TTL is like the expiration date on food. When the expiration date expires, you need to get fresh food. A TTL does the same job. It tells the CDN how long to keep a copy of your website’s files (such as images, styles, or videos) before it goes back to the primary server.
For example: Let's say your TTL is 24 hours. So the CDN uses the same copy for one whole day before going back to the primary server to verify if there is a new copy. Easy right?
● Fast websites – Cached content always loaded faster then on demand we it comes from the primary server.
● Less strain on your server – Let the CDN do the heavy-lifting.
● Better for google ranking - They love fast websites (and so do your visitors).
● Happy visitors –No one likes waiting for slow pages.
Be honest—for example, would you stay on a website that takes 10 seconds to load? Absolutely not.
• Short TTL (a few minutes or hours): Great for a lot of changes (websites that do update frequently), for example, news, online stores
• Long TTL (days or weeks): Good for touching things that may change infrequently for example logos, images, styles.
I once set a long TTL for all the images on my blog, and man did it make my site fast to load, however, when I changed my logo, it still showed the old one for hours. That's where I learned—there is no fix it right or fix it wrong way to approach things, you just have to manage what's best for you and keep it consistent.
• If content changes daily - Use a short TTL (5-30 mins)
• If it very rarely changes - Use a long TTL (1-7 days)
• If it is a mix of both - Use a different TTL per file
That is the beauty of a CDN; you can do with it what you want.
If you take the TTL recommendation seriously, you will have a faster site (good for users and good for Google), and if you don't, you might accidentally show your users old content, or put an unnecessary burden on your server.
In short, TTL is like an expiry date on website files, and this logically increases the speed and freshness of your site.
For example: Let's say your TTL is 24 hours. So the CDN uses the same copy for one whole day before going back to the primary server to verify if there is a new copy. Easy right?
Why Should You Care?
So why should you care? Why does it matter? Because you control speed and performance with a TTL.● Fast websites – Cached content always loaded faster then on demand we it comes from the primary server.
● Less strain on your server – Let the CDN do the heavy-lifting.
● Better for google ranking - They love fast websites (and so do your visitors).
● Happy visitors –No one likes waiting for slow pages.
Be honest—for example, would you stay on a website that takes 10 seconds to load? Absolutely not.
Short TTL vs Long TTL
Now, the million-dollar question: do you keep the TTL short or long?• Short TTL (a few minutes or hours): Great for a lot of changes (websites that do update frequently), for example, news, online stores
• Long TTL (days or weeks): Good for touching things that may change infrequently for example logos, images, styles.
I once set a long TTL for all the images on my blog, and man did it make my site fast to load, however, when I changed my logo, it still showed the old one for hours. That's where I learned—there is no fix it right or fix it wrong way to approach things, you just have to manage what's best for you and keep it consistent.
What Is the Best TTL For My Content?
There is no right answer, but here are a few suggestions:• If content changes daily - Use a short TTL (5-30 mins)
• If it very rarely changes - Use a long TTL (1-7 days)
• If it is a mix of both - Use a different TTL per file
That is the beauty of a CDN; you can do with it what you want.
In Conclusion
What is TTL in CDN terms? It is essentially the time boundary that determines how long cached content can exist until it is refreshed.If you take the TTL recommendation seriously, you will have a faster site (good for users and good for Google), and if you don't, you might accidentally show your users old content, or put an unnecessary burden on your server.
In short, TTL is like an expiry date on website files, and this logically increases the speed and freshness of your site.
