How to Setup Cloudflare CDN for WordPress blog? (Step-by-Step Guide)

Cloudflare is a CDN and DDoS protection service. It can be used to protect your site against various threats, including brute force attacks, denial-of-service attacks, and application-level floods. Cloudflare provides performance and security features for any website—from personal blogs to e-commerce—at a price that makes sense for any budget.

Cloudflare’s global network keeps millions of websites safe from cyberattacks 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, without the need to install any hardware or software. The best part is that Cloudflare is easy to set up — you just need your domain name and email address, and it takes less than five minutes!

Blog Page loading is an important factor for Google Page ranking. If your blog loads fast, the user will stay a long time on your pages.

If it is not loading well, the user may skip to another site. Remember, you are not the only one who provides the information.

There are thousands of bloggers hunting for new information for new postings on their own blogs. The same information that is available on your blog is already published on many blogs.

So keeping the user on your blog is the most important game. On this blog, page loading is the primary aspect. Here, Cloudflare CDN will help you.

In the page loading improvement methods, there are more techniques like Image optimizations, Cache plugin use, and using a good Content Delivery Network (CDN). The most popular and highly recommended way to speed up page loading is to use CDN.

There are hundreds of content delivery network providers on the web. Here, the free Cloudflare CDN is the best option for basic bloggers. The usage of this CDN is increasing every day today.

Here I am discussing a special free CDN service for every WordPress blog. That is Cloudflare’s CDN services. What is a CDN? CDN means Content Delivery Network.

What is Cloudflare?

Cloudflare Inc. is a US-based company. Some of the services offered by the company include Content Delivery Network (CDN), Distributed Domain Name Services, and Internet Security Services. The Cloudflare CDN service helps you with network projects, speeds up, and improves availability for your blog or mobile app.

Cloudflare’s headquarters are in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 2009 by Matthew Prince and Michelle Zatlyn. The company has grown rapidly since then.

Cloudflare has a free plan that protects your website from basic DDoS attacks and lets you cache static content from your website. Cloudflare’s paid plans start at $20/month and include advanced features like SSL, email security, and analytics tools.

Cloudflare is a service that provides protection from cyberattacks and helps speed up the loading time of websites.

Now it is one of the top CDN providers. This is the best CDN for WordPress users.

How does Cloudflare work?

How does Cloudflare work? Cloudflare CDN caches most of your blog’s content from the nearest Cloudflare servers strategically.

Among these, the caching content serves versions of your blog pages that are optimized by making the JavaScript smaller.

It also provides an extra layer of security by challenging attackers and spambots.

The CDN Cloudflare DDoS security is excellent. Finally, the CDN filters the unwanted traffic before it reaches your server.

The above features help your server load decrease gradually and performance increase. 

It helps you serve the cached version of the blog page when your primary server goes down, offline, or in maintenance mode. Here, the basic Cloudflare CDN service is free.

What is CDN?

“CDN is built on a distributed network of the data content distribution network. CDN’s role is streaming media server clustering technology. A stand-alone system to overcome the shortage of output bandwidth and concurrency disadvantages can greatly improve the system’s support for concurrent streams and reduce or avoid adverse effects caused by a single point of failure. CDN load balancing technology uses the global user access point closest to the user’s normal work stream media server, streaming media server by a direct response to user requests. Servers, if users want to access the content, will automatically fetch the content from the origin server and provide it to the user based on the configuration. IPTV can be used to provide VOD services. “CDN, the distribution of video content through the CDN to CDN near the client node, can ensure an end-to-end quality of service to a certain extent“.

Recently this CDN service became popular among individual owners of accelerated CDN technology. When we use a foreign host, the access speed is often a problem to worry about.

Do not be concerned about the site’s speed to open the domestic fast and now the use of distributed services that directly synchronize CDN services.

to open the site, significantly improving the user experience.

The Cloudflare CDN is the first to provide and is one of the best CDN service providers today.

How to configure Free Cloudflare CDN?

How to use Cloudflare with WordPress? Should I use Cloudflare? These are the common questions before using free Cloudflare CDN services. Here I wrote a complete tutorial on how to connect your WordPress blog with the Cloudflare CDN service. Just follow the below steps carefully.

But, if you are not confident in setting up Cloudflare yourself or encounter any issues, hiring a freelance Cloudflare expert from Toptal to assist you might be your best option. 

1. Create a Cloudflare account

Most web hosting companies provide Cloudflare CDN features to their customers. Here is a list of some cheap web hosting companies to try or start a new blog. Among the lists, I love Bluehost web hosting. I have become a big fan of Bluehost servers because of their performance, security, and speed. If you are interested in knowing more details about this host, you can read my last article on Bluehost Review 2023. So, here I took Bluehost as an example.

Bluehost has been one of the best web hosting companies since 2003. Endurance International Group owns the web hosting company. It is my all-time favorite show. There are plenty of unique features available for WordPress blogs. They have 247 customer support, and they use the most advanced server configuration systems. Bluehost gives Cloudflare WordPress hosting for their customers.

• If you do not have a Bluehost account, no problem.
• It is the correct time to grab the Bluehost coupon at the lowest prices. (The offer link added the below link also).
• If you do not know how to buy this, I wrote on How to register a new Bluehost hosting account.
• After purchase, you need to install WordPress on your new hosting server.
• If you already have a Bluehost account with a running blog, skip the above steps and follow the below steps.

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If you use Bluehost, you can use your Bluehost cPanel to turn on the free Cloudflare CDN service. Just follow the steps now:

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• Login into Bluehost Hosting Account
• Go for Domains > Cloudflare icon and click on the icon 

It will redirect the page to the Cloudflare integration initial step. Here, the free version will be automatically activated. It is enough for essential bloggers and WordPress users. If you are running a business blog, you can choose the domain name and its premium plan, then click on NEXT and follow the instructions provided on the screen. 

Most of the well-known companies that host websites recommend this service because it is fast and safe.

A2Hosting, HostArmada, and GreenGeeks also have the Cloudflare CDN icon to integrate hosted blogs.

Follow the Cloudflare CDN setup below if you are not using Bluehost services. It is a straightforward process, and it takes less than 5 minutes.

Go to the Cloudflare official page, then clicks on the Signup button at the top of the page.

Now enter your Email ID and Password and check the I Agree on Cloudflare Terms. Then click on Create account now to proceed to create a Cloudflare account. 

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2. Add your Blog URL

In this step add your Website or domain name then click on Scan DNS Records. Here no need to add www in the domain name (If your domain name is www.DomainName.com type only DomainName.com without ‘www’)

The Cloudflare service starts the scanning of your domain’s DNS records. 

It takes approximately 60 seconds to complete the scan. After finish Scanning, just click on Continue.  

After finishing the Cloudflare CDN scan, they display all the DNS records. Here, decide which subdomains you want to enable Cloudflare or bypass Cloudflare. Note: Do not touch any MX records through Cloudflare.  

If you add any additional records, add your DNS records and click Process and Continue.

Now choose the plan, which is suitable for your needs. For new bloggers, I recommend Cloudflare’s free CDN plan. However, for business blogs, you must select the best premium plan from Cloudflare CDN pricing based on your requirements. Then click the Continue button. 

In the final screen, the Cloudflare server provides two different nameservers to change the existing name servers in the domain registrant service (e.g., Godaddy). Now click on Continue 

Now the Cloudflare dashboard is ready, and you can check the settings carefully. 

3. Change your Domain name servers

After the last step above, Cloudflare provides two different NameServers for your domain. Copy and paste those nameservers into notepad.

Now it is time to go to your domain registrant account. If your domain is purchased from Godaddy, then login into your Godaddy account by using the credentials created at the time of domain registration.

Now click on the Manage DNS button, go for Nameservers, click on the Change button, and choose a Custom option from the drop-down menu.

Add the two Nameservers provided by Cloudflare scan instead of the existed nameservers. Then Save the changes. It takes 48 to 72 hours for the nameserver information to propagate. After completing the propagation, you will receive confirmation from the Cloudflare CDN team. 

That’s it. Now your Blog is ready for Cloudflare integration and authentication.

If you are not interested in Bluehost servers, you can try these best Bluehost Alternatives.

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How to Authenticate with Cloudflare CDN?

After completing the above steps in the Cloudflare integration, you need to do one more step to authenticate your WordPress blog by installing the Cloudflare WordPress Plugin.

This plugin helps you check the commenter’s IP address on your blog. It makes your website or blog safer from spammers by telling Cloudflare about them.

This plugin works with your blog if you configure the Cloudflare CDN using the above basic steps.

Now it’s time to install the Cloudflare WordPress Plugin.

To achieve this, follow the basic steps below.

1. Install the Cloudflare WordPress Plugin

Log in to your WordPress dashboard and go to Plugins > Add New to add the plugin.

Search as Cloudflare in the search box. On the result page, click on the Install button in the Cloudflare plugin. After a few seconds, click on Activate 

Authenticate with your Cloudflare Account

To authenticate the blog and plugin with your Cloudflare account, go to Settings > Cloudflare 

In the next screen (Cloudflare plugin Settings page), enter Email and API Key. Here Email means the registered Email in the above integration step. 

To get an API key, go for your free Cloudflare CDN account, and then go to My settings.

The API key is available on the Account > API Key Section. Click on View API Key at Global API Key, then copy the Cloudflare API Key and paste in the Plugin settings page and click on Save API Credentials.

After API authentication, you will get the Default settings page. Just click on Apply from the Apply Default Settings.

After clicking on the Apply button, your Purge cache and Automatic Cache are allowed you to automatically flush the Cloudflare cache. You must enable this too.  

2. Using W3 Total Cache Plugin

W3 Total Cache plugin is one of the most popular WordPress plugins. The plugin gives better speed and security for your WordPress blogs, and it is available in the WordPress Plugin directory free of cost.

The plugin is developed with an inbuilt Cloudflare extension.

W3 Total Cache improves your site’s SEO and user experience by increasing website performance and reducing load times via features like content delivery network (CDN) integration and the latest best practices.

The plugin provides minification of JS & CSS, Reverse Proxy support, Advanced Architecture, Server Stack Integration, and Maximum Server Scaling.

To enable the Cloudflare integration feature using the W3 Total Cache plugin, you must follow three steps.

Step 1: Install the W3 Total Cache plugin from the WordPress directory, and activate it.

Step 2: Configure the W3 Total Cache plugin according to your WordPress blog’s requirements and server type.

Step 3: Navigate to Performance > Extensions and then click the Activate button at Cloudflareextension.

Step 4: After activating the Cloudflare feature, you have to configure the Cloudflare features from the extension. Here is the common setting.

That’s it

3. Using WP Rocket Plugin

This best WordPress Caching plugin has already been downloaded by over 6 lakh WordPress users. It is a premium plugin. You can read the complete WP Rocket Plugin Settings here.

The installation of WP Rocket is very simple. After downloading the plugin from the official page, follow the steps below.

Step 1: Log in to your WordPress blog and navigate to Plugins > Add New. Add New

Step 2: Click on the Upload button and choose the downloaded plugin location and select the plugin, click on the Install button and activate the plugin.

Step 3: After completing the installation, the plugin must be activated. This is simple. Now you need to configure the plugin. After activation of this plugin, go to Settings > WP Rocket from the left side column.

You will get the WP Rocket user-friendly interface with the following options.

Note: First you need to disable and delete the old cache plugins from your WordPress blog.

Step 4: Now navigate to Settings > WP Rocket > Add-ons and enter your Cloudflare account credentials. Here, the Global API key, account email, and Zone ID are important. Collect that information from the Cloudflare account and fill out the form, then click Save changes. Turn on Optimal settings in the Cloudflare settings.

The above three mentioned methods are Cloudflare integration working methods in 2020.

Conclusion

Cloudflare CDN can improve the security and access speed of the site. If your site is added to Cloudflare, it will first flow through their worldwide intelligent routing network.

Cloudflare will optimize your pages to make your website visitors experience faster page load times automatically and for better Page Speed Performance.

The above Cloudflare CDN basic optimizations are significant.

No doubt, this is the best free CDN for WordPress users.

It means that the Free Cloudflare CDN website will run much better and that spam and other attacks on the network will go down.