https://samaxes.com/2016/03/static-site-benefits/

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74    
75        <h1><a href="https://samaxes.com/2016/03/static-site-benefits/" title="Moving to a Static Website, part 4: Benefits">Moving to a Static Website, part 4: Benefits</a></h1>
76    
77    Posted on
78    <span class="post-meta">
79        <time datetime="2016-03-04">2016-03-04</time>
80        
81            &middot; Tagged in
82            
83                <a href="https://samaxes.com/tags/amazon">amazon</a>, 
84            
85                <a href="https://samaxes.com/tags/hugo">hugo</a>, 
86            
87                <a href="https://samaxes.com/tags/performance">performance</a>, 
88            
89                <a href="https://samaxes.com/tags/security">security</a>, 
90            
91                <a href="https://samaxes.com/tags/speed">speed</a>
92            
93        
94    </span>
95</header>
96
97            <p>This is the last part of a four-part blog post covering my move from WordPress to Hugo, a static website generator. This post outlines some of the benefits from moving to a static website and to <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/" target="_blank">Amazon AWS</a>.</p>
98
99<p>If you haven&rsquo;t read the first three parts, you may find them at <a href="https://samaxes.com/2016/02/static-site-from-wordpress-to-hugo/" target="_blank">Moving to a Static Website, part 1: From WordPress to Hugo</a>, <a href="https://samaxes.com/2016/02/static-site-hosting/" target="_blank">Moving to a Static Website, part 2: Hosting</a> and <a href="https://samaxes.com/2016/02/static-site-automated-deployment/" target="_blank">Moving to a Static Website, part 3: Automated deployment with Wercker</a>.</p>
100
101<p></p>
102
103<hr />
104
105<h2 id="site-speed">Site speed</h2>
106
107<p>Speed is considered by many as the <a href="http://carsonified.com/blog/business/fred-wilsons-10-golden-principles-of-successful-web-apps/" target="_blank">#1 principle for successful web apps</a>.</p>
108
109<p>The benefits from moving from <a href="https://wordpress.org/" target="_blank">WordPress</a> to <a href="https://gohugo.io/" target="_blank">Hugo</a> are evident:</p>
110
111<div>
112
113<figure class="side-by-side">
114    <a href="/img/static-site-benefits/pagespeed-insights-desktop-wordpress-digitalocean.png">
115        <img src="/img/static-site-benefits/pagespeed-insights-desktop-wordpress-digitalocean.png" alt="PageSpeed Insights for the desktop with WordPress hosted on DigitalOcean." />
116    </a>
117    
118    <figcaption>
119        <p>
120        PageSpeed Insights for the desktop with WordPress hosted on DigitalOcean.
121        
122            
123        
124        </p> 
125    </figcaption>
126    
127</figure>
128
129
130<figure class="side-by-side">
131    <a href="/img/static-site-benefits/pagespeed-insights-desktop-hugo-amazon.png">
132        <img src="/img/static-site-benefits/pagespeed-insights-desktop-hugo-amazon.png" alt="PageSpeed Insights for the desktop with Hugo hosted on Amazon AWS." />
133    </a>
134    
135    <figcaption>
136        <p>
137        PageSpeed Insights for the desktop with Hugo hosted on Amazon AWS.
138        
139            
140        
141        </p> 
142    </figcaption>
143    
144</figure>
145
146</div>
147
148<div>
149
150<figure class="side-by-side">
151    <a href="/img/static-site-benefits/pagespeed-insights-mobile-wordpress-digitalocean.png">
152        <img src="/img/static-site-benefits/pagespeed-insights-mobile-wordpress-digitalocean.png" alt="PageSpeed Insights for the mobile with WordPress hosted on DigitalOcean." />
153    </a>
154    
155    <figcaption>
156        <p>
157        PageSpeed Insights for the mobile with WordPress hosted on DigitalOcean.
158        
159            
160        
161        </p> 
162    </figcaption>
163    
164</figure>
165
166
167<figure class="side-by-side">
168    <a href="/img/static-site-benefits/pagespeed-insights-mobile-hugo-amazon.png">
169        <img src="/img/static-site-benefits/pagespeed-insights-mobile-hugo-amazon.png" alt="PageSpeed Insights the the mobile with Hugo hosted on Amazon AWS." />
170    </a>
171    
172    <figcaption>
173        <p>
174        PageSpeed Insights the the mobile with Hugo hosted on Amazon AWS.
175        
176            
177        
178        </p> 
179    </figcaption>
180    
181</figure>
182
183</div>
184
185<div>
186
187<figure class="side-by-side">
188    <a href="/img/static-site-benefits/webpagetest-wordpress-digitalocean.png">
189        <img src="/img/static-site-benefits/webpagetest-wordpress-digitalocean.png" alt="Website&#39;s performance with WordPress hosted on DigitalOcean." />
190    </a>
191    
192    <figcaption>
193        <p>
194        Website&#39;s performance with WordPress hosted on DigitalOcean.
195        
196            
197        
198        </p> 
199    </figcaption>
200    
201</figure>
202
203
204<figure class="side-by-side">
205    <a href="/img/static-site-benefits/webpagetest-hugo-amazon.png">
206        <img src="/img/static-site-benefits/webpagetest-hugo-amazon.png" alt="Website&#39;s performance with Hugo hosted on Amazon AWS." />
207    </a>
208    
209    <figcaption>
210        <p>
211        Website&#39;s performance with Hugo hosted on Amazon AWS.
212        
213            
214        
215        </p> 
216    </figcaption>
217    
218</figure>
219
220</div>
221
222<h2 id="latency">Latency</h2>
223
224<p>A content delivery network (CDN) is a collection of web servers distributed across multiple locations to deliver content more efficiently to users. The server selected for delivering content to a specific user is typically based on a measure of network proximity. For example, the server with the fewest network hops or the server with the quickest response time is chosen.</p>
225
226<p>The following images illustrate the latency benefits from using <

226a href="https://aws.amazon.com/cloudfront/" target="_blank">CloudFront</a> (Amazon&rsquo;s CDN):</p>
227
228<div>
229
230<figure class="side-by-side">
231    <a href="/img/static-site-benefits/ping-wordpress-digitalocean.png">
232        <img src="/img/static-site-benefits/ping-wordpress-digitalocean.png" alt="Ping response time for a site hosted on DigitalOcean UK without a CDN." />
233    </a>
234    
235    <figcaption>
236        <p>
237        Ping response time for a site hosted on DigitalOcean UK without a CDN.
238        
239            
240        
241        </p> 
242    </figcaption>
243    
244</figure>
245
246
247<figure class="side-by-side">
248    <a href="/img/static-site-benefits/ping-hugo-amazon.png">
249        <img src="/img/static-site-benefits/ping-hugo-amazon.png" alt="Ping response time for a site hosted on Amazon AWS using CloudFront CDN." />
250    </a>
251    
252    <figcaption>
253        <p>
254        Ping response time for a site hosted on Amazon AWS using CloudFront CDN.
255        
256            
257        
258        </p> 
259    </figcaption>
260    
261</figure>
262
263</div>
264
265<h2 id="security">Security</h2>
266
267<p>A free benefit of moving to Amazon AWS is the ability to very easily generate SSL/TLS certificates to add support for HTTPS.</p>
268
269<p>Currently, <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/certificate-manager/" target="_blank">ACM</a> supports the RSA-2048 encryption and SHA-256 hashing algorithms which are considered secure by <a href="https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/" target="_blank">SSL Server Test (from Qualys SSL Labs)</a>:</p>
270
271<div>
272
273<figure >
274    <a href="/img/static-site-benefits/ssl-test.png">
275        <img src="/img/static-site-benefits/ssl-test.png" alt="Analysis of the configuration of the SSL/TLS web server." />
276    </a>
277    
278    <figcaption>
279        <p>
280        Analysis of the configuration of the SSL/TLS web server.
281        
282            
283        
284        </p> 
285    </figcaption>
286    
287</figure>
288
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