“Content is king” is a common term used by offshore web development peeps on the interwebs. That still may partly be true since we’ve also discovered that this king has its limitations. As Internet users, being impatient and upset seems to grow worse with each passing month. Most of us cannot tolerate even a short moment of delay when we’re on the net. So no matter how good your content may be, it won’t make anyone happy if your site takes a long time to load.
So what does a web developer need to do? You might want to check out implementing a Content Delivery Network (CDN) for your site.
Here are some good reasons why you should do so:
CDN Improves Site Performance
The most logical benefit of a CDN is that it provides you with better speed. Since data is cached on edge servers and requests for content are transferred to the most optimal network node, a CDN takes your data along the fastest route to the user. This lessens latency and packet loss, giving your site faster load times, as well as better quality of streaming, which may result in more page views.
CDN Makes Your Site More Reliable
With your content flown through a CDN, all your assets are efficiently delivered through multiple servers, so disruptions or issues with a single hardware node won’t damage the function of the system. Even if you encounter a DoS attack, the distributed infrastructure can put the impact in check and keep your site 100% available.
CDN Offers a More Scalable Performance
As your content becomes more popular, you need to be ready for sudden bursts in online traffic. Once again, letting your data be transported by a CDN makes scalability one more thing you don’t have to be upset about.
CDN Gives You the Chance to Save Money
Another benefit of having additional servers is that the load imposed on each one is lessened. Also, adding a CDN lessens the burden on your backbone network by transferring traffic to its edge servers. So while you’ll have to consider the cost of a CDN into your budget, it’s likely to be much cheaper than having to buy new hardware.
Improved Search Rankings
If the above benefits don’t convince you to get a CDN, consider this added benefit: Google and other major search engines consider page load time when it comes to ranking. By improving your page load and downloading speeds, you’ll have a better position in search results, which will drive more traffic to your site.
We’ll leave you with an idea to consider. On top of the reasons we mentioned on how CDN improves site performance, integrated usage analytics will provide you with more visibility and control in the way you handle data. This allows you to continuously maximize content delivery. Now that you’ve got an idea on how CDN works to improve your site, it boils down to improving the user experience while creating a more powerful infrastructure in the process.
