Content delivery networks (CDNs)
Content delivery networks (CDNs) such as KeyCDN and CloudFlare offer businesses a way to speed up the end user website experience from anywhere in the world. Instead of relying on a few geographically centralized servers, CDNs allow businesses to take advantages of a server network storing cached versions of a website for faster site loading times.
The end user is able to connect to your content much faster through a CDN than a centralized server. Even if the difference appears negligible at first, make no mistake: speed and ease of use are more important than ever when it comes to connecting with your users.
Key Features of CDNs
CDNs provide several tangible benefits for businesses. Some of the key factors that should influence your decision whether to invest in a CDN include:
- Increased performance. Since your content is stored in several caches around the world, packet loss and latency are reduced, leading to faster connections with users. Non-CDN connections are more beholden to the laws of physics dictating how fast information can travel. CDNs drastically reduce the time it takes any given user to connect from anywhere in the world.
- Scaling with traffic. Without a CDN, website traffic spikes can significantly slow down the speeds at which your users connect. CDNs are a way to offload traffic so more users can connect simultaneously with negligible loss in speed.
- Reliable connections. If one CDN location is unavailable, requests are automatically sent to the next nearest available server. This minimizes annoying bad request errors so more users can connect from more locations without too much disparity in connection times and usability.
- Reduced costs. CDNs ensure reliable connectivity, so you don’t have to spend as much on in-house back-end support and infrastructure. Businesses can save a surprising amount of operating costs by eliminating the need for dedicated bandwidth hosting.
Benefits of Content Delivery Networks
If you partner with a CDN, some of the biggest benefits for your company may not be immediately apparent, but they certainly make a noticeable difference:
- Customer satisfaction. If your customers can reliably connect to your site, clicks process instantly, and there are no long load times, they will be more likely to follow through with purchases and engagements.
- Increased revenue. When customers know that your site is reliable, they’re more likely to recommend your service and leave positive feedback. This spreads word of your organization’s reliability and ease of use, organically generating leads and creating more conversions.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) boost. SEO isn’t completely based on keywords and links. Page speed is a crucial factor for page ranking in search results. CDN speeds up the connection to your content, improving your ranking.
- More robust analytics. Your CDN should provide transparent analytics so you know exactly how much of a return your business is getting for the investment. Some CDNs may even integrate with your existing analytics package, putting all your critical reporting metrics into one place.
Once you decide to partner with a CDN, make sure they’re performing up to your expectations. The difference is likely to be noticeable in more ways than one.
