A website needs to load fast. Period.
There is no excuse for a slow-loading site today. Online users have a low tolerance for sites that take longer than 2/3 seconds to load. In fact, search engines have also identified this need and rank slow-loading websites lower than their faster competitors. Hence, as a site owner, it is important to ensure that your site loads quickly and offers a seamless experience.
There are many factors that impact the page loading time of a site like the type of site (dynamic/static), the size of media files, etc. Of these, the hosting server plays an important role since the site resides on it. There are varioushosting plans available, like Shared Hosting, VPS Hosting, Cloud Hosting, Dedicated Server Hosting, etc.
Today, we will be talking about Cloud Web Hosting and its impact on website speed. Web hosts offering the best Cloud Hosting services integrate caching tools like Varnish Cache to boost site speeds. Let’s look at how Varnish Cache works and impacts the loading speed of a website.
When you buy Cloud Hosting, your site data resides on a network of cloud-powered servers. The architecture of Cloud Hosting ensures that the resources are utilized optimally based on the site’s requirements. With zero latency, widespread network, and SSD-driven servers, Cloud Hosting is designed to help sites load faster. Many hosting companies integrate caching tools like Varnish cache to boost site speeds by up to 1000X!
How does Varnish Cache improve site speed?
Varnish Cache is a popular reverse caching proxy. It is deployed between the server and the site visitor. It gets data from the server for the visitor. Here is a quick look at how it works:
- An online user visits your site and wants to load static content.
- The request is received by Varnish Cache that gets the information from the server and displays the page.
- It also stores this information for future use.
- Another user visits your site and requests to load the same content.
- Varnish Cache fulfils the request without querying the server.
- This helps in the faster processing of requests and frees up server resources for other tasks.
You can also check out the following video to understand the workings of Varnish Cache:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIMITy5z3M0
Thus, Varnish Cache ensures that user requests are fulfilled much faster. This helps in improving the loading time of your site.
Summing Up
As a site owner, ensuring that your site loads fast, and performs optimally is important since your brand’s reputation and website’s SEO rank depend on it. While you can optimize images, minify site code, and use a speed-friendly site template, if the hosting service is not designed for speed, then all these efforts might fail to generate results. Hence, ensure that you choose a hosting service with adequate resources and features. This can help you boost your site’s speed and create a brand image of being reliable and customer-centric.
Before buying the plan, check if your provider offers Varnish Cache integrated with the hosting plan or if you can purchase it separately. As explained above, it can help boost your site’s speed and keep your customers happy. If you are desiring better site speed and performance, a Cloud Hosting plan with integrated Varnish Cache can be a great option. Good Luck!
