This article was transcribed by SimpRead. Original URL: blog.eyyyye.com
Recently, in Google Search Console’s “Core Web Vitals” report, I received a yellow warning: the LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) of my blog website exceeds 2.5 seconds.
Since the blog uses a single-node deployment architecture, all resources depend on one node for processing. When opening the page, a large number of CSS, JS, and images are loaded simultaneously, resulting in slow loading speeds. Therefore, I decided to integrate static resources with a CDN service to optimize the blog’s access speed.
While searching for a suitable CDN provider, I found that Alibaba Cloud offers Edge Security Acceleration (ESA), which allows direct integration of an entire site into Alibaba Cloud’s global CDN network, along with security features such as DDoS protection. Thus, I decided to adopt Alibaba Cloud’s ESA service and document the integration process below.
1. Prerequisites
- Domain name management permissions (required to modify DNS records);
- An Alibaba Cloud account (to activate the Edge Security Acceleration ESA service);
- SSL certificate (refer to: Use acme.sh to apply for free SSL certificates and upgrade to HTTPS, or use a free certificate from Alibaba Cloud);
2. ESA Integration Process
1. Add Site (Primary Domain to Be Integrated)
After logging into Alibaba Cloud, click the sidebar menu icon in the upper-left corner, locate “Edge Security Acceleration ESA,” and enter the console:
Click 【Site Management】→【Add Site】:
Enter the domain name (primary domain) you wish to integrate:
Select the acceleration region and integration method (choose based on your needs; options include NS or CNAME). Since there are other services under this domain, I chose the CNAME integration method:
In the next step, select a plan (the Basic Plan offers 50GB monthly traffic, currently priced at around 60 RMB per year):
After completion, you’ll be directed to the site details page where you can obtain the DNS record data (hostname, record type, and value):
2. Verify Domain Ownership
To verify domain ownership, add a DNS record at your domain registrar (in this case, Tencent Cloud):
Once the DNS record is added, return to the Alibaba Cloud console and click the verification button:
After successful verification, proceed to the next step.
3. Add DNS Records (Subdomains to Be Accelerated)
In the Alibaba Cloud ESA console, click on the site name to enter the site management details:
On the site details page, click Add DNS Record:
Fill in the subdomain name in the hostname field, enter your origin server IP address in the source address field, and leave other settings as default. Refer to the hints on the right for guidance on each field:
Next, select the business type according to your use case (for a blog website, simply choose “Web Page”):
After clicking Complete, you’ll see a success message and obtain the DNS record information for the subdomain (hostname, record type, and value):
If you accidentally close this page, you can find the CNAME value under the DNS Records section:
4. Point Subdomain to ESA
Go to your domain registrar’s management panel (Tencent Cloud in this example), and configure the subdomain to point to the ESA-provided CNAME record (obtained in the previous step):
After completing the DNS configuration, return to the Alibaba Cloud ESA console and click Check to verify the setup:
Upon successful configuration, the result will appear as follows:
Even if you accidentally close the ESA console page, the system will automatically update the subdomain resolution status.
5. Configure SSL Certificate (Required If Your Site Uses HTTPS)
In the Alibaba Cloud ESA console, go to 【SSL/TLS】→【Edge Certificates】:
You can either apply for a free certificate or upload a custom certificate.
3. Performance Improvement Demonstration
After configuration, use commands like nslookup or ping to verify whether DNS resolution has taken effect. Once DNS propagation is complete, you can test the acceleration performance:
Google Chrome page load time:
Google Chrome Performance Analysis:
Google Chrome Lighthouse Report:
Online ping test:
Matomo performance analysis:
Alibaba Cloud ESA speed monitoring:
4. Additional Configurations (Optional)
1. Real-time Log Push
2. Firewall (WAF) Configuration
3. Usage Capping Configuration
Additional Notes:
- After pointing the subdomain to Alibaba Cloud ESA, it may take about 10 minutes for changes to take effect.
- You can use Alibaba Cloud ESA’s Trace Path feature to test WAF rule hits.
- It is recommended to set up usage capping to avoid unexpected charges. For the Alibaba Cloud ESA Basic Plan, overage pricing is 0.198 RMB/GB after exceeding the included traffic.