Slow blog? In this article I show you how to configure and integrate KeyCDN with your wordpress blog to make it faster and more performing.
The contents of the article
- KeyCDN: the simple and performing CDN
- KeyCDN: the low cost CDN
- How to create a Zone in pull mode
- How to integrate KeyCDN with your blog
- How to integrate KeyCDN with WpRocket
- Conclusions
In this article I will show you how to configure and integrate KeyCDN with your wordpress blog to make it faster and more performing. First I’ll show you how to best set up a KeyCDN account and then I’ll show you how to integrate the CDN with your worpdress blog.
Using a CDN integrated in your wordpress blog is very important, especially as regards the loading of images, a real bottleneck in the rendering of a web page.
You can use one of the following tools to check the performance of your website
- pingdom
- gtmetrix
You will immediately notice that a lot of the response time is related to the loading of the images .
If you want to speed up your blog, you can’t ignore using a CDN. #EtruscanCLICK TO TWEET
Using a CDN helps you because it allows you to parallelize the loading of images distributed across multiple network nodes, as well as take advantage of other intrinsic characteristics of a CDN such as HTTP / 2 protocols , caching and the optimized performance typical of these providers precisely on the subject ” content distribution “.
KeyCDN: the simple and performing CDN
I analyzed on this blog many CDNs and various tools to optimize and speed up wordpress , today I want to talk to you about KeyCDN , the CDN that I currently use on Pensiero.it and which is proving to be a precious resource with very low costs.
What struck me about KeyCDN, in addition to the advanced and performing features, is the ease of use, configuration and above all integration with wordpress.
The main features of KeyCDN are the following:
| General characteristics | |
| HTTP / 2 | HPACK Compression (Huffman Encoding) |
| GZip compression | Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) |
| Use your CNAMEs | Force downloads |
| Custom expire headers | Live tail on your logs |
| Raw log forwarding in real time | Custom rules |
| Byte-range requests for HTTP streaming | HLS and HTTP streaming support |
These are the main features related to safety
| Safety | |
| Hotlink protection (restriction of HTTP referrer) | Secure Token (secured URL) |
| Shared SSL (TLS) | Custom SSL (TLS) |
| Let’s Encrypt SSL (TLS) | OCSP stapling |
| Block bad bots | DDoS protection |
And these are the main features related to the push and pull modes
| Pull mode | Push mode |
| Instantly purge zone caches or single URLs | Upload content to your FTP account |
| Origin shield | FTP subusers |
| Override origin cache-control headers | Synchronize content with rsync |
| Override origin expire headers | Enabled directory listing |
| Strip cookies | Enabled directory index |
| Enable canonical headers | Optimized for large files |
| Custom request HTTP header field (X-Pull) | |
| Custom robots.txt | |
| Cache Brotli compressed assets | |
| Cache query strings |
In short, a CDN with many advanced features and functionalities to allow you to better configure the caching of your resources.
KeyCDN: the low cost CDN
KeyCDN , like all CDNs on the market, is not free ; however, it has a decidedly competitive cost in relation to the features and functionality it makes available to the customer.
It is possible to register and try it in trial , to test its features and functionality, at the end of the trial period you can decide whether to purchase ” credits ” or end the use of the CDN.
The trial version will give you 10 credits , for an estimated traffic of around 250GB . The minimum purchase of credits is $ 49 , one credit is equivalent to one dollar and 1 GB of traffic costs $ 0.04.
For more details on KeyCDN credits I suggest you read this page
How to create a Zone in pull mode
Once you have registered and activated the trial mode or after purchasing credits, you can start configuring KeyCDN and then integrate it into your wordpress blog.
The first thing to do is to create a new pull- type ” zone ” by clicking on ” Zones ” in the side menu and then click on ” Add Zone ”
At this point you will have to enter an alias for the area and above all the address of your wordpress blog.
IMPORTANT : If your blog is published on the https protocol then you will have to click on “show advanced settings” and go to set the “SSL *” value on ” Shared ”
If you don’t know how to configure https on your blog I suggest you take a look at this article of mine, if you want to know more about the difference between pull and push mode of a CDN you can take a look at this article of mine .
Once you click on save will have to wait a few minutes until KeyCDN perform the caching of all your resources when the process will be terminated on your dashboard you’ll get your zones in the status ” active ” SSL ” shared “:
Pay close attention to the ” Zone Url ” value and do a check like this to see if everything is working great:
- Access your blog and copy the urlof your image (any). If you don’t know how to do it, just click with the right mouse button on an image, select ” Open image in another tab “
- Access the new tab and replace the url baseof your blog with what you find written in the ” Zone Url ” of Key CDN
- Press enterand verify that the image is also displayed with the new url
If the image will be displayed it means that KeyCDN has successfully caching your resources and therefore can be integrated into your wordpress blog .
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How to integrate KeyCDN with your blog
If you don’t already have a caching plugin , such as WpRocket , then you can integrate KeyCDN with a free wordpress plugin called “ CDN Enabler “, specially developed by the KeyCDN team of developers .
Once installed you will need to configure some KeyCDN values from the plugin administration panel , pay particular attention to the values you are going to enter, you should eventually get a panel similar to this:
The API KEY Authentication you can generate it from KeyCDN administration panel under ” Account Settings ” – ” Authentication “, copies the value you’ll find in ” Your Secret API Key ” and report it in the settings of the plugin.
Once the configuration is finished you will have to make a further check that everything has gone well, so follow these simple steps:
- Access your blog and take the urlof your image (any). If you don’t know how to do it, just click with the right mouse button on an image, select ” Open image in another tab “
- Check that the url of your image is of the type “ https: // [ZoneUrl] /…. “
If the image looks like this then the KeyCDN integration process with your wordpress blog will be done correctly.
You can start enjoying the benefits of a CDN!
How to integrate KeyCDN with WpRocket
If you have already installed a caching plugin on your blog, such as WpRocket , then the integration process will be even easier as you will not have to install any additional plugins, such as CDN Enabler, but it will be the caching plugin already present on your blog. to interface with KeyCDN.
With WpRocket you just need to access the CDN section of the plugin
At this point all you have to do is enable the ” Enable Content Delivery Network ” checkbox and enter the URL of your public area, like this:
Again, once the configuration is finished, make a further check that everything is fine, so follow these simple steps:
- Access your blog and take the urlof your image (any). If you don’t know how to do it, just click with the right mouse button on an image, select ” Open image in another tab “
- Check that the url of your image is of the type “ https: // [ZoneUrl] /…. “
If the image looks like this then the KeyCDN integration process with your wordpress blog will be done correctly.
Again you can start enjoying the benefits of a CDN!
If not using WpRocket but you have already installed another caching plugin (Ex. W3 Total Cache, AWS Cloudfront CDN, …) then you should take a look at this excellent guide to KeyCDN in which they show how to integrate their CDN with any wordpress plugin .
Conclusions
In this article I told you about the features of KeyCDn, I showed you how to create a zone in pull mode and then how to integrate it on your wordpress blog through the official KeyCDN plugin or through any caching plugin.
