Content Delivery/Distribution Network CDN Definition

A Content Distribution Network or Content Delivery Network is a network of servers that are used to store cached versions of webpage content across numerous geo-locations, and serve users the piece of content that has the least amount of latency to the end user, thereby decreasing the load time for a web page.

This is achieved by having servers that are closest to the user making the query handle the delivery of the piece of content.

Some sites will use dedicated CDN’s for their audience, whereas AMPs were originally designed to use edge caching, where once a user accessed a resource from one CDN server, it would be cached for up to 30 days from the date that the last user accessed the content.

This greatly reduces the time that it takes for pages to load, especially for webmasters working with limited access to hosting but that are trying to reach a larger audience. 

Using Content Delivery/Distribution Networks (CDNs) Is A Great Website Optimization Technique

CDN usage gives marketers leverage to accomplish multiple things better than traditional hosting methods.

One advantage is that they can be used to house specific content for your internationally targeted audiences’ content.

This will ensure that your audience can get the content faster, while also hedging against any temporary blips in your site’s hosting that may add time to international latency.

It also helps reduce the loads on your main servers, as users are not all utilizing all of the same resources at once from the same source.