Web Development

What is CDN (Content Delivery Network)?

A Content Delivery Network (CDN) is a globally distributed network of servers that stores cached copies of your website's assets and delivers them from the server closest to each visitor.

Definition

A Content Delivery Network or CDN is a globally distributed network of servers that stores cached copies of your website's static assets, images, stylesheets, scripts, fonts, and delivers them from the server location closest to each visitor. Instead of every visitor's request traveling to a single origin server, a CDN serves content locally, dramatically reducing the distance data has to travel and improving load speed for visitors regardless of their location.

Why It Matters for Small Businesses

For businesses with customers in multiple regions, a CDN can be transformative for site performance. Even for local businesses, CDNs reduce the load on origin servers and improve redundancy, meaning your site is less likely to slow down or go down under traffic spikes. Many quality hosting providers now include CDN functionality as standard.

Example

A national e-commerce brand selling handmade goods serves customers from coast to coast, but their hosting server is based in Chicago. Visitors in California and New York experience slower load times because of the geographic distance. After implementing a CDN, static assets are served from servers near each visitor and average load time improves by 40% for users outside the Midwest.

Related Terms

Page SpeedCDNs are one of the most effective tools for improving global load times

Web HostingCDN and hosting work together as your site infrastructure layer

CachingCDNs rely on caching to serve content efficiently

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