The need to work toward website optimization is a must for web developers today. To achieve this goal, web developers are constantly striving to adopt the best practices in the industry. One of the best ways to create a useful website that is both customizable and dynamic is via PHP, a powerful scripting language.
Considered as an ideal language for business website development, PHP offers ample flexibility but also comes with its own set of challenges. As a business owner, it is important to understand its limitations and work around them, all along taking complete advantage of its ubiquity and ease of use. Here we look at how PHP can be used effectively to code and how its features can be fine-tuned to boost business performance.
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Make the best use of PHP’s native functions
As a web developer, you have a choice to either write your own functions or save time by using PHP’s native functions. The developer can work on improving efficiency by understanding the nuances of the language and its performance in specific instances. For instance, static pages of your website may not need PHP and could hamper the efficiency of the overall web application owing to increased page load times.
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Limit your database access
Optimizing your database is the first step towards preventing a system crash while running PHP. More often than not, the data access layer of a PHP application is bound to account for the maximum execution time. Therefore, it is recommended that you look at every instance of database access in your codebase and take precautionary measures. Such measures would include limiting the number of users accessing your database at a particular time or ensuring that your database is well-equipped to manage heavy load efficiently. Another sure shot way to speed up performance is to make queries aggregate that can effectively decrease the number of hits to your database.
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Explore the idea of Caching
There can be absolutely no second thoughts on how caching can be used as one of the most efficient performance enhancing methods for a website. Caching stores the received data from server in a browser cache for some time. This saves ample execution time when multiple scripts are compiled. Specific caching engines such as APC or OPcache can do the trick by reducing database load effectively besides decreasing page load time significantly.
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Work on better processes
When using PHP, ensure that your server is taking only what is absolutely required and is not overloaded with unnecessary processes. Navigating through unused networking protocols and removing unnecessary antivirus scanners and hardware drivers could contribute to increased efficiency. It is seen that, when PHP is run on multi-threaded mode, it increases response time exponentially.
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Profile your PHP
A disadvantage of PHP is the lack of a suitable debugging tool. In such a scenario, it is important to profile your PHP by recording important details such as the time taken for functions to be executed, the number of times they are called, and so on. This can eventually provide an in-depth report about your application’s performance. Open source programs such as Xdebug are useful in this context to identify potential bottlenecks and work on optimizing code for better performance.
The bottom line is, developing website applications is a dynamic and ongoing process. Considering this, making adjustments to maintain consistent PHP performance is absolutely essential. Therefore, the best strategy for building PHP websites to boost business performance is to focus on the holistic scheme of things during the entire development process.
If you wish to have a customized website for your business, do reach out to us.
Related blogs:
- The Advantages of developing websites on PHP 7
- PHP for Enterprise Apps: Scope, Limitations and Frameworks
