Reginald Chan

Tag: how to serve static content from a cookieless domain

  • How to Serve Static Content From a Cookieless Domain

    How to Serve Static Content From a Cookieless Domain

    Want to know how to serve static content from a cookieless domain?

    You came to the right place. In this article, I’ll be sharing with you how to solve the irritating “serve static content from a cookieless domain” warning.

    If you are using Pingdom, this sight is just too common for many:

    serve static content from a cookieless domain

    Disclaimer:

    Due to the latest changes with the web and new protocols such as HTTP/2, it is safe to ignore this warning for now. However, I’m still a strong believer that we should find a solution to fix the “serve static content from a cookieless domain” warning if we can.

    And yes, this article will show you how.

    if we can.

    And yes, this article will show you how.

     

    How to fix the “serve static content from a cookieless domain” warning?

    Here’s the quick and direct response to your question. In order to serve static content from a cookieless domain, you can either re-configuring your WordPress website or use a Content Delivery Network (or CDN in short).

     

    Solution 1: Re-configure your WordPress website to serve static content from a cookieless domain

    This method is free but at the cost of some work and knowledge.

    For starters, you need to understand that the way your website is being configured will play a crucial role in the success of this method.

    If you use a top-level domain such as domain.com, then you would need to actually use a separate domain altogether. If you are using www.domain.com then you could simply set up a subdomain such as static.domain.com.

    As most websites are configured on www.domain.com, the method below is strictly for websites with www:

    1. Create a subdomain
    2. You can use any name and I’m using static.domain.com. This is where you will be delivering your files from (and ultimately solving the server static content from cookieless domain warning.
    3. Point your subdomain to your wp-content directory with a CNAME.
    4. Not sure what is CNAME? Here’s a quick source for you.
    5. Edit your wp-config.php file to reflect the following:

    define(“WP_CONTENT_URL”, “http://static.domain.com”);
    define(“COOKIE_DOMAIN”, “domain.com”);

    Not sure where to find wp-config.php file?

    The configuration file of your WordPress script is located in the WordPress installation directory and its name is: wp-config.php

    You can edit it through cPanel –> File Manager. Find the file, click on it and from the top menu choose “Edit”.

     

    Solution 2: Using CDN to serve static content from a cookieless domain

    The fastest solution to serving static content from a cookieless domain is by using a Content Delivery Network.

    Here’s the concept: If you offload all your static content to a CDN or a file storage service like MaxCDN, keeping the static file requests cookie-free should be easy as long as you haven’t set up a CNAME record on a subdomain that receives cookies from your top-level domain.

    For Google and other search engines, it doesn’t matter the files are hosted on 3rd party servers or your own.

    Remember that it is all about the domain that the request is made to and making sure nothing on that domain sets any cookies.

     

    Why use Content Delivery Network such as MaxCDN?

    The answer is simple. It is easy and hassle free. You don’t have to crack your head or mess with confusing codes just to serve static content from a cookieless domain.

    Besides that, MaxCDN is seriously affordable and apart from solving your static content serving, it also helps you to speed up your website loading speed by the seconds!

    Don’t forget that Google gives higher ranking to websites that load faster (and under 1.5 seconds).

    Learn more about MaxCDN and click here to get MaxCDN discount.

     

    How to know if you have successfully serve static content from a cookieless domain?

    Once you have completed either of the steps above, you would need to clear your browser cache and empty the cache plugin. You may also decide to leave it for a few hours before checking on Pingdom Tools.

    You will know it is successful when you see the following:

    fix serve static content from a cookieless domain warning

  • Serve Static Content From Cookieless Subdomain for CloudFlare (Updated 2018)

    Serve Static Content From Cookieless Subdomain for CloudFlare (Updated 2018)

    Interesting read: Money Brighter is one of the best LLC in Texas! If you are thinking of speeding up your website, Google might be telling you the answer is to create a cookieless subdomain or domain. Well, that’s easy for you to say. How to serve static content from a cookieless domain? More importantly, what is a cookieless subdomain?

    Instead, you can consider a cookieless subdomain is a term to describe data transferring from one point to another (in this case, data movement from subdomain to domain) has no cookies attached. Indirectly, this boost the loading speed of your domain.

    This is what Google explain in its own words:

    ​Why is serving static content over cookieless domain important?

    ​Static content, such as images, JS and CSS files, don’t need to be accompanied by cookies, as there is no user interaction with these resources. You can decrease request latency by serving static content from a domain that doesn’t serve cookies. This technique is especially useful for pages referencing large volumes of rarely cached static content, such as frequently changing image thumbnails, or infrequently accessed image archives. We recommend this technique for any page that serves more than 5 static resources. (For pages that serve fewer resources than this, it’s not worth the cost of setting up an extra domain.)

    ​​What does this means to you?

    All static contents or data that are transferred with the accompanied by cookies. Though cookies are not needed for any transaction and do not serve any advantage, they will automatically be available for all data transfer. The only way to avoid such is when static contents are obtained from a cookieless site.

    ​Static content + ​cookieless domain?

    ​Serving static content or resources from a cookieless domain reduces the total size of requests made for a page. It is also important to note that there is no point setting up static subdomain for this matter if you are using a powerful web host or having very less page.

    ​Now that we had gone through the relationship between cookieless subdomain and serving static content, let’s explore the right way to serve the following static resources from a domain that doesn’t set cookies.

    ​How to create a cookieless subdomain using CNAME?

    ​When it comes to creating a cookieless subdomain, using a CNAME could be the easiest way of all​ (at least for me). This step is extremely easy to follow and ​after configurations, you can start serving static resources from a domain that doesn’t set cookies.

    • ​Go to your cPanel (most shared web hosting offers this)
    • ​Create a subdomain (any name would do, e.g. static.domain.com)

    ​This subdomain will serve as a CDN subdomain which is the key criteria to enable the process of serving static content from cookieless domain.

    Selecting the right installation path for the subdomain

    In order to create a proper cookieless subdomain, you have to ensure that when you are creating your subdomain, make sure it is pointing to your root directory instead of creating a secondary one. For example, my root directory is /public_html and thus, it should be pointed or directed to /public_html and not the default, /public_html/static.

    How to create a subdomain?
    This is what you see when you are pointing to subdomain to the right path 

    Editing the DNS Zone

    Once you have done pointing the subdomain, head over to your DNS Zone Editor. At times, these might be labeled as Simple or Advanced DNS Zone Editor for several types of cPanel but they are all alike.

    How do you create a subdomain for serving static content?
    Pointing subdomain to the right domain 

    You would need to either create or modify the Name to your subdomain name and CNAME as your main domain. Of course, for the Type, you would need to select CNAME. You may start this by hitting the create button and if there is already a record, you just need to modify the settings to the above.

    Still not sure? Let me explain to you, in other words. When you create the CNAME record you want to enter your static domain/subdomain as the label, name or an alias and your A record domain as the content or value. (The CNAME term, which stands for Canonical Name, actually refers to the domain you are mapping to, not the alias.  The common practice of referring to the alias as the CNAME is in fact backwards.) 

    Making sure the subdomain is cookieless

    I could not emphasize how important this is but you must not skip this step no matter what. In WordPress, there are two common cookie-setters which are WordPress and Google Analytics. All you need is to do little changes in the configurations and you would be well on your way to a cookieless subdomain.

    For WordPress, head over to your wp-config by login into your cPanel. Open it up and add this line to the file. If you are wondering where exactly you may place this file, you can place it at the bottom most of the script.

    define(‘COOKIE_DOMAIN’, ‘www.yourdomain.com’);

    This is definitely a no-brainer but just to make sure, do remember to change your domain to your own domain name. After that, save the file and you are good to go!

    For Google Analytics, all you need to do is to search for the specific code you had earlier placed in on your site and replace the code with the below one. For a quick tip, most Google Analytics code is kept close to the <body>.

    _gaq.push( [‘_setAccount’, ‘UA-xxxxxxx-1’], [‘_setDomainName’, ‘www.yourdomain.com’], [‘_trackPageview’] );

    Again, change your domain as seen above to your own domain URL and save the file.

    Important note: If you are using cloudflare or any type of Content Network Delivery (CDN), please get your hosting and CDN provider to verify on the CNAME. For example, using Cloudflare will give you an error when you are following the above guide in changing the CNAME. Basically, the hosting or CDN provider will give you a new A figure to place in. 

    You are all done!

    Now, treat yourself to a bottle of beer for the hard work and congratulations. You had managed to create a cookieless subdomain from scratch. This is one of the cheapest (and fastest) way to create a cookieless subdomain when it comes to serving static content to improve your website speed.