Step-by-Step Guide to Adding CDN to a WordPress Website
Nowadays websites have become more dynamic and richer in content which can increase the initial load time for visitors from other parts of the world. The average page size is more than 2MB – this is almost twice as much as in 2015.
But as you might know, slower sites are a big NO when it comes to overall user experience, SEO, and Google rankings.
{Read:- 5 Ways to Improve SEO on Your WordPress Site }
Content Delivery Network or CDN is used to deliver content instantly to the end-user. It takes a while for the web page to load if the server is pinged for every request especially if the server is located far away from the user.
To understand how CDN works, it is important to understand why CDN was needed in the first place. A website is hosted on a web server that has a single physical location. If the user is located near to this server location then the content delivered from the webserver will be faster as compared to the user browsing from the other side of the world.
{Read:- How to Build a WordPress Site in 1 Day }
For example, if the webserver is located in London, UK; the user browsing from Germany or Spain will get a faster response as compared to the user browsing all the way from Russia.
Do I Need a CDN on a WordPress Site?
CDN is essential for every website which has a global audience. It does not matter if you are running a blog or an online store, Content Delivery Network (CDN) significantly improves the user experience and increases overall productivity.
{Read:- 10 WordPress Mistakes to Avoid }
CDN services are widely used and are getting popular among WordPress users who wish to offer better experiences to their users. The list of businesses using CDN services is huge – Digital Agencies; Entertainment; Health Care; E-Commerce; Education and Advertising to name a few.
Popular CDN Providers & Setup Process (Step-by-Step)
1) Cloudflare CDN Setup Process
The next CDN we will be integrating into our WordPress site is Cloudflare. This CDN too is very popular among WordPress users because of its performance, security, and FREE subscription.
2) StackPath CDN Setup Process
StackPath (previously MaxCDN) is one of the best-known names in the CDN industry. They offer CDN plans as well as a combination of CDN and website firewall plans. Both plans offer a free month-long trial, which we’ll be using in this tutorial.
3) Sucuri CDN Setup Process
Sucuri is a popular security plugin that will harden your WordPress website and protect it from hackers. They have a pretty robust security platform that will not only secure your site and scan it for malware but will also provide you with various speed optimizations.
{Read:- How to configure Horizontal Pod Autoscaler(HPA) in Kubernetes (EKS)? }
4) KeyCDN Setup Process
This is one is a high-performing and widely used CDN. You may try out their service by signing up for their trial version. For this article, we will be using their trial version as well.
Benefits of Having a CDN in WordPress
WordPress is a content management system that consumes a fair amount of both static and dynamic data. Typically a WordPress site is built on a template or theme and harnesses some of its functionalities through plugins. Content such as header, footer, banner images, and the menu does not change very often and can be cached by CDN service. Besides caching CDN offers other benefits as well.
- Saves Bandwidth
- Improved Security
- Tackle High Traffic
- Faster Speed
- Higher SEO Rankings
- Better Uptime
