Guide to Content Delivery Network (CDN) for SEO

Alongside creating quality content, another way to maximise your website’s Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is to invest in a Content Delivery Network or simply CDN. 

If you are currently running your own business, you would know for sure how important it is to invest in digital efforts. After all, the real competition is now online. With different businesses creating eCommerce websites and regularly posting content such as images and videos on social media platforms, it’s only safe to say that more and more people are getting used to conducting transactions over the internet.  

So how exactly can content delivery networks improve SEO?

What is a Content Delivery Network (CDN)?

A content delivery network, most commonly known as CDN, refers to a geographically distributed network of proxy servers and data centers that work together to provide faster delivery, availability and performance for website content. A CDN allows quick transfer of assets needed for loading Internet content such as HTML pages,  javascript files, stylesheets, photos and videos. 

A CDN is like an ATM. Having a cash machine on practically every corner allows you to get money faster and more efficiently. There’s no need to spend time and energy in long bank lines since the ATMs are placed in many convenient locations for immediate access.

With a CDN in place, you’ll enjoy greater bandwidth since all the content will have multiple pathways to visitors’ computers. For starters, a visitor from the US can gain immediate access to websites that are hosted by origin servers based in Singapore. 

How Does CDN Work?

A CDN is a network of servers linked together for the purpose of delivering content as quickly, and securely as possible. To make this happen, a CDN will place servers at the exchange points between different networks.

These Internet exchange points (IXPs) are the physical location where internet service providers connect and exchange traffic. Each server in the network stores cached versions of the website content, making it readily available for user requests. 

Why Invest in a CDN?

CDNs can give so much value for your money.

• Improve website latency

For starters, a CDN can improve your website performance and website latency. The globally distributed nature of CDNs reduces the distance between users and site resources by allowing users to connect to a geographically closer data center. 

By offering a top-notch digital experience to your visitors, your brand can benefit from improved clickthrough performances, a reduced bounce rate and eventually, better conversions. After all, a high-performing website is an excellent weapon to help you reach a wide range of customers and increase sales.

• Reduce bandwidth costs

A CDN reduces bandwidth costs because it sits between the users and the website’s origin servers. Thus, cutting down the traffic between the hosting servers and the rest of the internet.

Typically, web hosting services charge for the data, most commonly known as bandwidth,  that is transferred to or from the origin server. But since most of a website’s content is cached within a CDN, there is less data that needs to be transferred in and out of the website’s host server. Hence, resulting in lower bandwidth costs.

• Increase website security

Another benefit of using a CDN is that it can help protect your website against security attacks like denial-of-service (DDoS). Since CDNs distribute content to different servers, it prevents any type of attack from damaging the original server. 

Furthermore, a CDN can keep a site protected by using fresh TLS/SSL certificates. These certificates will help ensure a high standard of authentication, encryption and integrity. 

What to Look for in a CDN?

Given the demands of today’s modern websites, infrastructures are becoming increasingly complex. As such, choosing a CDN provider can be more difficult than ever. To shed some light on this matter, we’ve rounded up some of the most essential metrics you need to look for when choosing a CDN provider.

• DNS response time

This measures how quickly page content loads for your end-users. Some CDN providers have complex DNS setups that often result in slow performance. If this is the case, there’s no point in using a particular CDN provider. 

• Connecting time

Check out the CDN provider’s connecting time to see if it has excellent network connectivity, low latency and no packet loss. Furthermore, make sure that it does not get slower during peak hours. You don’t want your end-users to look at your website and immediately leave due to slow connectivity. 

• Network size 

The more servers you have, the faster you can deliver your content. As such, you need to make sure to choose a CDN service provider with a large network. With a larger network size, you’ll get less buffering and more scalability.

Conclusion

After reading this guide about CDN, we hope you understand the importance of CDN and feel equipped to choose the right CDN service provider for your business. 

We recommend two of the most powerful CDNs of today: Cloudflare CDN and Amazon CloudFront. Compare features and find the plan that is best suited for your business.

To give you an idea, here’s a quick comparison:

Cloudflare is a CDN that acts as a DNS for your website while Amazon Cloudfront operates closer to networks and serves content directly. 

Cloudflare caches content on its servers as close to end-users as possible while CloudFront uses S3 buckets to store cached files closer to end-users.

Cloudflare has more than 200 data centers globally while CloudFront has more than 225 edge locations.