What Is a CDN and Why Your Website Needs One?

What Is a CDN and Why Your Website Needs One?

What is CDN?

A content delivery network (CDN) is a group of servers located in different parts of the world. Instead of loading everything from a central server, your website's content is stored (or "cached") on multiple servers around the world. So when someone visits your website:

• A user in Uganda loads your site from a server in Kenya.
• A user in the US loads it from a server in New York.
• A user in Asia loads it from a server in Singapore.

This makes your website much faster.

Why CDNs matter Here are the biggest benefits:

1. Faster website loading CDNs reduce the distance between the user and your files. Fast website = happy visitors.

2. Better performance on mobile and slow networks;  CDNs deliver optimized content, improving speeds even on weak connections.

3. Strong security;  Most CDNs provide: DDoS protection Secure HTTPS support firewall filtering It protects your website from attacks.

4. Decrease in server load;  Your main server doesn't have to handle everything. The CDN handles most of the file requests, which means fewer crashes.

5. Better SEO Google loves fast websites. Using a CDN can improve your rankings because speed is a ranking factor.

Real life example;  Imagine your website uses 3 MB images. If someone in Canada visits your site hosted in Uganda, it will load slowly. But with CDN:

1. Your images load from Canada,
2. Your CSS is loaded from the nearest CDN node,
3. Your JS loads faster for all users. Users around the world get the same speeds.

Popular CDN Providers;  Here are popular CDNs you can start with:

• Hostinger
• Cloudflare (free and powerful)
• google cloud cdn
• AWS CloudFront
• Akamai, etc

If you are a beginner, the Cloudflare free plan is one of the best options.

When should you use a CDN? If your website has:

1. visitor from different regions
2. Images, videos, or large files
3. A need for strong security
4. goal to improve SEO

Lets Hear From Mr FERDY KORPERSHOEK