Is A CDN Necessary For Local SEO?

Ranking your website on a search engine can seem like a difficult task. There are so many considerations to make.

CDN is a Content Delivery Network that significantly impacts website speed and search. While forming a local SEO strategy, CDN can help. 

CDN connects internet providers and servers to access website traffic from each source. They help pass assets back and forth to improve page load speed around multiple locations. Let us look at some tips to help boost local search rankings using CDN.

7 Tips to Boost Your Local Search Rankings Using CDN

To boost your local search rankings using CDN, you must keep the following tips in mind:

1. Improve Page Load Speed

Google values page speed as it enhances the user experience. Using a CDN, you can move your website closer to the user's geographic location. This results in less latency and faster site loading time.

You should know that CDN delivers your assets the way they are set up on your page. Your images are indexed faster using CDN on the SERP.

To check page load speed, you can use 

• GTMetrix: Just put in the website URL and check site performance
• Pingdom Website Speed Test: Find bottlenecks on your website performance and speed
• Uptrends: Check how mobile and desktop users experience your website.

Here’s a screenshot of GTMetrix checking page load speed:

Read: Effortless Way to Improve the Site Speed of Your Local Businesses

2. Improve Dwell Time on Website

Google and other search engines give much importance to the dwell time. Dwell time is when a user takes to comes back to the SERP page after going on a search result. CDN in your local website will help faster delivery of your web assets. 

The web assets include images, videos, HTML, Javascript, CSS, and audio files.

To check dwell time on the website, you can use:

• Google Analytics: Get real-time insights into dwell time and user behavior on your website.
• Clicky: Monitor, analyze and take actions on the real-time traffic analysis
• Hubspot Marketing Analytics: Streamline your SEO plans with insights from Hubspot

Here’s a screenshot of Google Analytics showing dwell time as average session duration:

3. Curb Bounce Rate

Implementing CDN can help you on multiple levels. Not only does it increase dwell time and improve site speed, but it also helps decrease bounce rate. Bounce rate is the percentage of users who bounce back from your website after visiting one page only. 

CDN helps in reducing latency; hence the local SEO improves. The users are likely to stay and navigate your website with improved site speed. Thus, reducing the bounce rate.

Check your website bounce rate with:

• Google Analytics: Check bounce rate, average sessions, and more on the free tool by Google
• Pingdom Website Analytics: Monitor bounce rate and make data-driven decisions
• Alexa Traffic Analysis: Find traffic stats, analysis, and more for free

Here’s a screenshot of Google Analytics displaying the bounce rate on a website:

4. Prioritize Target Location on Google Search Central

Your local business and local SEO will benefit hugely from CDN. If you want to draw maximum results for your target location, it is best to inform the search engines. 

Although CDN helps target users in a specific location, defining target locality and users in Google Search Central is always advised.

You can target an audience in a particular geography by using:

• Google Search Central: Target locations, and get SEO resources for better performance 
• Google Ads: Define geography and user type to run your Google Ads effectively
• Google My Business: Drive customers from your target locality quickly

Here’s a screenshot of Google Ads requesting which geographic location to display ads to:

5. Be Consistent with File Names and Paths

While using CDN to support local SEO, it is crucial to prioritize redirects and 404 errors. Ensure that the names and paths of the files are consistent. Follow the original naming techniques while employing CDN to negate 404 errors and redirect changes.

This practice should be consistent for all digital assets, including pictures, videos, and audio files. 

You can use these tools to track 404 URLs and redirects:

• SEMrush: Scan your website and skim through URLs quickly
• Ahrefs: Get overall SEO health score, URL audit report, and more
• SEOptimer: Get a comprehensive website audit report with possible solutions

You can also use a dead link checker to scan your website for 404 URLs:

6. Using Rel=Canonical Tags

CDN helps local businesses and sites to reduce HTTP requests on their servers. It helps in caching site assets like image files, javascript, large media files, CSS, audio files, etc. But some businesses prefer hosting the entire site on CDN using their subdomain. 

This raises duplicate issues since both the URLs target the same page. 

To fix this duplication error, do not forget to add a rel=canonical tag across all the site pages hosted on CDN.

Spot duplicate pages on your website using these tools:

• Siteliner: Find duplicate URLs, broken links, duplicate content, and more
• Screaming Frog: Advanced SEO audit of your website in just a few minutes
• Netpeak Spider: Get an in-depth technical audit of your website

Here’s a screenshot of Siteliner showing a duplicate content report of a website:

7. Choose CDN Provider Wisely

The whole purpose of introducing CDN to your website is to enable smooth functioning. But we cannot overlook website security. It is crucial to go for a high-quality CDN provider.

While you are at it, check if the CDN provider has a good network size and distribution. They must provide excellent customer support and have transparency in pricing.

Here are some CDN providers you can look at:

• StackPath: High-performance and fully-automated secure CDN provider
• Cloudflare: Rely upon external-facing resources and protect your internal resources
• KeyCDN: Easy to use CDN for high performance

Here’s a screenshot of Cloudflare’s dashboard:

CDN SEO FAQs

Q1. What is CDN in SEO?

Ans. Content Delivery Network is a network servers group spread across different geographies to enable faster web results. CDN helps in site optimization - improved site speed increases average page duration and decreases bounce rate.

Q2. Which CDN Is Fastest?

Ans. There are many options to choose from among the fastest CDN. The quickest CDN are StackPath, Cloudflare, Rackspace, Google Cloud CDN, CacheFly, KeyCDN, and more.

Q3. How Important Is Using CDN For Local Businesses?

Ans. CDN helps in faster content loading time and enhances a seamless user experience. Your digital assets like videos and audio files will have reduced load times and buffering. It also aims to provide the best quality.

Q4. Does CDN Harm SEO?

Ans. Using CDN correctly doesn't hurt SEO. It can be termed as a cost-effective technology to speed up a website. But if implemented wrongly, it will hamper SEO efforts.

Key Takeaways

• Use CDN to improve your website page load speed in different geographies.
• Increase the website's average page duration or overall dwell time by correctly implementing CDN.
• Decrease the bounce rate on your website by avoiding latency.
• Target the locations using CDN and Google Search Console.
• Keep the file names and paths consistent to avoid 404 errors and redirects.
• Use rel=canonical tags to prevent content duplicity issues.
• Opt for a secure CDN provider with the best customer support and transparent pricing.