What are the Benefits of Using a Content Delivery Network?
In the age of the internet, a website is the first point of contact between companies and the public. Without a website, it’s hard to develop trust amongst potential customers and partners. This is why today, regardless of the size and field of their business almost all companies have an official website.
Along with this, there are also companies which conduct their business through their official websites. E-commerce platforms, video sharing, streaming or OTT platforms are good examples of this. For this kind of platforms, their website is everything since their whole business depends on the website.
Mentioning the importance of the websites brings up an important service for the websites. Content Delivery Network or CDN services as they are abbreviated. Which we’ll handle in this article and take a look into their purposes and advantages.
What is a CDN?
A CDN is a network of data centers and proxy servers that are distributed geographically. Their main purpose is to provide clients with servers that are geographically close, in order to reduce latency and improve load balancing. This results in seamless and fast User Experience for the client’s internet users.
CDNs, therefore CDN providers are a crucial element in the internet ecosystem. The technologies they adopt and apply usually focuses on improving user experience in many ways.
How can CDNs benefit websites and online platforms?
Although they improve the end-user experience ultimately, Content Distribution Networks’ primary customers are website or platform owners. Let’s have a look at the advantages they provide.
Decreased Load Times and Latency
Geographical location plays a key role in download speed and latency, as the CDN network will receive and distribute traffic loads to the closest available servers. In this way, a strong network of CDNs will not only reduce page load times but also increase data transmission. Whether it’s video streaming, game or an e-commerce platform, CDNs can provide faster connections to every visitor.
There are also other methods to ensure fast data transmission. Some CDN providers incorporate machine learning or AI to manage caching servers. Cached content is distributed according to demand so it can be kept readily available to the user. By cashing web content closer to the client, CDN providers may further increase the response speed to user requests.
Easily Manage Traffic Peaks
In some sectors like e-commerce, user traffic tends to follow seasonal or periodic peaks. During these times, CDN providers will distribute user requests among available CDN servers to reduce the load. Load balancing prevents crashes and server overloads.
More Secure Encryption
Encryption methods change and evolve over time as their flaws surface through real-world use. CDN providers are fast at adopting and applying these new technologies as they emerge. A good CDN provider will apply new SSL certificates and encryption methods without impacting the usual operation of their clients. Often, clients won’t even notice the change.
New Data Transmission Technologies
Like the SSL encryption mentioned above, data transmission technologies also change and upgrade over time. For example, Brotli, BBR, and HTTP2 CDN providers will integrate these new technologies into your website, which means you’ll always have access to the latest data transmission updates.
Better Insights About Traffic
CDN providers hand the hard labor in the internet ecosystem. They handle almost half of all the data traffic on the internet. This means that they generate vast amounts of analytics data. This data can be shared with their customers, which gives them actionable insights, and intelligence into their user base. Also the Info analysis they may provide shows everything a developer needs to know to further optimize the website. In-depth reporting ultimately leads to the performance increase, which results in higher user experience and then further reflects on sales and conversion rates.
CDNs are AGILE
Not all CDN providers have an AGILE backbone but the ones that do can help companies expand globally. Some CDN providers can set-up new POP (point of presence) servers in a matter of days. This means their clients can expand into a new territory quickly without sacrificing user experience and service quality.
CDNs Are Cost-Effective
When considering the services a CDN provides, as well as the potential income it will help generate through better user experiences, a CDN service is well worth the investment.
It’s also wise to keep in mind that without these technologies that the CDNs provide some platforms wouldn’t even have a chance of competition ins the search engine results.
CDNs Improve SEO
We mentioned that some platforms wouldn’t even have a chance of competing in the search engine results. So how can CDNs affect a website’s rank in the search engine results? Well, there are many factors under this topic. Search engines factor in many parameters when ranking a page or a website. They don’t disclose a full list of what they take into account but it’s clear that a page’s speed, data transmission security and the user experience it offers are a big part of the equation. In this regard, almost all we mentioned above contributes to a better result in search engine ranks.
How to Decide If You Need CDN Services?
Not every website needs a CDN provider. There are ways to determine if a website or platform needs to take advantage of CDN services. A CDN can be a great solution for your business, especially if you serve customers or clients all around the world. Here are some examples of businesses that could benefit from a CDN:
E-commerce sites: You don’t want your customers to experience long waits while they’re browsing your shop or trying to check out with their purchases. If you want a smooth and seamless user experience for your customers, even during times with heavy traffic, a CDN is a great option.
Financial institutions: Banks, credit unions and other finance companies can use a CDN to create a secure and reliable way to transmit sensitive financial information.
Media or news sites: These types of sites are often content-heavy, and it’s important that they stay up to date with the latest news. CDN can help deliver news stories to your users in real-time.
Government: Content-heavy websites can provide much faster services to citizens by using a CDN.
Mobile apps: A CDN accelerates the load time for mobile applications and increases page responsiveness.
Technology and SaaS: CDN helps websites serve billions of web users without impacting performance.
If you haven’t tried a CDN yet, now is the time to see the results with Medianova. Start your 15-day free trial now.
