Cached Websites
There’s a lot of science and politics that go into building your website and keeping it alive. While it isn’t imperative for you to know every nitty-gritty about how these things work, knowing the basics of the technical processes involved gives you a better insight on web hosting and content delivery. For this particular article, we’re exploring what a CDN cache and a cache server are and how cache pages come into play into the grand scheme of the internet.
What Are Cached Websites?
One of the most helpful technologies in recent decades has got to be website caching. When web content is cached, websites load incredibly fast resulting in boosted SEO scores and better visitor satisfaction rates. This proves to be uniquely helpful to eCommerce websites, too. Simply put, the more digitally visible a brand is, the higher the chances of conversions and sales.
But what exactly are cached websites and how does a cache result contribute to the success of a business online?
When looked into exhaustively, the explanation can be lengthy and elaborate, but the underlying concept is direct. Imagine this: when someone asks you to multiply 5 and 5, we know for sure you can blurt the answer 25 in a heartbeat. Because you’ve mastered this particular mathematical balancing so many times now, you no longer exert effort in trying to remember the answer. You simply know it from stock knowledge. This is how a cache server caches pages.
Depending on how popular and sought-after a site is, websites can be viewed hundreds, thousands, and millions of times. Typically, when a browser requests for certain content, the server works its technical and digital magic. It obtains the latest web content updates, generates your website’s widgets, and stores the media your site is packed with. In other words, when the same content is requested over and over again, a server is most likely to retain data.
What is CDN Caching?
A Content Delivery Network (CDN) functions primarily to transmit web content much quicker and efficiently to global users. CDNs cache web content in cache servers so users don’t have to obtain web data from the actual host origin. Not only will this take a lot longer, but host origins also aren’t designed to accommodate thousands of one website’s users all at once. When this happens, host origins are bound to crash and your website could be offline. Simply put, CDNs help websites and webpages load a lot faster because the visitors that consume the media in these websites don’t get them from the host origin but from their edge servers—the server proximally nearest a user.
For example, when your website is hosted by a Sydney-based host origin, your site visitors all the way from London will have to wait a few seconds longer when accessing your site if it isn’t supported by a CDN. Meanwhile, your users from Melbourne enjoy speedy browsing because they’re nearer the host origin. When you have a CDN, your London visitors will no longer have to obtain your web data from Sydney because their edge server is where they’ll get your web content from.
Where do CDNs Keep Cached Websites Search?
Every CDN provider has multiple data centers where their servers are placed. This is referred to as Points of Presence (PoPs). Ideally, the more locations a provider has, the easier and quicker it will be for them to relay a website’s content. Because cached websites are guaranteed to load snappier, servers store a site’s data in advance and are kept in these PoPs. Furthermore, you’ll find that a cache result contains a list of all the webpages that have already been cached.
How Long do CDNs Save Cached Websites?
When you sign up with us, you’ll have complete control over how long you’d like cache servers to keep your data. You can maintain cache results or delete cache. It’s generally up to you. You do need to understand, however, that there are two ways a server can store your content: Push CDN and Pull CDN.
With Push CDN, the servers in your PoPs automatically obtain whatever data you update and produce and they store your content and make it available for consumption. On the other hand, Pull CDN lets your updated web content remain in your host origin and only transmits them to your servers when you have users that make a request, hence the term “pull.”
How Does BelugaCDN Use Cached Websites?
Like every other competent CDN provider, we give you complete control over how you want our servers to respond to your data. Your site’s content can be retrieved using a specific command (HTTP GET), too.
To simplify everything, the following options are also present to enable you to do precisely what you need to get done:
- Modified-Since a specific time
- ETag version matching
- Partial response via specific byte Range request
Feel free to visit this link for more information about how CDN caching works and how your cache history can benefit your website in the long run.
Overall, CDN caching makes everything easier because of the convenient storing cloud content delivery platforms can do. Cached websites are proven to perform better and attract more customers because of the premium browsing your website allows.
With over 28 Global PoPs and 9 Super PoPs, we are one of the most affordable CDN providers with easy and transparent billing arrangements. If you’re ready to give CDN a chance, get a free trial from us now!
Power-up your Content Delivery
30 Day Free Trial Cancel Anytime