This blog post has an 5 minute read time.
Introduction
If you’ve been online for a while you may have heard of Cloudflare, but if you’re thinking “what exactly does Cloudflare do?”, “Do I need a CDN for my website?” & “what exactly is a CDN?” then you’re in the right place. I’m here to explain to you in simpliest and clearest way possible so you can decide if its right for you.
What exactly does Cloudflare do?
A client of mine contacted me on a Wednesday afternoon in a panic that her website homepage was “white”. She was imagining the worst. “Was it down? has it been hacked? How can we get it live again?”.
Whenever I get these messages I go into test mode – what can I see with the knowlege and skills I have that can fix this issue ASAP. When i began testing I noticed it has slowed down but it was loading for me.
the knowledge I have on this particular client is that many people viw this website from across the country and soem may even be in regional areas where the internet may not be as fast as in the city.
I soon realised that what was happening was not that their website was broken, it was that their business was growing, more content had been added to their website and their website speed was slowing down to a host for some users.
So the combination of a growing business and website, with high amounts of traffic from around Australia had created a slow load speed for the website resulting in a white screen or a 503 error message for some website visitors.
What has this got to do with CDN’s or Cloudflare?
Thin about who your webiste is hosted with at the moment? Your hosting server may be are located in Australia (like Ventraip), while some are located in a different countries around the world (like Siteground or WP Engine).
This doesn’t make them bad options as a hosting platform but it can effect load speed and delays in content going live (occassionally).
Cloudflare use a CDN platform to cache a version of your website and have it available on many of their server networks so they’re able to dsiplay your website using the closest server to the person searching for your website. This will allow your website load speed to be noticably faster and the people visiting your website don’t have to wait for your website to load from your host server. Which could be the seconds it takes to loose a potential client.
What is a CDN?
CDN is an acronym for Content Delivery Network. This is a group of servers around the world with cached versions of your website. CDN’s do this so theres no delay or lag time when someone visits your website.
CDN’s are a great way of increasing your website’s speed without effecting your website content, display or customer experience. In fact, it improves it.
How to know if you need this for your website?
If you identify with any of the below points you may want to consider getting a CDN set up for your website.
Does your website do the following:
- Load at incredibly slow speeds
- A white screen appears for the desktop version of your website only, but the mobile version is fine
- You or your website visitors get a “503 error” message when going to your website
- You have a high amount of traffic going to it daily or for a launch?
- You have customers from overseas location that you sell to (or would like to)
If this sounds like your business then you may want to consider getting a CDN for your website.
How to set up a CDN on your website
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- Go to Cloudflare & sign up for a free account. It will auto-populate your hosting details so you don’t have to.
- Next copy the nameservers that Cloudflare create for you.
- Update the nameservers in your domain DNS account.
If you’re unsure how to update these details, reach out to your domain helpdesk, or your fave website designer.
Conclusion
A CDN allows your website to load quickly and without error. It may not be essential but it is highly recommended for a great customer experience and fast website load speeds when there is high traffic or a lot of content.
If you found this post useful, and you’re now excited to start creating SEO your website, here’s some resources to help you get started.
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Or if you want more tips or advice follow me on Instagram or on most other social media channels via @nataliefaithwebdesigns – I share lots of research, tips and client wins for online business so they can grow their businesses and attarct their dream clients.
