Is your WordPress website ready
for PHP update 7.2?

If you have a WordPress website, this PHP update is important and it needs action as soon as possible.

The organisation responsible for maintaining PHP (the open source programming and scripting language used by all websites built with WordPress) has announced the end of life (EOL) for versions 5.6 and 7.0 by the end of December 2018. At that time, they will cease to offer critical security support for these versions. So, your PHP update needs to happen now.

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All websites built with WordPress, globally, will need to upgrade to PHP 7.2.

How do I know what PHP version my website is running?

“Display PHP Version” is a FREE plugin that you can install via the dashboard of your website. This will tell you which version you are running and what PHP update you need.

How to install this plugin.

In your WordPress admin go to Plugins -> Add New.
Enter “Display PHP Version” in the text box and click Search Plugins.
In the list of Plugins, click Install Now next to the Display PHP Version Plugin.
Once installed, click to activate.
Go to your WordPress dashboard page and look next to your WordPress version to see what PHP version is running.

You need to contact your website host and request this PHP update. In our experience, many website hosts will not upgrade this script automatically. Before requesting your upgrade, I recommend that you make sure that you take a site backup and update your WordPress framework, theme and plugins first.

Why upgrade your PHP script?

There are lots of reasons to make this PHP update:

Increased website performance
Up to 40% faster page speed
Greater memory efficiency
Enhanced security via the inclusion of the Argon 2 password hashing
Libsodium cryptography library

If your website starts to wobble, the functionality starts to slow down and some elements can stop working very often. However, this can be improved by a PHP upgrade to 7.2.

If we host your website here at The Typeface Group, we will automatically be carrying out the PHP update to 7.2 and we will drop you an email to let you know that this has been done.

Do you know how your website is performing? Click here to request a free, no-obligation website health check.