What is Cloudflare and How can you Set up Cloudflare For Your Site?
Slow loading pages of a website are not only annoying; they hurt your search rankings and dent your reputation. Website speed plays a critical role in how customers will regard your business. According to recent research by Google, 53% of mobile users bounce off websites that take more than 3 seconds to load. Don’t panic if your website is slow; it is possible to fix it using Cloudflare.
What is Cloudflare?
Cloudflare is a content delivery network and security company. Cloudflare protects websites from attacks such as DDoS, and also provides caching CDN and other performance-enhancing services. Cloudflare’s network spans 200 data centers in more than 70 countries. Cloudflare was founded in 2009 by Matthew Prince, Lee Holloway, and Michelle Zatlyn. Cloudflare went public in 2019, and its market cap is over $15 billion as of 2021. Cloudflare has been involved in several high-profile court cases, including the US v. Cloudflare case concerning the shutdown of 8chan, and the California v. Cloudflare case concerning the deletion of user data. Cloudflare has also been criticized for its role in caching child pornography. Cloudflare is a publicly traded company with headquarters in San Francisco, California.
Access to the internet is widespread, which possesses data transfer challenges. The time it takes data to move from the initial source to the target point is critical to user experience.
When you click a website link, it takes seconds for the page to load. The speed and performance of any website depend on a couple of factors: Cloudfare was developed to help businesses and website owners deal with CDN (Content Delivery Network), DDoS (distributed denial of service), and other related issues.
The cost for small and large businesses to secure websites and enhance customer experience can be astronomical if you have to employ special teams or develop specialized software to handle the issue; Cloudflare helps businesses and website owners in this regard.
How does Cloudflare work?
Cloudflare has a network of servers worldwide to help secure and enhance the performance of websites and other applications on the internet. It does this by directing requests (web traffic) to Cloudflare servers, where sophisticated techniques are used to promote network security and enhance other aspects such as speed. Cloudflare is affordable for small and large businesses, and there is a free version for those who only need basic features. The good news is that you don’t need to be an IT expert to install Cloudflare. After carefully following the installation steps above, you should not have any problem.
How to set up or install Cloudflare on your website
- Before setting your website on Cloudflare, ensure you can configure your primary domain Name servers.
- SignUp with Cloudflare and get log-in details to access the Cloudflare dashboard where the magic happens. While registering, you’ll be required to fill in personal information (such as email, name, and website domain); you’ll also be prompted to create a password for future log-in.
- After signing up, add your website to the Cloudflare network. You’ll see the Add site tab on the right-hand corner of the dashboard. Click on it, and it’ll return a box where you can add your domain name without adding www and http:// or https://.
- Once you click on add website, you’ll be directed to a page where you can choose a service package. The entry package is free. This is ideal for individuals just starting. The premium package goes for $20 a month for professionals and $200 for businesses, and large organizations have the option of personalized packages.
- After choosing your preferred plan, you’ll be prompted to review DNS (Domain Name System) to ensure it is configured well. Please review your DNS to be sure it is correct. If you are sure, click continue.
- The next step involves configuring your domain name. This is a vital step in setting up Cloudflare on your website; Cloudflare can do nothing until your domain is pointed to Cloudflare’s Nameservers. You can do this by signing into your Domain hosting account. When you log in to your hosting account, you must change your current nameservers and start using Cloudflare’s nameservers. It is not difficult; you delete current nameservers and copy and paste the Cloudflare nameserver in its place. If you are afraid you may mess things up, contact your domain customer support for help. Once you have entered in required nameservers, click save. Depending on your host, it can take about 24 hours for these changes to be processed. The moment your nameserver is updated, you’ll be alerted via email.
- When you receive an email notifying you that your domain is on the Cloudflare network, you are ready to set up or configure HTTPS
- Look for the SSL tab on your dashboard’s left sidebar navigation menu. You’ll be prompted to choose either full SSL or flexible SSL. Do you have an SSL certificate? If yes, choose full SSL. However, if you don’t have an SSL certificate, choose flexible. After selecting, click on the Edge certificate tab on the SSL drop-down menu. Turn on the HTTPS feature to “Always use.”
If you are using a word press website, you must download and set up the Cloudflare plugin.
On the word press dashboard, go to the plugin and click Add new on the search bar, type in Cloudflare word press plugin. It is compatible with most themes; that shouldn’t be a problem. After installing and activating Cloudflare, you’ll be able to see it on the left sidebar menu. To view settings, click on the Cloudflare tab. To set it up, select your preferred date and time formats. Once that is done, you may now configure API. Get your API from Cloudflare. Log in with the Cloudflare password, copy the API, paste it to the plugin API box, and then save and update changes. Once that is done, you are ready to activate or apply your preferred Cloudflare settings; it is advisable to start by activating recommended Cloudflare settings. Well, your website is now set to utilize Cloudflare features. Was that difficult?
Conclusion
Designing, hosting, and optimizing a website for SEO is not all you must do to ensure website visitors will have a wonderful experience and their data will be secure from hackers. Sometimes you must employ advanced website optimization techniques and develop sophisticated security features to protect your customers and company data. Implementing such security and SEO strategies doesn’t come cheap, especially if you have to create a separate team to handle the process. That is why Cloudflare is essential for small and large businesses whose operations depend heavily on the internet. It helps businesses to optimize their website for speed and improve security at affordable rates. Website speed and security are no longer an option; people expect your website pages to load fast, and they want to be sure you have the necessary technical knowledge and technology to protect their data like address, credit card details, bank details, etc. Any company that can’t provide customers with a smooth website experience and safety will surely lose business.
