Why Do You Need a CDN for Your WordPress Blog? [Infographic]

Are you wondering what a CDN or ‘content delivery network’ is and why it’s important for your website?

If you are looking to speed up your WordPress site, then a CDN is an extremely valuable tool. It quickly delivers content to the end user in different locations and improves the user experience.

In this article, we will show you why you need a CDN for your WordPress blog.

Infographic

To find out what a CDN is, simply click on the image above to view the infographic. You can also continue reading our article for written details.

A CDN does not replace a web hosting account, as you still need to have a hosting provider like SiteGround or Bluehost.

What Is a CDN?

CDN is short for Content Delivery Network, which is a network of servers that deliver cached static content from websites to users based on the user’s geographic location.

If this sounds overwhelming, then let’s break it down in simpler words.

How Does a CDN Work?

Normally, when a user comes to your WordPress blog, their browser downloads the website from your web host’s server, such as Bluehost, SiteGround, or HostGator. Your web host’s server is located at a physical location, for example, Houston, Texas.

What this means is that every user is accessing this one server in Texas to view your WordPress website. Now, if you have a high volume of traffic, then you can overload your server, which leads to a slow-loading site or even a server crash.

This is where a CDN comes in handy. A CDN is a network of servers that are spread throughout the world. When you use a CDN, your static content is cached and stored on all these servers.

Static content includes images, stylesheets (CSS files), JavaScript, and more. When a user visits your website, the CDN technology redirects them to the closest server to their location.

For example, if your main server is hosted in Houston, TX, and someone from Durham, England, tries to access it, then they will be redirected to the closest server, which may be in London.

This limits the number of internet hops needed to transmit the static files to your end user. Because the user’s computer is closer in location to the CDN server, the files will load faster.

By having your content available on multiple servers around the world, you can make your pages load faster from the user’s perspective. In simple words, the closer the CDN server is to where your user is, the faster that user gets the content.

You may be wondering if a CDN is worth it on your website. Let’s look at why you need it for your WordPress blog.

Why Do You Need a CDN for Your WordPress Blog?

Having a CDN can impact your website’s performance and boost the user experience. Below are some of the advantages of using a CDN:

• Speed – A CDN helps improve the page load time of your site and make it faster.
• Crash Resistance – Using a CDN allows you to distribute the load to multiple servers instead of having 100% traffic to our main server, making it less likely to crash.
• Improved User Experience – With a CDN making your website faster, you will notice a decline in bounce rate on your site. It also increases the number of pages viewed by each user. Clearly, a fast site means improved user experience.
• Improvement in SEO – Google has stated that faster sites tend to rank higher in search engines. A CDN can boost your WordPress SEO and help you achieve higher keyword rankings.

Which Is the Best CDN for WordPress?

There are many WordPress CDN services on the market. We recommend Bunny.net as the best CDN provider that you use for your WordPress website. They have servers spread across the world and offer affordable pricing plans.

If you are looking for a CDN service that also provides security features, then we suggest using Cloudflare. They offer a powerful WordPress firewall and CDN to protect your site from different threats while ensuring fast load times.

Sucuri is another great option for a CDN that offers security features. However, you may want to read this post on reasons why WPBeginner switched from Sucuri to Cloudflare.

Expert Guides Related to WordPress Performance

Now that you know how a CDN can speed up your website, you may wish to see some other guides related to WordPress performance:

• The Ultimate Guide to Boost WordPress Speed & Performance
• How to Speed up WooCommerce Performance
• Important Metrics to Measure on Your WordPress Site
• How to Properly Run a Website Speed Test
• How to Use GTmetrix Plugin to Improve WordPress Site Performance
• Fastest WordPress Hosting (Performance Tests)
• Best WordPress CDN Services (Compared)
• How to Setup Cloudflare Free CDN in WordPress (Step by Step)

We hope that this article helped you learn why you need a CDN for your WordPress blog. You may also want to see our guide on how to get a free SSL certificate for your WordPress website and our expert picks for the best WordPress plugins for business sites.

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