When looking at ways to improve the performance of your website, your web hosting plays a major role.
One of the most exciting advances in hosting technology is the introduction of PHP 7. As a website owner, there are 3 major benefits to PHP 7 that concern you.
Speed
PHP 7 provides a massive decrease in the amount of time needed to serve your web pages. Each click feels snappier. And a more responsive website has shown to keep visitors on your site for longer amounts of time. Even non-cached pages like your WordPress dashboard will run faster.
Many people who have measured their site speed are seeing 40% improvements to the page processing time. This is huuuuge. The below performance graph shows the same exact site with PHP 5.5 and PHP 7.
Scalability
When your pages can be processed faster, you can handle more users on your site with the same processing power. When you site gets busy, there is a limit to the number of visitors that can be served. Since PHP 7 can get the WordPress pages assembled quicker, you can have more simultaneous users.
Modern
Keeping your software up to date future-proofs your site and makes it easier to do minor updates without encountering problems. All of WordPress core and the most popular plugins have been tested to work with PHP 7. If you have custom developed software, check with a developer to make sure that you aren’t using any deprecated practices.
At some point in the future, PHP 7 will be the minimum requirement to host a WordPress website.
How To Enable PHP 7
Each hosting company does things a little bit different. It’s best to contact their support team and ask for PHP 7.
Many hosting companies now provide a place in your web hosting control panel to select the version of PHP to handle your website. They typically default to an old version for wide compatibility.
As a WordPress user with a current website, it’s safe to move to the newest PHP.
Author: Brian Murphy
Brian Murphy is co-founder of OnSiteWP, a WordPress website maintenance company. His professional experience of working within enterprise IT, communication departments, startup companies and freelancing provides a unique, well rounded perspective on the issues business owners face.