I’m talking with you about speed today, because I’ve been wading through a ton of DNS. We’re decommissioning a whole bunch of old servers that were set up around 2006. You know how it happens: you buy domain names, you set up sites, DNS and emails, and it all adds up. A lot of that has gone to the cloud, so I don’t really need to run them. So I’m getting rid of things so the sites will run more efficiently. And part of that process had been moving my DNS.
Here are some things you can try yourself without too many problems. If you own your own domain name, you’re going to have access to your registrar. Do a “whois” lookup, either at one of the free online sites, or on Terminal on a Mac. Look for the part where it says NS. That will be your name server. I looked at a couple of options to move my DNS. The two main ones that came up were Amazon, with Route 53, and Cloudflare. I know Amazon is huge and supposedly great, but their interface isn’t friendly and it drives me crazy. So Cloudflare it is.
Log into your registrar and change those name servers by going into Cloudflare. Set up a quick account, follow the wizard and you’ll be done in a matter of minutes. Cloudflare will give you two new name servers. Go back to your registrar and swap out those names. It’s super easy to do and the results are surprisingly good for the little amount of effort you’ll put into it.
Cloudflare gives you other great options for speeding up your site with little effort, such as minifying JavaScript and CSS with the click of one button. My response time has been cut in half with these quick changes. What about you?
This article was originally published on stewartmedia.com.au.
Jim Stewart is a leading expert in search engine optimisation. His business StewArt Media has worked with clients including Mars, M2 and the City of Melbourne.
