A CDN, or content delivery network, is a network of proxy servers that is used to serve website content from different geographical locations. The benefit is that when a visitor requests a page, instead of receiving resources from your origin server, a node server that is closest to the user’s location will be utilized to serve content, which minimizes the reliance of the origin server and reduces latency and page load times for visitors. Additionally, this helps during times of traffic spikes, providing organizations with a way to better manage the demand on the network.
While CDNs are primarily used for serving static content, they can be beneficial for serving dynamic, or content that is not cached. Furthermore, CDNs can provide other beneficial web performance benefits, like security, minification, compression, which we have already mentioned in this guide. Lastly, CDNs can offer better insight into traffic distribution and help improve SEO scores. Implementing a CDN depends on the needs of your business. Implementing a CDN is relatively straightforward, however, there is a wide range of CDN providers, so do the appropriate research to find one that fits your goals and budget.
