Have you ever heard that content is king? If you are a content creator probably, you must attest to come across this phrase on a daily basis as you create content. However failing to deliver this content to your audience in the best way possible, the king is just a useless phrase. To enable you to get your content to your users in a timely manner, a content delivery network is essential. But how do you choose a CDN?
Choosing a CDN or content delivery network can be a difficult task. The web is saturated with plenty of CDN services and when you come across these solutions you may think they are one and the same thing. However, when you investigate deeply, you will notice some huge differences between them.
When choosing a CDN, there are plenty of things that you must consider before you decide which one to settle with. Ideally, you want to get the best solution with the most reasonable price.
The first and most important thing to consider is to know your website’s specific needs. But below we have compiled a list of the factors you need to consider to get the best Content Network Delivery.
Let’s get started!
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Know your bandwidth requirement
To get a suitable CDN service, you need to be clear about your bandwidth needs first. If your site uses 100GB a month or 10TB since CDNs normally charge in terms of data transferred in GB. However, if your site traffic is not higher, then you may decide to choose some cheap or even free CDN to address your needs. Equally, if your data consumption is higher such as 100TB a month of static content delivery, you must choose a suitable CDN of the same.
This will make it easy for your website visitors to download your videos, music files, huge image files software, and documents faster and efficiently without having to wait for ages.
Note that a CDN provider offers different plans on the basis of how much bandwidth your website is consuming. So, knowing your website bandwidth requirement is essential for choosing a perfect CDN for your website.
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The cost of a CDN
Once you are clear on your website requirement, you should find out the cost of the CDN. You must understand that CDN providers provide CDNs at different prices. The best thing to get a suitable CDN at a reasonable price is to make comparisons of prices from different CDN providers. However, ensure the price offered is in line with your needs. Avoid going for less or more.
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Your users’ location
Content has no limitations, it transcends space and time no matter where a user is located, and they can access content online. Therefore it is crucial to think about where in the world your most users are located before you choose a CDN. Keep in mind that CDN is an interconnection of servers distributed across different geographic locations.
So, you must ensure your CDN has servers located close to the places where your users are. For instance, if your visitors are located in the US, you need to choose a CDN with servers that are located in that region.
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Performance
Another important thing you should not overlook is the performance. The performance of a CDN is crucial; else, you won’t be able to achieve your goals. Ensure to check the response time to be able to know the strength of a CDN. In any case, the essence of going for a CDN is to improve your website performance and enhance content delivery which will help to minimize delays.
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Security
With the rise of hackers and spammers and internet threats, cybersecurity is crucial for internet users and so you should never overlook it when choosing your CDN. Website security is the ability to make your website safe from external threats by blocking those threats from interfering with your site. A good CDN is one that can address any internet security concern.
Conclusion
There you have it, 5 things to consider when choosing a CDN. Ensure to consider all the mentioned factors so that you get a suitable CDN for your needs. The most important thing is to ensure you get a solution that will solve issues to do with slow page load times and also ensure your website is safe from external threats.
