A Content Delivery Network (CDN) is a global network of servers which delivers the content of a website to its users according to the user’s geographical location. What is very important is that the content delivery network has everything to do with the speed of your site. Additionally, the speed of your site is directly linked to its Google’s ranking and it will ultimately affect your sales. That is why CDNs are used to deliver important content to the end users as fast as possible.

In fact, CDN replicates the content so it’s available at several places and every user gets a copy of the content which is nearest to them. Users can download files quickly, just because there is a CDN which enables the content to be present in data centers near them. This way the website owner can avoid slow loading times and the users get the content in the blink of an eye. Above all, the CDN has the purpose of providing a better user experience.

CDN’s are the preferred option for people who own large networks of sites, for example, people use LaunchCDN for hosting their PBNs. Now that you understand what CDNs are, we’ll explain why using a CDN is important in enhancing the security, performance, and reliability of a website.

What Are the Benefits of Using a Content Delivery Network?

1. Improve Your Website Performance

Whenever you decide to use a Content Delivery Network on your site you are going to increase the speed of your site to all users, globally. This technically means that the CDN gives access to all the proxy servers around the world. 

For instance, if your main server is located in the U.S. and you do not use a CDN, then when a user from Europe gets to your website, it will require them a lot of time to load all the content which your website offers. This means that the images will take a ton of time to be fully loaded and some of them may not even load at all. This experience would turn away your users, leaving the impression that your site is not professional and signaling to Google that the user had a poor experience on your website.

On the other hand, using a CDN for your website enables your users to get to all the content on your website as fast as possible. This means that regardless of whether the user is located in Europe, Australia or U.S. they will get the content from the proxy server which is physically located closest to them. It wouldn’t matter where or how far your user is located from the origin server to have a positive user experience. 

2. Cheaper Web Hosting

If you use a CDN you won’t need unlimited bandwidth. This is because with a single server you will require a lot of resources which would require more bandwidth, however, when using a CDN “the load” is delivered to the different proxy servers. Therefore if you don’t need unlimited bandwidth you can potentially choose a more affordable web host and save money instead of spending extra on unlimited bandwidth.

3. Security Above All!

A CDN is a great tool for providing security as well. All of your traffic will only have access to CDN enabled proxy servers, while your origin server will be out of reach. This way your origin server will be protected from “fake traffic” which is trying to harm your valuable files. The fake traffic may include hackers, spams, bots which will first reach the proxy server and the CDN will protect your origin server. 

Do You Really Need a Content Delivery Network?

If you are having doubts about whether your site needs a Content Delivery Network, you can easily find out the right answer if you ask yourself the following questions.

1. Does Your Site Have Heavy Traffic?

Sites which have heavy traffic will more likely experience downtime which is a reason for implementing a CDN to manage this situation. So, if your site has a lot of traffic a CDN will help to distribute your users to the different proxy servers instead of being a load to the one origin server.

2. Does Your Site Include a Lot of Media and Images?

If your site is about photography or a blog that includes images or videos then a CDN will definitely be a good idea for you. Loading images and videos can take a lot of time if you are not using a CDN, something which can be very unappealing to your users. In order to enhance the user experience and speed up the loading time, you should definitely consider a Content Delivery Network as a part of your strategy for attracting and retaining an audience.

3. Does Your Website Consist of a Lot of Pages?

Small sites which do not have a lot of pages, media or images would not need a CDN, because one server can handle sites which do not have a lot of traffic. You can always implement a CDN later, however, at the beginning of your online business, this might not be a priority for you to invest your money in.

Now, once you have read through the benefits of Content Delivery Networks you can choose whether you will need a CDN for your site and needs.