Implementing Cloudflare CDN

[chaumi]

So today, after nigh on two years of - at times - close to complete despair and countless hours, days, weeks, months of effort - I finally got mobile page speed to a 99.

Now - and I may be completely nuts to even consider it - I'm close to connecting to Cloudflare.

It's asking me to change nameservers (obviously). Now, I think that logically this can't do me any harm, but still, in the circumstances I'm hesitant.

Questions are:

What can go wrong?
Can anyone that's done it confirm nothing went wrong and they didn't lose rankings for some reason?
If it's now going through two sets of nameservers (Cloudflare and the originating hosting), won't that slow it all down again?

[eenzoo]

Intersting! I host all and everything with Kinsta and they use by default Cloudflare CDN. Its all smooth and nice and easy.
But the question is, do I - or - you really need a CDN?!

Example: a lot of my stuff is focused on Asian GEOs, so I choose a datacenter close by. Maybe Singapore. Non of my sites is somehow "heavy".
For my understanding, I do not need a CDN provider.

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I've never changed nameservers from a hosting company to CF but I'm pretty much sure, that company wouldn't exist if it would harm rankings while using them.

[chaumi]

Thx Eenzoo

Yeah, this is the point. It sounds right for you and local hosting is likely all you really need. But I do get visitors from all over, although the hosting is US. While the mobile speed was sitting in low 80s I (probably mistakenly, now I'm thinking about it) figured it wasn't worth the hassle of a CDN. Using one in the past didn't make any difference (to page speed or traffic numbers/rankings), so I've been running without one for about 6 months.

But if G is using real user speed metrics to make any judgment on page experience, logically it doesn't matter what speed score I'm getting (although it's a good indicator, or at least I think it is), it's what the users are experiencing that matters more.

So, from that standpoint, a CDN might give some value (although likely I'll never know what that value is or indeed if it gave value).

[baldidiot]

If it's now going through two sets of nameservers (Cloudflare and the originating hosting), won't that slow it all down again?

You need to replace the existing nameservers with cloudflare, you don't keep them both.

As for your other question.. I've never noticed any issues when using cloudflare.

[chaumi]

You need to replace the existing nameservers with cloudflare, you don't keep them both.

I think I didn't formulate that thought properly. Yes, you only have one set of nameservers.

But you're still on the originating hosting, so you're now (technically or theoretically, I'm not sure which) navigating two sets of infrastructure. When you replace the DNS with Cloudflare's, then Cloudflare must still be retaining the relationship with the originating hosting.

In my head (without reading up on technically how CDNs work) I was thinking this might be adding something that could interfere with transmission of data (another hop in the circuit, if you like).

But reading up, I don't think it works that way. There must still be some interaction between Cloudflare and hosting (and the technicalities of that CDN/hosting interaction are beyond me), but (if I understand it right) the CDN is just pulling static information and storing/caching/serving it appropriately depending on the requester's location. Theoretically, it shouldn't be adding any delay.

Probably I was just overthinking this. When the bravery level gets to the right point (and there is 10 mins spare!), I'll just do it.

[baldidiot]

But you're still on the originating hosting, so you're now (technically or theoretically, I'm not sure which) navigating two sets of infrastructure. When you replace the DNS with Cloudflare's, then Cloudflare must still be retaining the relationship with the originating hosting.

Technically, yes, it's adding in another layer. But the whole point of cloudflare is to add in that layer to increase speed, provide additional security etc.. Generally speaking the sites we've tried are faster with it than without.

In terms of how it works, my understanding is that normally your hosts nameservers will point the user to the IP of your server. So the path is:

Nameserver -> Server IP

With cloudflare you use cloudflares nameservers which point to a cloudflare IP which pulls the info from your server IP, eg:

Cloudflare Namesever -> Cloudflare IP -> Server IP

[chaumi]

Technically, yes, it's adding in another layer. But the whole point of cloudflare is to add in that layer to increase speed, provide additional security etc.. Generally speaking the sites we've tried are faster with it than without.

In terms of how it works, my understanding is that normally your hosts nameservers will point the user to the IP of your server. So the path is:

Nameserver -> Server IP

With cloudflare you use cloudflares nameservers which point to a cloudflare IP which pulls the info from your server IP, eg:

Cloudflare Namesever -> Cloudflare IP -> Server IP

Eloquently said and makes full sense

[dannyx]

Congrats on a great speed score!

In my case, Cloudflare slowed down the site minimally. I checked on two sites. Not very large or heavy sites however with lots of graphics etc.

In one site I had Cloudflare FREE for a longer period of time and yet the Uptime was weaker than without Cloudflare. I don't know if it's true but supposedly when the network is overloaded it hurts the free users the most.

[chaumi]

Update for anyone that might consider the same thing in future.....

I did it. No major drop in Google page speed scores, though the desktop speed index went amber. Everything else is still green and site seems to be working as normal. At one point it wouldn't resolve, but I think that was just bad luck and I was navigating right at the point it was cutting over. Possibly was down for a couple of minutes at most.

I know it was pretty much a no-brainer that nothing would go wrong, just the history made me a little jumpy

[MMM]

In my case, Cloudflare slowed down the site minimally. I checked on two sites. Not very large or heavy sites however with lots of graphics etc.

It's depends also from which location you make the comparison.

If you have good server in US and your target market is US - i doubt adding CF would help much. I would say that with strong server in this scenario, it will even slow it down.

However if your traffic is 25% US, 25% UK, 25% Asia and 25% Aus - adding CF won't improve speed for US users but it will for all the rest.

So when testing - need to check from various focus geos to get the full picture.

[wonderpunter]

I have found that cloudflare can also slow down the speed, i use some sites with some without.. my site without gets close to 100