performance of a website is a key factor to its success, because all Internet users hate waiting for long periods to see the content of a web page or the completion of downloading the file they want, which is why it is necessary to speed up the various downloading processes that take place on the site to the maximum possible degree.
One way to improve site performance is to use two site servers, one for storing files and images, and the other for storing other site data, including the WordPress system , database, template files, plugins, and the like. The two servers are set up to work together so that the image and file server reduces the load on the primary server. By providing photos and files to visitors and customers.
In this article, we will shed light on the effects and benefits of using a dedicated server for images and files with the site’s primary server, and explain how to do that in the WordPress system, but we will first explain how this process is done theoretically in more detail, and we will also know the services that can provide the possibility of implementing it in a more detailed way. Better than others.
What is meant by using a dedicated server for images and files on the site?
Usually, most website owners use one hosting (one server) for their website. If you want to create a website, the typical way to do so is to purchase one domain name and one shared , VPS , dedicated , or cloud hosting, then install WordPress on the hosting and complete the rest of the creation steps. location .
In this typical method, images and other files that are uploaded by the site team to the media library are stored through the backend in the site hosting itself. Therefore, if the sizes of these files are large or if they are many, or if the number of visitors to the website is high compared to Hosting resources, many performance issues will occur for users, because the server will not be able to perform all the necessary processing operations for all users.
Performance problems caused by increased server load can be solved or prevented by using an additional server different from the primary site server. This additional server stores images and other files uploaded to the media library, and provides them to users when they request them.
This will provide many benefits in improving the performance of the website, because the number of computing and sending operations that the primary server must perform will be low, and the volumes of data that the primary server must send will be much lower, because the images and files are large in size. , will be presented to the visitor from the other (additional) server that stores it.
Almost any type of server can be used to store images and other files, but there are services provided by famous and powerful companies in the field of computing that are more suitable for this purpose than others, and we will review them in a later paragraph.
Benefits of hosting images and files on a separate server
In fact, storing website files on a separate server has very many importance, advantages and benefits, especially if the services relied upon for storage are of high quality and low cost. The most notable features and benefits of using an additional server for files and images include:
1. Improve website performance
Storing website images and files on a separate server offers many advantages that greatly help improve website performance and speed, including:
Save bandwidth
If your site gets a large number of visitors , and you run it on shared or VPS (or sometimes even dedicated) hosting, its performance will decrease and the speed of loading its pages will decrease, because the hosting (or server) will not be able to carry out all the processing operations and send all the files. users quickly, because the bandwidth required to do so is greater than the bandwidth available to them.
If images and files are stored on a separate additional server, a high number of visitors will have very little impact on site performance, because the files that the primary server is requested to send to users will be small in size, and a low amount of bandwidth can suffice for them even if the number of requests is high (number Visitors are high).
Accelerate data access to visitors
When the server sends images and other files to users, this process occurs more slowly the longer the distance between the server and the user. Therefore, if you are not using cloud hosting to host your site, the data will be sent to all users from one place, which is where the hosting company stores the data (center data).
This may be fine if all of your audience, or at least the vast majority of it, resides in a specific country or neighboring countries that do not occupy a large geographical area, but otherwise, most of your audience will suffer from slow browsing the site and downloading files from it because they will be far from the data center.
Using an additional server can solve the problem, as most companies that provide storage services that are suitable to be used as dedicated servers for images and files provide cloud servers, in which the images and files are stored on servers distributed in various parts of the world, and the images and files are sent to users from the server The ones closest to them.
2. Save money spent on hosting
Hosting plans that include high storage space are usually expensive, but servers that hosting companies dedicate for similar purposes of storing images and files cost less, and you will only pay for what storage space you will use, because the server dedicated to images and files is usually in the cloud.
Also, hosts suitable for storing images and files provide integrated services within the hosting plan that you will likely pay for, such as backup and security, and the services provided are often of high quality if the hosting is obtained from a reliable service provider.
3. Improve conversion and bounce rates and increase profits
When an online store that does not use an additional server to store images and files gets a large number of visitors, users will experience at least a noticeable degradation in performance and a decrease in speed, if not a complete shutdown of the store, and this will lead to a very high bounce rate , and a very low traffic rate. conversion rate , and thus to a decrease in the amount of revenue and profits.
Since using an additional server dedicated to images and files increases the store’s performance, eliminates the negative impact of increased traffic, and makes the store immune to collapse, your conversion and bounce rates will improve, and this will lead to higher traffic, orders, revenue, and profits.
4. Improve the site’s position in search results
When Google’s algorithms arrange search results, they depend on a set of criteria, and one of these criteria is the speed of the website, as the positions of the website’s pages increase when its speed increases. Therefore, using an additional server for images and files can improve the ranking of your website’s pages in search results.
Best companies to get additional dedicated server for photos and files
In theory, you can configure most hosts to act as additional servers dedicated to images and files, but in practice it is preferable to rely on one of the cloud storage services that we will list here, as they offer cloud storage hosts that work much better as servers for storing website images and files.
Amazon S3 – Offers a free plan for a full year
Amazon S3 is a storage service that is part of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) product and has extremely high levels of security, performance, and scalability, making it a convenient choice for use as an additional server for storing website images and files.
This service provided by Amazon has high reliability, and because the company behind it has a huge infrastructure, it is able to provide its services at low costs compared to most other hosting providers. It also provides a free plan that allows you to store up to 5 GB of your site’s media and files. For a whole year.
Google Cloud Storage – Offers a 3-month free trial plan
Google Cloud Storage is one of the services provided by Google to provide high-quality, low-cost online storage solutions in the form of cloud hosting. It can be used to host websites or integrated applications running on the network, but it is more common for storing files and images associated with the website, in addition to other storage needs. .
This service is a small part of a group of services provided by the company through the Google Cloud Platform, and it offers a free trial plan worth $300 for a period of 3 months for one time. This plan allows you to try the service, and decide whether or not to subscribe to it paid for. did that.
DigitalOcean – Its servers are characterized by high performance
Digital Ocean offers many data storage and computing services, such as the Google Cloud Platform and Amazon Web Services, including the DigitalOcean Spaces service , which enables you to store images and files of your website on high-quality, high-performance servers in order to present them to visitors very quickly.
Digital Ocean is known for its simple pricing and low prices. You can get 250 GB of storage space and 1 TB of server data volume for $5 per month. When you exceed these limits, you will be charged $0.02 for every additional 1 GB you use from the server. Storage space, and $0.01 for every 1 GB transferred.
How to set up a dedicated server for images and files in WordPress
In order to set up the additional server in order for it to work with the primary server and store images and files in it, you must first subscribe to a cloud storage hosting plan with one of the hosting companies that we talked about above (paid subscription or free trial), or with another hosting company that provides servers. Suitable to be used for images and files.
After that, you must search for a plugin that works on WordPress, and allows you to easily connect the additional server to the site, then you must install the plugin on your website and carry out the steps of the process of setting up the two servers to be together as the plugin directs you (the method varies depending on the additional server hosting company ).
You can find a WordPress add-on that allows you to connect an additional server from one specific company to your primary site server, and you can find an add-on that allows you to connect an additional server from multiple companies to your primary site server, such as the Media Cloud add-on that allows you to connect an additional server from one of the following companies or others: DigitalOcean – Google Cloud Storage – Amazon S3 – DreamHost.
What distinguishes this add-on (Media Cloud) is not only that it enables you to use an additional server from the best hosting companies, but also that it guides you precisely on how to set up the additional server through an illustrated explanation (text or video) that is shown to you after installing the add-on and choosing the hosting company that you choose. I subscribed to it.
After installing the add-on and connecting the additional server based on the explanation that is shown to you, the images and files that you upload to your website will be automatically stored through the media library in WordPress on the additional server, and you will be able to deal with the images and know all their data through the media library itself, that is, you You’ll be able to manage your site’s media and files in the same way you would if they were stored on the same WordPress server.
If, after connecting the additional server to the primary server, you notice that new media and files are not stored in the additional server, then you only have to go to the plugin’s features page by clicking on the ( Features ) option located in the ( Media Cloud ) tab in the side menu of WordPress, and run The ( Cloud Storage ) option directs the extension to automatically upload images and files to the additional hosting, then you click on the ( Save Changes ) button.
As for the images and files that were present in the media library before installing and setting up the plugin, they will remain stored on your primary site server, but you can transfer them to the additional server via the ( Migrate To Cloud ) option that appears under the ( Media Cloud ) tab in the side menu of WordPress after Connect the two servers together.
Thus, we have finished explaining the impact of using a dedicated server for images and files in WordPress on the performance and speed of the website, and taking a look at the various benefits of doing so, and the best companies that provide servers suitable for this purpose, in addition to explaining how to set up the two servers to work together in order to provide… Satisfying speed of visitors, retaining them and turning them into loyal customers.
