Joomla CDN Integration

Joomla is the second most popular content management systems (CMS) after WordPress. The open source CMS is freely available and offers a wide range of extensions to customize a website. This guide shows you how to perform a Joomla CDN integration to help improve content delivery speeds and reduce latency.

A fast loading Joomla website is essential for user satisfaction, which is why it's important to choose the best CDN for Joomla. With KeyCDN, the static content of a Joomla site will always be delivered to the end client from the closest KeyCDN location. The integration of KeyCDN into a Joomla website is very easy thanks to the plugin "CDN for Joomla!". The plugin updates the website so that static assets are loaded from KeyCDN and not the origin server anymore.

The free version of the CDN for Joomla extension only supports HTTP integrations. If you are using HTTPS for your CDN URL, then you are required to buy the paid version from the plugin author. The following tutorial shows how to integrate Joomla with KeyCDN using HTTPS.

How to complete a Joomla CDN integration.

We recommend to examine the HTML code, in order to check if all the URLs have been properly rewritten. All static assets (as defined by file type in the plugin) should now be pointing to KeyCDN.

Using the CDN for Joomla! extension is one way to setup a Joomla CDN integration, however, some users may already have the JCH Optimize plugin installed and configured. In this case, you don't need to follow the instructions above, simply take your Zone URL or custom CDN URL and enter it into the CDN/Cookieless Domain section of the JCH Optimize plugin.

This plugin allows you to define multiple domains to parallelize downloads across hostnames however this is no longer recommended with HTTP/2. Select the file types you want to accelerate using the Joomla CDN and check your page's source code to verify if you're assets are being called using the CDN URL.

To learn about other ways to improve your Joomla site's performance, check out these 10 tips to speed up Joomla performance.

Choosing the best Joomla CDN

Once you have completed the above integration, your Joomla site will be integrated with KeyCDN. When choosing the best Joomla CDN, you should ensure that the CDN provider supports the new HTTP/2 protocol, uses optimized SSD servers, and offers SSL options such as free Let's Encrypt certificates. These features will ensure your site is receiving a major performance boost while remaining secure.

Additionally, KeyCDN users will benefit from our global network of strategically placed points of presence (POPs) around the world. Traffic spikes can easily be handled by the CDN (instead of the origin server). The KeyCDN dashboard shows all activities in real time. The raw logs can be examined in real time, setting filters on certain headers or values (e.g. 404). There is also a geographic breakdown available showing transferred data and the number of requests per country. Additionally, it's possible to forward the raw logs to a server of your choice. The KeyCDN cache can be purged at any time in the dashboard or via the API, this can be a specific URL or the whole zone. It only takes a few seconds until the cache is globally purged.

KeyCDN provides you with awesome tools for content delivery. Also check the following pages:

• The KeyCDN Website Speed Test lets you measure the site speed of a website from various locations.
• In order to examine certain HTTP requests, the KeyCDN HTTP Header Checker is the ideal tool for it.
• Custom SSL can be used for free.
• Certificates can be verified with the KeyCDN SSL Certificate Checker