The Do’s and Don’ts of Making Your PHP Website Faster

Today PHP powers 78.9% of all websites on the Internet, and its latest version, PHP 7, is used by 68.1% of websites on the world wide web. So, this implies that around 8 out of 10 websites you see on the Internet are using PHP on the server-side.

Indeed, PHP enjoys tremendous popularity worldwide. But do you know that running a PHP website has its ups and downs? Majorly it has a speed issue that’s a problem of many website owners. Though its latest version has sorted the speed problem to a great extent now, all you need is now the perfect guidance. You can also contact a good PHP development company for the guidance and implementation part.

There are some major dos and don’ts that you should consider making your PHP website faster and driving traffic. So, let’s uncover these points and provide your website the speed that it is worth.

Do’s for Making a PHP Website Faster

#1. Do Enable OPcache on PHP server

OPcache is a PHP extension that caches the compiled version of bytecode for a script, so when it needs to be executed next time, there’s no need to recompile and instead perform it. It drastically reduces server load since the serving of bytecode doesn’t need any CPU power. You can say that your server is free to serve those many more requests as it can’t handle them previously.

To enable OPcache on your server, you need to update the PHP version to 7.1 or higher and then edit the php.ini file and add the following line:

zend_extension=opcache.so

After that, restart your server, and it will start caching the bytecode.

#2. Do Upgrade the PHP Version

Nowadays, it’s rare to find a hosting company with updated PHP versions available, but some users still use old versions like 5.6. While they work perfectly fine, if you wish to make your website faster, you should ideally use the latest stable version of PHP, which as of now is 7.1.2.

If your hosting company hasn’t provided you with a newer PHP version, contact them and request it to be installed or switch hosts if they don’t listen to you.

#3. Do Improve Code for a Better Process

Sometimes the way you write your code may not be the best. If your website is slow, you should look into that and see if there’s any way to optimize it without changing its concept or architecture.

The code can get bloated quickly in this language because it doesn’t offer many optimization tools like other languages (e.g., CSS preprocessors like SASS or LESS). Also, it would help if you stopped using mysql_ functions as soon as possible. Instead, use native PHP functions.

#4. Do Deploy PHP on Cloud Hosting

PHP is not the most lightweight language out there and needs a powerful server to run it faster. The best way would be to deploy it on Cloud Hosting, where there are many PHP servers serving requests and thus not letting any request wait in line.

It is the best way to optimize your PHP website for better speed.

#5. Do Use Native PHP Functions

Many functions come natively with this language, but most people don’t use them because they want more control over the app they create, so they write it themselves. It is wrong as using native functions will make your code shorter and faster because it takes less time to call a part than writing one yourself.

Also, avoid writing wasteful code because this language doesn’t have many string optimizations, which makes using a lot of them in your code can cause it to run slow.

Don’ts for Making a PHP Website Faster

#1. Do Not Use MySQL Functions

One of the most popular databases available today is MySQL. Many frameworks and programming languages have made their APIs around, but that doesn’t mean you should use them for everything.

The main problem with using native MySQL functions is that they are much slower than the native PHP equivalents, which means your website may run slow when you use them.

#2. Do Not Write Wasteful Code

Writing wasteful code will always slow down the processing of your app. It would help if you did not write loops where they have to both iterate through the first and last element of a data array, as it will slow down your app.

#3. Do Not Use PHP Close Tags

People tend to forget about the closing tag in this language, where most of the problem lies. Not using them makes PHP interpret that code as one line, reducing its performance.

#4. Do Not Neglect Other Languages

PHP is not the only language you should be focusing on for making your app fast. Other languages can make it even quicker by optimizing different parts of code. For example, CSS preprocessors like SASS or LESS help speed up front-end work as they compile to CSS.

#5. Do Not Trust User Input Always

It is one of the biggest mistakes everyone makes while creating apps, as they trust input given by users without validating it first. If you do not check user input before using it, there are chances your app may crash because the set of possible values it could have is extensive, and some plain text might be an invalid value.

Conclusion

PHP is not your only option. It may be easier to get started with, but if you’re looking to maximize your speed, you should seriously consider other options. Though it’s certainly possible to speed up an application by modifying its existing code, if that isn’t possible or feasible — and in many cases, it won’t be — you should consider translating your application to another language.

To make your websites as fast as possible, you need to ensure you’re not neglecting other essential languages. HTML, CSS, JavaScript all play a crucial role in speeding up your website. Better, If you hire a PHP developer in India, they will guide you best.

FAQs

Ques: How can I make my PHP website faster?

Ans: The trick is to use effective caching, which can help reduce the number of SQL queries you have to execute to display web content. As site traffic increases, if your PHP script takes longer to generate a page that gets served, Google might start flagging it as inaccessible too much.

Q: Can PHP be fast?

Ans: PHP can be fast, and one way to make it faster is by combining the PHP code to execute fewer code segments at once. The “build-time” process, in which raw PHP scripts are compiled into a form called bytecode, significantly speeds up execution because it eliminates the need for interpreting or running each line of source code.

Another way for PHP to become faster is by using persistent connections — this removes the overhead associated with opening and closing TCP/IP connections between web servers and clients since these remain open for multiple requests over time.

Q: Why is PHP slow in performance?

Ans: PHP is a good language for small, simple sites, and it’s easy to learn and get up and running quickly. The issue is that it’s not scalable from the get-go, which means more work is required down the line when more users or larger volumes of traffic arrive. It has been working on fixes that mitigate problems with performance, but it still does have several significant limitations for scalability.

If you’re developing an application or website that numerous people will ideally access at once — a news site or social network — it may be better to use.