Increase your load time and SEO with a Content Delivery Network
Telling your client that their site is unresponsive and clunky can be embarrassing – and worst of all, that the content they spent so much time and money on is to blame.
A Content Delivery Network (CDN) can be used to improve your loading time, and ultimately your SEO.
Read on and we’ll tell you how…
A content delivery network, or CDN for short, is a service that helps deliver web traffic to the right locations. This can help your website rank better in search engine results pages (SERPs) by increasing its global ranking and making it more visible to searchers.
A CDN can also improve customer experience because it serves files closer to the user’s location, which means less time waiting for them to load! In this blog post we will talk about how a CDN works as well as six steps you can take to set one up on your site.
Investing in high-quality content can help your SEO rankings, but you must also invest in a CDN to distribute and support these assets.
What are the benefits of a CDN for a business website?
When it comes to images and video, the way they are integrated into a website’s ecosystem can dramatically affect how well the site performs.
That includes stock photos, design shots and styles, video content, code files, product and and other images and graphics throughout a website.
When you use CDNs, not only does your website receive more bandwidth from each user, but it also becomes accessible to a greater variety of geographical locations.
To maximize web site performance, a CDN passes assets and traffic back and forth as the asset is called up by page loads rather than waiting for each asset to load.
In order for a site to provide content in different places around the world, so it doesn’t have to rely solely on one server.
Content delivery networks are servers that hold cached files ready to render in order to decrease load time and shorten the distance between delivery.
Having a CDN is like taking the turnpike to your destination instead of traveling through slower roads. It increases speed and efficiency by optimizing web traffic routes.
How CDNs can assist your SEO Goals
Because CDNs have become the standard in enterprise SEO, they are only becoming more valuable as marketing investments increase.
The better and faster your site is, the higher it will rank in search engine listings. A CDN can help boost this performance with its ability to cache content.
Google places great importance on page experience for all search results. As a global organization, it has taken many steps to incentivize efficient website loading times and minimize user disruptions.
Nearly every algorithm update Google has released in recent years have included elements for improving page experience, speed and content delivery.
The longer content takes to load on a page, the more likely the visitor is to leave. Every time content is served so slowly that visitors can’t wait for it to load, those who are frustrated will move on and won’t come back.
Additionally, there is a close connection between speed and the Core Web Vitals update.
Beyond its UX factor, a CDN also adds security to your website.
Designating cache and load-time for commonly accessed websites speeds up a site’s loading time by meaning that often requested pages are retrieved from the hosting server of the person requesting it rather than pulled via internet connection. This designates cache and reduces load time.
The most important use for a CDN is to protect your business from denial-of-service (DDoS) cyberattacks. These attacks attempt to overwhelm servers with traffic so that they can be crashed and the system disabled.
When choosing a CDN provider, pay attention to these five features.
Most people choose to use a CDN because it’s faster than their origin server.
You should also make sure it does well at delivering both small files and large payloads.
The best way to evaluate your CDN vendor is by demoing their solution.Here are some of the metrics you might want to explore:
- When choosing a CDN for SEO, you should test how quickly your end users will receive DNS responses.
- Peak hours. If your website has big fluctuations based on days or times of day, make sure to test the CDN’s performance during the busiest time periods.
- When selecting a CDN provider, network connectivity should be among your top considerations. This includes excellent throughput or speed, low latency or lag time, and no packet loss.
- Request Processing. You want to see a high rate of requests being processed by the CDN, with few falling through to your origin server.
- Throughput should be higher than the origin for assets of any size.
- Integrate with API. Make sure your CDN is configured with existing and possible future software to suit your needs now and into the future.
When deciding on a content delivery network, you want to make sure that they have a large and diverse network. For example, Akamai is one of the largest CDN providers that offers over 300,000 servers in 130 countries.
When choosing a content delivery network (CDN), you should also consider the location of its servers to meet your audience’s needs.
When you’re looking for improvements in content delivery across South America, Africa, or any other area, make sure your preferred CDN has ample coverage. This will restrict your options more than if you’re targeting North America or Europe, which have vast server networks.
How much does a CDN cost?
Like all marketing solutions, variability in cost is unavoidable.
Most CDN providers offer an assortment of packages for different levels of traffic. Smaller websites may want to save money by optimizing their assets manually instead.
For large sites, manual content generation and curation quickly make of an inefficient way to manage and deliver web content.
Using the services of a content delivery network to power your website’s page loads is more expensive than doing it yourself, but you will avoid any loss in sales and leads due to slow webpage response time and frustrating user experience.
Pricing for a CDN is generally around $200 a month and, although the prices can vary depending on size, they are typically custom quotes.
These plans often include guaranteed security features, better analytics and user data available, enhanced delivery/cache options to ensure a positive experience no matter how large the site.
CDN rates vary depending on location because they use a network of servers.
Watch for Common Errors in CDN Implementation
There are a few drawbacks to using a content delivery network (CDN) for SEO, mostly related to setting it up.
To solve these problems, there are a few easy steps. If you’re going through a content migration, make sure to research factors that might lead to SEO failures before starting- like site speed or net neutrality implications.
Requirements may vary depending on the type of CDN chosen.
When you go custom with your website, integrating the CDN can be a bit of a headache. Developers might need to put in some extra work to get it up and running properly.
CDN service providers often warn customers that internet packets sent from the CDN can get blocked by an ISP.
A few providers may block CDN
Some providers block a CDN that is used for loading content. A common issue in Reddit threads is the Microsoft Ajax CDN related to jQuery, but workarounds are usually available if you know how to name them.
Watch for Traceroute Issues
If the CDN of your website is using a third party geo-mapping database, it can lead to an end-user receiving the wrong IP address. This should be checked during the setup process and occasionally afterwards to make sure it isn’t creating any illogical or lengthy paths.
So to conclude this article, companies that use a CDN to host and distribute content may see improved search rankings and can expect a more secure website, and a better overall user experience, which in turn gives there visitors, and potential customers, a better online experience that everyone will appreciate.
