What the heck is a CDN (content delivery network)?[tweetmeme]

When a person ‘visits’ a website their computer makes a request to a server to deliver a bunch of files back to their computer. Those files are displayed by their browser as a web page. If they’re in the same town as the server that process happens quickly. If they’re on the other side of the world it can take much longer. That’s where a CDN comes into play.

Most page content is made from static files that include photos, images, videos and stylesheets. A CDN pre-distributes this static content to servers all over the world. No matter where the visitor is the files are nearby.

There’s another good reason for a CDN. Let’s say you get really popular and your website gets lots and lots of visitors. As a result your web server becomes overloaded. Soon your site slows down. If you were using  a CDN this is less likely to happen. As a CDN delivers files from the server closest to a web visitor the heavy lifting is distributed and sites perform faster.

Aside from the obvious benefits to site visitors fast sites rank better on Google searches. That’s a benefit for web marketers.

The main benefits of a CDN then are:

• They make your website run faster
• A faster website makes it more user-friendly
• Faster sites usually have lower bounce rates and more pageviews per visit.
• Faster sites rank better in Google search.

In this infographic the team at WP Beginner explain what a CDN is and why it’s important to making a website run faster and rank better. Click on the infographic to enlarge.

As I write, Jay – Z is a trending topic on Twitter. Every few seconds a flurry of tweets arrive containing links and comments about the release of his new music video, Run This Town. A similar thing is happening on Facebook.

On Facebook the search term “Jay – Z” results in a long list of status updates sharing the artist’s YouTube video with their friends. It’s a fascinating realtime snapshot of what’s catching mainstream attention on the net.

There are a number of filters in the new search area. The two of most interest are Posts by Friends and Posts by Everyone. At the moment extended trading hours is the hot political issue here in Western Australia. By clicking on the Posts by Friends filter I’m quickly able to gauge the reaction of my friends to the governments decision not to extend trading hours. They’re not happy.

The Posts by Everyone filter displays status updates  from users who have their status updates privacy setting as Everyone. There are a number of sub-filters that can be applied to a search that produce results that are more relevant.

Many Facebook users are unaware that their status updates are searchable. After all the privacy settings on Facebook are complex and, at times, difficult to understand. It’s therefore important that individuals take responsibility for creating privacy settings that reflect what they want the public to know.

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