A Delivery Domain is a non-StackPath host address that content on the CDN can be requested and served from. Simply put, instead of showing the StackPath CDN URL (k7i7r8n7.stackpathcdn.com) in your page source, you can use a vanity URL like (cdn.example77.com). Adding a Delivery Domain tells StackPath CDN servers to recognize an inbound request with the Delivery Domain as a Host Header and the file path from your Origin.
Why add a Delivery Domain
A delivery domain is easy to set-up and comes with a handful of Search Engine Optimization benefits. If you have a Static Assets CDN integration and are not concerned with search results, using the CDN URL rather than a Delivery Domain is still a great option.
For most websites, it's beneficial to add a custom Delivery Domain due to these advantages:
- You have full ownership over your Delivery Domain and can change CDN service while retaining the same public URLs.
- Image Search results will display your Delivery Domain rather than the CDN URL.
- Serving content under a Delivery Domain owned by the root domain increases customer and search engine trust when compared to CDN URL usage.
How to add a Delivery Domain
Delivery domains can be added under CDN > Settings > Delivery Domains. Simply select the Add Delivery Domain button and type in the FQDN of the delivery domain you would like to add.
For this example, below shows examples of where different assets might be served from:
- Origin Server: Files directly delivered from your server and not our CDN.
- CDN URL: k7i7r8n7.stackpathcdn.com - A unique URL provided by StackPath that comes with each Site you create. No need to upload SSL certificates and no need to make any DNS changes.
- Delivery domain: cdn.example77.com - A CNAME record pointing "cdn." subdomain to the StackPath CDN URL K7i7r8n7.stackpathcdn.com. Any subdomain can be used, so long as it's not already serving your HTML. A Custom SSL certificate was uploaded to serve under this subdomain with HTTPS. If you use only HTTP, there is no SSL requirement.
Performance Impact
When you add a Delivery Domain, DNS resolution takes one more lookup to return StackPath's IP address. In local testing, switching to a Delivery Domain resulted in a fraction of a millisecond longer DNS resolution. Be aware that DNS resolution time does pass on to the end user experience, small as the increase may be.
Requirements
Below is a list of Requirements you will need to have access to when setting up a Delivery Domain.
Static Assets
| What? | Why? |
|---|---|
| SSL certificate issuer (If HTTPS) |
Retrieve Certificate, Private Key, and Chain for HTTPS delivery from new subdomain CDN. The certificate must cover your new subdomain. The certificate must cover your new subdomain and any other domains which are pointed toward CDN URL or IP address previously. |
| StackPath Control Panel |
Retrieve the CDN URL |
| DNS provider | Use CNAME record to point your subdomain to StackPath CDN URL |
| Website Source Code | Either through CMS plugin or manually, rewrite your assets URLs to the new Delivery Domain |
Full Site
| What? | Why? |
|---|---|
| SSL certificate issuer (If HTTPS) |
Retrieve Certificate, Private Key, and Chain for HTTPS delivery from new subdomain CDN. The certificate must cover your new subdomain. The certificate must cover your new subdomain and any other domains which are pointed toward CDN URL or IP address previously. |
| StackPath Control Panel |
Retrieve the CDN URL |
| DNS provider | If your public website is a subdomain(www), use CNAME record to point your subdomain to StackPath CDN URL If your public website is an apex domain, use the IP of the CDN URL and point the Apex A record toward it. |