The internet brings people together virtually through fiber optic cables and satellite links. They primarily work to transmit data over a long distance. Meanwhile, digital content like images, text, and videos still travel through wired cables, and distance can slow down the loading time.
For example, you are trying to load a video from a website and its server location is in San Francisco. You are more likely to load the data faster when you’re in the East Coast than when you are trying to access it from halfway around the world. The farther away you are from the data center, the slower the loading time. This slowdown, in turn, affects site ranking and revenue.
According to Google, faster sites create happy users and reduces operating costs. Kissmetrics further drives the point with the following data:
- 47% of consumers expect web pages to load in 2 seconds at most.
- 40% of consumers leave a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load.
- A 1-second delay in page loading time may lead to 7% less conversions. Because of this, e-commerce sites that generate $100,000 daily can lose up to $2.5 million in annual sales.
SEO specialists and web developers work together to avoid this delay. Even then, their strategies might not be as effective without a content delivery network (CDN) like the Amazon CloudFront.
What is a CDN and who benefits from it?
The cost of Amazon CloudFront and other types of CDN is minimal compared to what it does for business. It is made up of a network of servers located around the world that let web pages and mobile applications load faster. The server closest to the user accessing a website is called the “edge server.”
You can cache web content on a CDN, enabling the data to travel faster from one edge server to the intended user. The request doesn’t have to travel from the origin server, cutting down the loading time. CDNs also purge content to make sure that the freshest, most relevant content reaches the user.
In addition to storing and updating content, CDNS like CloudFront can do the following:
- Speed up page loading time on web and mobile.
- Quickly pull up content despite heavy website traffic.
- Ensure site stability by minimizing traffic spikes at the origin server.
- Reduce infrastructure costs by offloading traffic from the origin server.
A CDN improves site performance for anyone who owns a website or a mobile application. It is especially useful if you have a complex website with dynamic content and visitors from all around the world. It caters to the various needs of different types of organizations including the following:
•E-Commerce Sites
A CDN makes sure an e-commerce site quickly delivers content and responds to user requests. This is particularly useful in times of heavy traffic, like Black Friday and end-of-season promos.
•Government Organizations
Government websites are content-heavy sites that store and pull up vital information. They are easier and quicker to navigate with the use of a CDN.
•Financial Institutions
Banking institutions, credit unions, loan associations, investment banks, brokerage firms, and insurance companies need a fast and secure infrastructure to store and deliver sensitive data.
•Media Websites
Media and publishing companies thrive because of timely and up-to-date headlines and information. A CDN helps them update stories in real time and purge outdated content.
•Mobile Applications
Mobile apps are made for people on-the-go. Successful apps have quick loading times and increased responsiveness often because of a CDN that delivers location-based content.
•SaaS and Technology Websites
SaaS and technology websites set the bar for high speed and dynamic performance. A CDN allows these sites to serve countless requests from users without compromising the loading time.
These are only the top examples of businesses and organizations that use CDN to improve user experience. It has been doing so for a long time and more people are recognizing how it increases website traffic and conversions in ways that SEO cannot.
CDN Isn’t Anything New — It’s Been Around Since the 90s
Even though CDN is becoming more popular now, it isn’t exactly anything new. CDNs have been around since the 90s; Amazon CloudFront, which is one of the most reliable CDNs, was launched in November 2008. But like all forms of technologies, the functionalities of CDNs have evolved.
Traditional CDNs caches static content like images, videos, CSS, and JavaScript. It can only handle content that doesn’t change based on user input. It does not cater to dynamic content, which are frequently changing due to factors like credit card transactions and shopping carts on e-commerce sites.
Modern CDNs, which are built on a large network of solid-state drives, can cache and purge all types of content based on what consumers need. They can even cache a huge portion of dynamic content, not including personal data. As such, modern CDN can cache news headlines, stock prices, and user-generated comments that are constantly updated.
Modern CDNs also have a reverse proxying feature. This means they can fetch and store content from the origin server by request, removing the need to frontload the edge servers.
Does CDN Have the Features Needed to Improve SEO?
SEO strategies can make websites more visible on search results, but it is ultimately up to CDN to keep visitors on the page. Without a CDN to make sure the web content loads quickly, the bounce rate increases and affects the site’s ranking.
These are the ways CDN shakes the SEO world:
- A CDN improves loading speed and, in turn, increases page views and minimizes bounce rates.
- By distributing the load to multiple servers, a CDN reduces the likelihood of a server crashing.
- It boosts the crawl rate of images, letting them get indexed faster on image search.
CDN provides the ability to pull up pages and load content immediately. This results in a positive user experience. And because search engines like Google favor faster sites, it helps your site rank higher on search results and be more visible to the online community. To learn more about CDNs or to inquire about Amazon CloudFront pricing, get in touch with us today.