Send Your WordPress Blog Into Orbit Using KeyCDN

Looking to optimize your WordPress powered Website or Blogs speed and reach? We recently evaluated two CDN Networks , StackPath and Key CDN, and chose the later. Content Delivery Netwotks commonly referred to as CDN replace your server for feeding images, video, css and JavaScript externally.

We found both StackPath and KeyCDN pretty much equal in performance. Both CDN’s offer a free trial. StackPath formerly known as MAX CDN required a credit card on file to get their free trial. The minimum StackPath plan is $20 month for 200GB data transfer.

KeyCDN allowed a trial account setup with no credit card required. They have a credit system that has a minimum $47 purchase, with no expiration. An auto recharge option is available so if you run out of credits your site does not go offline. Their stats easily lets a member see their usage and credit balance.

And the usage graphs are well laid out with several view options. This graph shows data usage for all combined zones.

Setting up your 1st CDN Zone: After setting up and verifying your account, set up a “pull zone.” From the main control panel click on Zones, add new zone.

Zone name is a short site identifier.

Pull zone origin url should be entered in either http or https.

Click on the advanced radio button to show advanced settings. Doc suggests leaving most everything in their default toggles, with the following exceptions.

Cache expiration time in minutes. The default is 7 days, we set our cache expiration to 1 month which is 43200 minutes. Which is fine for this blog with a lot of older articles that still get decent traffic. Use your best judgement here.

SSL. If your running a secure WordPress blog or website select shared certificate ssl option from the drop-down menu. Leave all the remaining toggles at their default and click save. Your zone will be deployed and takes between 10-15 minutes to be active and start downloading your content to your zone.

Adding KeyCDN to WordPress. There is a plugin called CDN Enabler that makes connecting your CDN to WordPress easy. However we have tried the plugin and it’s not compatible with most caching plugins. Performance suffered big time. Doc strongly recommends the following option.

We utilize CloudFlare and WP-Fastest cache on Doc’s Place Online and two other blogs. WP-Fastest cache has a CDN option tab. Clicking that option you will see two url fields. Copy and paste your new zone url into the top field, put your site domain in the other field and save.

For reference, here are our WP-Fastest Cache settings on Doc’s Place Online.

Your site should be active pulling content from KeyCDN. Right click on an image and view the image url to verify.

CloudFlare: As mentioned above, if your running under CloudFlare it’s important to create a CNAME to tell CloudFlare your assets are coming from the CDN.

Login to your CloudFlare account and select the DNS Tab. Select add a new CNAME entry. The cname would be cdn, or cdn,xxx for any subdomains, with the cdn zone url as the alias record. This tells CloudFlare we are pulling from KeyCDN.

We should also add – StackPath was quick and easy to cancel our free trial. During the trial a company representative emailed offering help if needed, but was not pushy.

That’s it.. quick and easy. Try KeyCDN FREE no Credit Card Required! 😉

Any questions comment below.. 😎