CDN Server
The digital economy has dramatically transformed business models and consumer-vendor relationships. As the electronic marketplace continues to evolve, so does consumer behavior. Today’s consumers are more savvy and discerning, fickle and demanding – they want more immersive, intuitive interfaces and seamless online experiences whether they are shopping for goods and services or simply searching for information.
User experience is thus a crucial factor that every business regardless of size must take into account if it wants to thrive and survive in the ultra-competitive world of e-commerce. In order to drive traffic to your e-store and hence increase your chances of generating sales, it is essential to make your website fast and responsive. Statistics show that 57 percent of users will abandon websites that take more than 3 seconds to load, and that even a 1-second delay in load time can have a significant impact on conversion rates.
If your website is not generating enough traffic or has a low conversion rate because it is slow, a content delivery network (CDN) can help. By delivering your content (images, videos, JavaScript files, etc.) to your visitors from the nearest edge server, a CDN will reduce your website’s latency and hence make it load faster. Each time a visitor requests a resource found in your website, the CDN server saves a copy of that resource and delivers it to him/her based on the closest point-of-presence (POP) location should he return and request the same resource.
There are many CDN companies that maintain a global network of edge servers to help optimize your website’s performance. The best CDN providers of 2020 include Cloudflare, Akamai, Fastly, KeyCDN, MetaCDN, MaxCDN (now StackPath), Amazon CloudFront, Microsoft Azure CDN, CDN77, and BelugaCDN. There are also free CDNs such as Incapsula, Swarmify, jsDelivr, Photon by Jetpack, and Bootstrap CDN. Cloudflare, Incapsula, Swarmify, and Photon by Jetpack are highly recommended for WordPress and other content management systems.
Several content delivery networks offer free trials like MaxCDN, RackSpace, KeyCDN, Amazon CloudFront, Microsoft Azure CDN, Cloudinary, CDN77, Google Cloud CDN, and BelugaCDN. A CDN can also work seamlessly with any web hosting provider such as GoDaddy or Bluehost. If you have to choose between CDN service and web hosting, however, the former delivers more benefits in terms of performance, security, scalability, reliability, SEO ranking, and cost.
Choosing the Right CDN Server
Whether you own a WordPress blog or a website that offers tons of streaming video, you need a content delivery network to accelerate your page load times. Here are five important factors to consider when reviewing your CDN options.
- Performance
You are looking for a CDN precisely because you want a faster website, so it is only right to check how the service provider will perform in that regard. Does the company have the infrastructure to accelerate the delivery of your content to your users from the nearest CDN server? How fast will the CDN process a visitor’s requested resources? Can it provide a seamless experience to your users on any device? Is the CDN optimized to deliver highly interactive content, or does it have the means to provide network capacity on demand in case of sudden traffic spikes and heavy loads? How much can the CDN improve DNS response or the availability of DNS services for your users regardless of their location? Another key consideration is whether the CDN has network-layer optimizations in place to improve latency and throughput. - Security
No website is safe from cybercriminals, but a CDN provides a layer of security against threats such as DDoS attacks. Check whether the CDN has the capability to withstand and mitigate DDoS attacks and other advanced persistent threats like phishing, botnets, ransomware, data manipulation and destruction, spyware/malware, and malvertising. Choose a CDN provider that utilizes Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption and other tools such as secure tokens and custom Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates. - Technical service/support
Content delivery network companies should be able to provide responsive technical/customer support 24/7/365 via phone or live chat. Their customer support reps must have the expertise to resolve issues in a timely manner so that your website will continue to operate efficiently and optimally. - Analytics
Ask whether the CDN has a strong analytics platform that provides useful insights in real time about your web traffic, including total bandwidth, total amount of requests, number of cache hits/misses, origin transfer, completion ratio, complete delivery by CDN server or data center, end-user transmission, etc. - Pricing
Cost is often a key consideration when you are paying for a service. One thing is for sure: traditional CDNs don’t come cheap. For example, a monthly traffic of 2,500 GB can cost anywhere between $150 and $200 upwards. If you increase your monthly bandwidth to 25 TB, be ready to pay at least $1500. Investing in a CDN is a major decision, so it helps to compare plans and choose the one that best suits your needs.
Conclusion
Your website could have the most attractive design or the best content in the world, but it won’t draw a lot of visitors if it is slow to load. With the right CDN, you can accelerate your website’s speed and increase your conversion rate in the process. Higher conversions mean greater chances of generating sales. If you want to accelerate your website and keep it secure against cyberthreats without breaking the bank, look no further than BelugaCDN (https://www.belugacdn.com).
The company leverages the power of a IPv4/IPv6 dual-stack network to speed up your website by as much as 20-40 percent, along with other features such as real-time analytics, instant cache purging, built-in DDoS and website protection, and responsive technical support. And with 28 global POPs and 9 SuperPOPs, you can be sure that your content will be delivered quickly to your users from a CDN server closest to their location. For a monthly traffic of 2,500 GB a month, BelugaCDN charges only $20 vs. $150 from MaxCDN, $200 from Google, $213 from Amazon CloudFront, and $218 from Microsoft Azure.
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