Every WordPress blogger is concerned about the speed of his project. There are many ways to accelerate a website, but CDN is a tried and trusted one. A few years ago this solution was pretty expensive, while today, even beginning web-masters can afford it. However, many starters don’t understand what CDN is, and ask questions like “Will I still need hosting, if I implement a CDN?” Let’s discover the truth and learn the nuts and bolts of this popular technology.

Just to make clear: CDN is something that you actually use on top of your web hosting account – this is some sort of instrument to speed pages up. CDN does NOT replace your web hosting account, and you still need a provider.

What is a CDN?

CDN stands for Content Delivery Network which is a system of servers that deliver cached content depending on the location of visitor. Are you still confused? We should explain it in layman’s terms.

As a rule, when a user opens your WordPress blog, he is redirected to your web host’s server (for instance, inxy.hosting). Your web host’s server is placed at the central location, for instance, Amsterdam. So every user on your website will access this one server to view your website. But if you have a flood of traffic, you can overload your server, which may result into slow loading or complete failure of server. This is where CDN will save you: it is a network of servers that are spread over the world. When you use a CDN, static assets of your website are cached and stored on these so-called edge servers. Static content is the content that doesn’t change, or changes rarely: images, JavaScript, stylesheets, Flash and so on. Now when a visitor accesses your website, CDN technology redirects him to the closest server from the network.

For instance, when your main server is located in Amsterdam, and someone from North Carolina tries to visit it, they will be redirected to the closest server, which may be in New York. That reduces the number of Internet hops required to transfer static files to the end user.

User’s proximity to your web server defines load time. By spreading your content across multiple dispersed servers, you can make your pages load much faster from visitor’s perspective. That’s what makes CDN handy. The closer the CDN server to your target audience is, the quicker this content will reach viewers.

Why implementing a CDN for your WordPress Blog?

Having read the above paragraphs, you understand that CDN can make a great impact on your website. Here are some benefits you reap from using a CDN:

1. Higher speed. As soon as you deploy a CDN, your website will get faster.
2. Crash resistance. As soon as visitors get more active, start sharing your content, you will receive an enormous spell of traffic. With a suitable CDN and proper caching setup, your website won’t crash because of thousands and millions of visitors. CDN will distribute the load over multiple servers instead of directing 100% of traffic to the main server. Therefore, it’s less likely for it to crash.
3. Stunning user experience. With a good CDN, bounce rate will surely decline. Besides, you will enjoy increased amount of pageviews. Faster website means better user experience.
4. Improvement in SEO. Since 2010, Google ranks faster websites better in Search Engines. CDN optimization of website will result into better ranking.