What is CDN (Content Delivery Network)?
The term CDN i.e Content Delivery Network basically is the distribution of data over the internet all over the globe that assists the main server of the website.
Websites typically use one server to store data and provide the information to the end users spread out across the globe. CDN’s are an addition to the existing server but correspondingly is spread all over the globe which assists the single server by saving elements/ content of the webpage throughout the network which then delivers the appropriate content to the end user on faster track.
How Does the CDN Work?
Elements on any Web pages like pictures, videos, html, css, java script that remain same for every user which are in turn cached by CDNs on the proxy servers near to the physical location. This then eliminates the need to wait for content to be loaded before watching a movie, or downloading a particular software, checking of online bank balances, posting on social media, or making and other kind of transactions.
Let’s break down this process on how all this works by using the diagram mentioned below:
For example, consider this in the image given below, where in one can see the web host server shown in black and a user trying to access the website where in the server locates in another country which is shown in black with a hypothetical distance of let's say 1000 miles. When a user hits a request to the server, it takes a total of 500ms of round time for the data to reach the user.
Now consider when a CDN is placed between the user and the server as shown in the image below in grey. CDN’s brings the data closer to the user for access. When the user requests this data through any action on the website this request reaches the particular CDN and the CDN (Content Delivery Network) then will check it in its database if it has that specific data or not, if it doesn't then it will deliver the data to the user and if not, it will request the main website server for the data.
Once the data is stored in the CDN the user can request the data n number of times and the data will reach the user faster and will also not load the main server with traffic pile off from various locations.
CDNs are placed at multi locations spread across the globe so as to bring data closer to the user and thereby enhancing the user experience.
Benefits of using a (Content Delivery Network) CDN:
Enhancement of Performance: CDN reduces the distance between the user and server by bringing the data closer hence speeding up the loading time of the website. It also helps in retrieving of new data from the main server, thereby reducing the size of the transfer files as the existing data is present with the CDN.
More Reliable: CDNs are made up of numerous servers located across multiple data centres, by this they may reduce a lot of redundancy. CDNs may still continue to distribute material from other servers in the network even if a server, or a data centre, or an entire area of data centres goes down.
Cost Effective: Hiring a CDN saves a company money from investing in infrastructure and different service providers all over the world, a global CDN may eliminate the need to pay for expensive overseas hosting and save the company a lot of money. For a fair fee, a global CDN provides a single platform to manage all the different activities across several areas. CDNs are also suggested for small businesses who are tight on budget.
CDN for SEO:
Page speed is a direct ranking element according to Google's Algorithm Speed Update. Page speed, on the other hand, might have an indirect impact on rankings by raising bounce rates and decreasing dwell time. However, with the integration of CDN by businesses the page speed of the pages gets optimized significantly in-turn showing positive improvement in the rankings.
CDN also helps in indexing the website faster in the search engine results page which helps brand gain more visibility across the locations improving the brand recognition and also the main aspect that it is a cost-effective technology to improve the website speed.
Where do we come in?
We at Merkle Sokrati our experts will provide the best SEO resolutions and also a cost effective CDNs to optimize, improve your site performance and content delivery and gain organic visibility across different search engines. Contact us for a detailed audit of your bus.
Authored by:
