When you set up your WordPress site there are many things that need to be considered in order for it to produce the results you’re expecting. Your content delivery network (CDN) is where your site’s cached static content will be stored. If you choose wisely your site will work faster, have a lower bandwidth cost, and increase its overall global availability.
However, finding the right CDN service is not as easy as reading a description and making a choice, much more is involved. As explained by WPMatter,
It’s really not easy to find the best CDN service just by browsing the introduction on the Internet.
You need to consider the costs, the amount of content you will need to deliver, as well as backup systems among other things. Here are a few things to look for when you’re searching for the best CDN hosting.
What Is a CDN?
For the newcomer to web development the question of what exactly is a content delivery network is probably the first thing on your mind. In simple layman’s terms, when people visit your blog they are first redirected to your host’s server located at a central location. If your site is experiencing a high volume of traffic it could be quickly overloaded increasing the potential for a system crash.
With a CDN in place the content for your blog is cached and stored on a network of servers throughout the world; this content can include images, stylesheets, javascripts, Flash, etc. This way, when individuals visit your blog they will automatically be redirected to a server that is located closer to them automatically reducing the number of hops necessary to send the data to the user. The closer the CDN server is to your user’s location, the faster the content will be delivered and you reduce the risks of an information bottleneck that could affect your site’s performance.
Aside from speed there are other factors that must be considered when choosing the best CDN for your WordPress blog.
Crash Resistance
When you use a CDN server you are automatically increasing your site’s success rate. The CDN server works with your existing host allowing your site to remain online for longer periods of time without a crash. Even if the server were to break down, you would simply go into your site and turn off your CDN while it was being serviced and your information would continue to be available to the user. As explained by WP Solution,
CDN allows distributing the load to multiple servers instead of having 100% traffic to a main server consequently making it less likely to crash.
Fast sites also improve the user’s experience on your site by increasing the number of page views and numbers of pages visited by each user.
Enhances User Experience
Because of the CDN’s ability to spread your content globally there will automatically be a reduction in bounce rate on the site. Since they work on the principle of distributing resources by geographical location and synchronizing the data on a network of servers the information can be delivered at incredibly fast speeds. So, rather than sending the request for content for a host server the request will be redirected to the server located closest to the user. This will reduce the amount of time needed to process the information and respond.
We’ve all had to experience the frustration of loading a webpage that takes an interminably long time to load on our computer. With more than a billion websites all sending information through the Internet at lightening speeds that one slow website can really test our patience. With a CDN, this problem is virtually eliminated allowing your site to avoid the pitfalls of using just one centrally located host server. The faster the data is delivered, the better your user’s experience will be.
SEO Optimization
Another feature that makes using a CDN a profitable choice is how Google views your site when it comes to ranking. According to Google, faster sites tend to rank high in search engines. Because the CDN helps to lower the strain/load on the server by spreading the load out among a number of servers your site runs faster, the better it looks to Google.
While content still remains the key ranking factor to Google a faster load will still help to improve your rankings. One way that CDN and SEO can work well together is explained by Zachis.it,
Improving the website on SEO grounds will require a lot of pain in tailoring the HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Images, Video and Audio files and a lot more stuff according to the search engines…. It can essentially do the needed heavy lifting for ranking the website higher in search engines.
This means that the CDN can literally help you through some of the biggest SEO hurdles to improve your search engine optimization results. It eliminates the need to remember everything that is needed to optimize the content on your own.
Saves on Foreign Hosting Investing
When you don’t have a CDN hosting service you could also be spending a lot more money purchasing foreign hosting in other parts of the world. With a CDN server you easily eliminate this expense and are allowed to use their international data centers for a small service fee instead of buying full-scale foreign hosting.
While content will still remain king in attracting visitors to your site, using a CDN server to spread that content around the globe and deliver it at lightning speed can help to improve the overall popularity of your site. It not only enhances your user’s experience by quick deliveries and speedy uploads, it also protects your site from negative impacts from crashes and system overloads.
With a CDN server at your disposal everyone who comes in contact with your site will have an improved experience that can even out the flow of traffic and smoothen out the entire experience. As a beginner the concept of CDN hosting may be new to you but it is one that everyone should be familiar with before they make a final decision on the type of hosting they need for their site.

Steven Johnson, a WP Hosting Reviews senior editor, works from Atlanta and covers all things related to WordPress and Hosting.
He graduated from Georgia Tech in Chemical Engineering, has managed hosting companies and now builds WordPress and Joomla Websites for small to medium companies full time.