DELIVERY, EXPLAINED

Static Global CDN

Understand CDN delivery for static websites, including HTML freshness, versioned assets, cache keys, deployment checks, and predictable content updates.

PRACTICAL FIELD GUIDEPlanning checklist ↓

Keep delivery and updates predictable

A CDN can reuse stored website responses across visitors instead of retrieving every request from the origin. For a static website, the useful question is how that reuse fits your publishing process. Decide what may stay cached and how an edit becomes visible.

The Static Global CDN guide focuses on the connection between delivery and content freshness. Use this independent resource to plan policies, ask providers useful questions, and inspect a deployed website. Connect every delivery decision to a measurable publishing requirement.

CONSIDERATION / 01

Treat documents and assets differently

HTML at a stable URL may change after an editorial correction. A versioned stylesheet can remain unchanged at its existing filename while a new release references a different file. These resources deserve different policies. Agree on acceptable document freshness with the content owner, use asset names consistently, and avoid overwriting files that your delivery policy tells visitors are immutable. Record the decision where maintainers can find it.

CONSIDERATION / 02

Observe the actual response

Inspect the deployed response body and headers rather than relying solely on dashboard settings. Browser storage, the CDN, and the origin are separate parts of the request path. A browser with its local cache disabled can still receive a response from a CDN cache. Compare repeated requests, a newly published edit, and relevant URL variants. Interpret provider-specific indicators using that provider's documentation.

CONSIDERATION / 03

Coordinate cache changes with releases

Publish complete, internally consistent versions. Ensure new assets exist before documents reference them, and retain older assets while previous documents may still be used. Practice a rollback that includes the necessary cache refresh actions. A high cache hit ratio does not demonstrate that readers see the intended content, so include correctness and freshness in the release review alongside transfer size and delivery behavior.

Technical reference: RFC 9111: HTTP caching. Use the documentation for implementation details alongside the planning guidance here.

TURN THE IDEA INTO A PLAN

What to check
before you commit.

Use these questions to make the next step concrete, and keep the answers with your project notes.

Inventory editable documents, immutable assets, downloads, and any deliberately external resources before assigning cache rules.
Identify every cache layer you operate and the person responsible for changing each configuration.
Check that query parameters and response variants are kept distinct when they represent different content.
Verify a content correction from the public domain and record the observed freshness behavior.
Keep old and new release assets available long enough to support the documented recovery procedure.

COMMON QUESTIONS

Work through
the details.

Does a CDN replace static hosting?

The CDN and origin serve different roles, although a provider may package them together. Identify where your authoritative files live, how the delivery layer receives them, and what happens when a response is not already cached.

Does no-cache prevent a response from being stored?

An unqualified no-cache directive allows storage but requires validation before reuse. The no-store directive addresses storage. Confirm that your host and CDN honor the policy you intend instead of relying on the similar-sounding names.

What should I test after changing a cache rule?

Test unchanged content, edited HTML, versioned assets, and a rollback. Our CDN caching walkthrough explains how these checks reveal different problems that a single successful page load can miss.

FIELD NOTES & PRACTICAL GUIDES