What is CDN? Do I need it?

I will keep the sophisticated system description really short. CDN stands for Content Delivery Network. CDN is ‘mirroring’ the static content of your website around the world. It really speeds up the website loading time.

Real CDN example

Your website is physically located eg in USA. You have a visitor from London, UK. Why should everything be loaded from USA? When you are using CDN, the static content like images, css and js files are loaded from London to London, so the content is mirrored, and only the dynamic text is loaded from the USA. This is exactly how it works and why your website will be faster.

Do I need CDN?

If you are doing business locally, no. If you are doing business worldwide, like me, or you have a travel agency, famous restaurant or hotel, have a blog site, magazine or international company then definitely yes.

Good for SEO and for people

The speed loading is important for SEO and also for your audience. The last thing you want is when somebody says ‘It is so slooooow’. Also a slow website is really annoying. Nobody wants to wait. And you don’t want to lose your visitor, or potential client.

What CDN provider company is good?

I have tried many providers. Lots of them are really expensive. And instead of 30 dollars I don’t want pay more than 3 dollars. Currently the best choice is Amazon AWS Cloud Front (link). The first 5 GB of transfer is free, then it is cheap. The negative thing is their administration console, it looks very complicated. If you want something simple, you can try KeyCDN.com (link) and you will also see their pricing there.

CDN for my clients

I can set up a CDN service for my clients for a small fee.