How To Use Free CloudFlare CDN For Your WordPress Website
August 17th, 2016 | by Ravi Chahar || 8 Comments |
The page loading time for a website is one of the most important aspects regarding the SEO. It would surely affect the ranking of your website. The speed of your website should be better to provide a good user experience. There are many caching plugins which can enhance the speed.
You can improve the speed by minifying. Have you ever thought about using a Content Delivery Network (CDN)? There are many famous CDN services like CloudFlare, MaxCDN etc.
In this post, I am going to let you know how to setup CloudFlare for WordPress website. There is a free version of the CloudFlare which can be used to boost the speed of your website.
What Is CloudFlare
CloudFlare acts as an intermediate between your website and the web hosting server. It provides your website from malicious attacks and can reduce the page size by minifying the files HTML, CSS, and Javascript.
They use their server to pass the content of your website. If someone tries to hack your website then the attacks would pass through CloudFlare to your website. They will take care of the spam control.
How To Use Free CloudFlare
There are many plans for which, you can use the free plan for your website. For free CloudFlare WordPress setup, you have to follow some steps so that your website can be added to their server.
Currently, the DNS server used is of your web hosting server. But after settings your website on the CloudFlare server, you have to fill their name servers.
Let me show you how to setup CloudFlare for WordPress:-
Step 1:- The first thing is to go to the CloudFlare website and create your new account. If you already have an account then you can use that.
Step 2:- Fill all the details including your email address and the password. Confirm your email account and login to your CloudFlare new account.
Step 3:- After logging in, you will see an option to add your website. You just have to fill the URL of your website and click on the “Scan DNS records”. The CloudFlare will check the current DNS name servers of your website which will take 60 seconds.
During those 60 seconds, you will see a demo video on the page about the CloudFlare. After the completion of the scanning process, click on the continue button.
Step 4:- The CloudFlare will show you the list of the name servers of the mail, domain name, FTP account, if any. You can match the information from your web hosting server. If you want to add any extra field then you can do that using the above show fields. Click on the continue button.
Step 5:- For CloudFlare WordPress setup, you have to choose the plan. You are settings for the free website then click on the first option and continue.
Step 6:- The CloudFlare’s name servers will be shown to you which should be filled for your domain name on the website from which you have bought your domain name. Do you know how to change the DNS server names?
Well, just copy the two name servers shown on the screen and go to your domain registrar’s website and modify the name servers with these two CloudFlare name servers.
It would take 24 hours to shift your website to the new servers. Till then you have to wait. If you are thinking that it would affect the traffic of your blog then nothing to worry about. No one would even come to know about the shifting of the servers.
After one day, you can check the status of your website on the CloudFlare. If it shows active then congratulations, you have successfully added your website to the free CloudFlare.
One More Thing To Do For CloudFlare WordPress Setup
After setting up your website on the CloudFlare’s server, you have to make sure that you see the original IP of the people who comment on your website. If you are getting many comments on your blog posts then it is possible the comments go in the spam folder and you would think that the CloudFlare is spamming.
To solve this problem you have to install the CloudFlare plugin and add the API of your CloudFlare account in that plugin which would show the user’s original IP with the comments.
Have You Tried To Use The Free CloudFlare
There are many websites which are running on the CloudFlare server. It enhances the speed of your website. People ask how to setup CloudFlare for WordPress website because they know the value of having a fast loading website. If you want to spend a few dollars then you can go for the pro version of the CloudFlare.
Are you still trying to figure out about the usage of the CloudFlare? There is an amazing admin area provided to the users. You can choose the options to speed up your website. If you still face any problem with the CloudFlare WordPress setup then feel free to contact.
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8 comments
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Ravi, I am a CloudFlare user (free version) and can access them from my CPanel as my hosting provider (SiteGround) has partnered with them. I can thoroughly recommend CloudFlare because the benefits outweigh any negatives.
One important and worth mentioning feature is the “dynamic caching” which CloudFlare free version provides but hidden under the “Page Rules”. As a free user, you can use up to 3 page rules which are enough to set up the dynamic cache. This type of cache is extremely useful and takes a snapshot of every dynamic page/post on your site. You can then set a rule to let it expire every day or two. I have seen massive speed improvements in using this.
The best bit is that it can used with other cache plugins such as W3, SuperCache or as in my case WP Fastest Cache.
Hey Ahmad,
CloudFlare is an amazing service for the user who are striving to improve the speed of their website. Most of the people don’t go for the pro plan because the free plan has enough features to reduce the page loading time.
I agree with you, dynamic cache feature has the major impact on the speed. Though most of the people don’t really think about the page rules and all the settings. But still, the minifying settings of the files is great.
Thanks a lot for sharing your experience.
Enjoy the day.
~Ravi
Ravi, just as a follow up – I am very happy with the combo of “WP Fastest CAche Plugin” in combination with Free Cloudflare CDN including dynamic cache. Have a look at the GTMetrix results. Agreed that my site is minimal in design but still it is a decent performance.
Hey Ahmad,
The performance stats look amazing.
The caching plugin and the CDN. I have used W3 Total cache with CloudFlare and it was quite good. Never tried it with any other plugin. It’s good to know that other caching plugins can also work fine.
Thanks for stopping by.
~Ravi
Hey Ravi,
Glad to read your wonderful post,
Free cloud flare is looking smart and useful for us, free version is also amazing in feature which is used to boost the speed of website.
Process of setup of cloud flare is very genuine and simple to use in word press. Yet, i have never tried before cloud flare but it seems very useful so i want to use its free or pro version.
Eventually, thanks for sharing informative post.
With best regards,
Amar kumar
Hi Amar,
No doubt that CloudFlare is one of the best services we have to boost up the speed. To have a fast loading website, you should try the CloudFlare CDN. There is nothing much with the setup.
You just have to create the account and add your website on their server by replacing their DNS name servers.
Thanks for stopping by.
Enjoy the day.
~Ravi
I haven’t given it try ever but It can boost website load speed. I’ll try it out.
Thanks for sharing this article.
Hey Sunil,
It’s important to have a CDN on your website. If you want to use the free one then go for CloudFlare. There are many premium CDNS like MaxCDN which can enhance the speed of your website.
But CloudFlare provides you the best service to protect your website from spam.
Thanks for stopping by.
Enjoy the day.
~Ravi