How to Update the PHP Version of your Server and Website?

PHP is the most popular and widely used web programming language in the world, and for this reason, many hackers specialize in attacking web pages and hosting servers that work with this language.

Join “SEO Forums” to keep yourself updated about PHP versions or you can also visit “Digitalmarketing” to get more information about PHP and how hackers attack different web pages.

Despite this reality, some programmers and web designers ignore PHP updates, because they do not know the various benefits of these updates, not just security.

If this is your case, here I explain why you should update the PHP version of your server and how to do it yourself, something you should do as soon as possible!

Or you can also consult “SEO Companies in Dubai” to get information about updating the PHP versions of your website server.

PHP programming is more alive and up to date than ever. This programming language, despite already having many years on its back, is the favourite for almost any web design and development company.

Perhaps, one of the main reasons is because PHP is easy to use and is extremely compatible with open source software. To give you an idea, many CMS software, like WordPress, are using PHP. Visit “Best SEO Expert” to get accurate information about the use of PHP.

It is true that there are other alternative programming codes for coding with PHP, but statistics reveal that PHP is present in 8 out of 10 web pages that use a server-side code language. So it will be for something, right?

But I must be fair to you and not lie to you; There are several errors associated with PHP, as well as some functions in it that have already been forgotten.

You can visit “SEO Specialist” to know about the different errors that are associated with PHP and how to fix these errors.

However, the latest versions of PHP have arrived to redeem these vulnerabilities, vicissitudes and other failures that we had to deal with.

PHP has been evolving and its latest versions are optimized, improve web performance and offer greater security and compatibility with other systems.

There are many reasons why I urge you to update PHP, and in this post I want to show you all. In addition, I will show you how we do the PHP update in Xplora in the web pages of our clients of our web page maintenance, update and improvement service.

So I would like to remind you that, if you do not dare to do it yourself.

Because you do not have enough technical knowledge or simply the necessary time, you can request our help, and we will get to work on your website as soon as possible. Shall we start?

What Are PHP Versions?

The PHP version, like any other software, is nothing more than the updates that are coming to the market in search of making improvements, correcting errors and adding functionalities.

Many people do not understand the importance of making these updates in everything related to their website.

But, to explain it quickly, it is like you continue to use an old car model that consumes leaded gasoline, a bicycle without gear shifting, or one of the first mobile phones that only works with 2G, something like that!

Updating PHP is essential for your website, especially if you use a CMS like WordPress, because each version of PHP is in force for 2 or 3 years.

Someone who says they do not want to update PHP on their website, or want to leave it for later, is the same as saying that at the moment they do not care that their website is giving errors, that they are not guaranteeing the security of their data.

And their web users (something that is already illegal since the entry of the RGPD), that receives penalties from Google and is positioned badly in the lists of results of the web search engines, that your website is losing visits and potential clients due to a bad bounce rate.

Previous Versions Of PHP

As I was saying, each PHP version involves changes and technical improvements, however small they may seem.

The creators of PHP do not launch a new version “on a whim”, but each version brings benefits that we should not miss updating, since many of these are at the security level.

If you want to know what specific improvements each PHP version brings, the PHP authors offer all the information from their website, where they explain what differences there are between one version and another.

Or what is the same, do you have PHP version 5.6? Something that is likely because 35% of web pages are still using that version:

In that case, let me tell you that this version expired on December 3, 2018, which means that your website has not received any updates in terms of security, performance or compatibility level.

Since then, and therefore your website is completely vulnerable at the level of security and compatibility.

PHP 5.6 And PHP 7.0 Have Ended Their Useful Life

Like PHP 5.6, PHP 7.0 also ‘died’ (to put it in some dramatic way) on December 3, 2018.

These discontinued versions seem to be the most used among those who handle WordPress and PHP in general.

And this fact should be considered a red alert or an emergency alarm, as it indicates that more than half of the web pages that operate with PHP are tremendously vulnerable and can be easily attacked because they haven’t received a security update in a long time.

Why Does It Cost So Much To Update PHP To The New Version?

This is a question that makes perfect sense. In fact, I’d say it’s the key to making the decision to update PHP.

Because they do not understand how it would benefit them, and they do not have the expert WordPress technical support service and, many web developers, do not want to be loaded on the back of that extra work (perhaps unpaid).

On certain occasions, updating PHP implies exhaustive modifications in the code of the web page, the WordPress theme, plugins and many other aspects related to the support of a web page.

So you have to deal with great compatibility standards, and it costs so much to change an old PHP version to a newer one.

If you want to know what price we would be talking about, in another article I explain what the price of maintenance and updating the website is.

Why Update PHP?

There are many reasons why you should leave behind that old PHP and open yourself to modern PHP.

Although you can get security support to continue holding some current plugins in your obsolete version of PHP, it is only a patch that will not last long.

Still, not convinced? If you are a tough head on the topic of the PHP update, I show you the benefits that you will gain if you stop being a Canadian salmon, that insists on swimming against the current.

Increase Security

Statistics reveal that many web pages using older versions of PHP, such as PHP 5.4 and PHP 5.5 have suffered various attacks related to PHP security, errors that otherwise would have been largely prevented by updating the PHP version.

A secure website is important to grow your business, be search engine friendly and comply with the RGPD and PSD2 security protocols required by the European Union.

If your page is crawled by search engines, and they classify it as ‘really safe’ (and I’m not just talking about having the HTTPS lock), you will greatly improve your ranking in internet search engines, such as Google.

Improve Speed

Did you know that one of the Google ranking parameters is speed? The faster a web page loads, the better its ranking is with the search engines, as simple as this indicates that the user will have a better experience on that web.

Therefore, those sites that take a long time to load are discarded and do not occupy good advantageous positions in the SERP (results pages).

Conclusion: Updating PHP As Soon As Possible Improves The Performance Of Your Website

I love to value the performance of a website as a vital element for a page to function optimally; and that is what guarantees to update PHP as soon as possible.

As performance, we understand higher loading speed, efficiency to operate, process actions and security among other things.