason why I always choose fast hosting.

 

[vishwa]

CDN is effective in speeding the delivery of content of websites with high traffic and websites that have global reach. The closer the CDN server is to the user geographically, the faster the content will be delivered to the user. CDNs also provide protection from large surges in traffic. Using a CDN can improve your site performance and also the loading speed. I highly recommend to use MaxCDN.

 

[vps9]

Its content delivery network. A server with temporary cache which stores recently opened or visited webpages, so that it can load the webpage immediately when request from any location. CDN servers are places near by location. The content is saved or duplicated in all the servers. So whenever there is request for data the pages will load from near by CDN servers without any hiccups.

 

[ElixantTechnology]

In most cases a CDN isn't necessary, but for those who are serving a very large amount of static content or downloads from their web service can greatly benefit from a CDN! Not only will a *PROPER* CDN disperse content over a network of servers globally allowing for more local access to users around the world, but will also eliminate HTTP requests on servers local to the website allowing for more room for customer traffic (among other things).

 

[Tshepo]

Tshepo

I don't really agree with this opinion, a CDN can help boost loading for my webpages and we can use it as a DNS service which is more trustworthy and fast.

 

[ElixantTechnology]

This depends, you may be thinking of a Revers Proxy rather than a CDN. CloudFlare or other services such aren't exactly a CDN in terms of the most recognized definition but are a Reverse Proxy that caches static content and diversifies DNS access... A TRUE CDN stores static files or downloadable files across a Delivery Network for ease of access like CloudFlare, but without the middle man on your traffic.

 

[Cherin]

* Speed - The site loads Faster when CDN has been deployed.

* Crash resistance - Complete traffic on main server leads to server crash. By Using CDN the load and traffic will be distributed over all CDN servers to load the pages faster and clear.

* Boost Website Visibility - CDN is one of the way to improve user experience on website and yields to reduce Bounce rate. If site is quick enough and Faster load time increases the number of pageviews by each user.

* Best SEO results - Any search engine will rank the website which has fast load time and will ranks high. Once you optimize your site, Experience the good search engine ranking with huge traffic, leads to website popularity.

* Increase Concurrent users - Using CDN servers at business strategic locations will increase the visitors to access the website. This leads to high network backbone capacity.

* Control of asset delivery - CDN has more control of asset delivery. Network load will be appreciated & results realtime load statistics, display active regions, Optimize capacity per customer, asset popularity, and etc. As these aspects are important, all logs will be disabled once the server source point is connected to the CDN.