Glossary

What is CDN (content delivery network)?

Also called: content delivery network, edge network, Cloudflare.

CDN stands for content delivery network. Instead of every visitor loading your site from one server in one data centre, a CDN stores copies of your images, code and often whole pages at many locations, and serves each visitor from the nearest one.

That makes pages load faster, particularly images, and it takes the strain off your main server when traffic spikes. Many CDNs also block some kinds of attacks.

Cloudflare, Fastly and Amazon CloudFront are well-known examples. Many modern hosting services include a CDN automatically.

Why it matters for your business

For a local business most visitors are nearby anyway, so the main benefits are speed, reliability and some protection against attacks. It is a sign of decent hosting, and it usually costs you nothing extra when it is built in.

Example. A café's site is hosted with a CDN, so when a local paper shares their new menu and hundreds of people visit at once, the site stays fast.

Related terms

Caching · Hosting · Page speed · Uptime

7 min guide

What to post on social media for your business: a weekly menu that takes an hour

Never stare at a blank post again: a simple weekly content menu for small businesses, with ideas by business type, how often to post, which platform to use and how to batch it in an hour.

Read →

11 min guide

Selling online in the UK: the consumer law your website must follow

UK consumer law for businesses selling or taking bookings online: pre-contract information, the 14-day cancellation right, refunds, delivery, drip pricing and fake reviews.

Read →

10 min guide

Website redesign checklist: what to do before, during and after

A step-by-step website redesign checklist for small businesses: setting goals, auditing what works, protecting rankings, content, testing and the first weeks after launch.

Read →

£299to set up

£99a month

3working days to launch

You approve it before anything goes live.

Designed from scratch, every word written for you, hosting and Google setup included. Or pay £1,795 once and £49 a month with no minimum term.

Book a call See pricing

Let’s get your phone ringing.

£299 setup, then £99 a month. Live in 3 working days. Tell us what your business does - we reply the same working day.

Book a callSee our work