Potholes and PHP: What Do They Have in Common?
A small crack in the road can become a costly pothole. Your website can develop problems in much the same way. Here is why PHP maintenance deserves attention.
We have all walked or driven along a road on a street that has seen better days.
A small crack appears in the tarmac. Over time, with traffic, rain and the occasional freezing morning, it develops into a pothole.
The road might still be usable, but eventually someone has to deal with the disruption and cost of repairing it.
But what does this have to do with your business website?
Quite a lot, actually.
A concern I came across this afternoon
This afternoon, I was reading a few articles about recently reported PHP security vulnerabilities, which reminded me of a youth and community organisation I support as a content manager.
I knew their website used PHP, so I decided to check its WordPress dashboard.
The website's health report highlighted an older PHP version and some outstanding maintenance issues.
Why did this concern me?
Because behind those website forms are real people.
Parents and carers submitting personal information. Local businesses and individuals enquiring about hiring the venue.
These are people trusting the organisation to handle their information responsibly.
I contacted the existing website developer to raise my concerns and ask whether anything needed addressing.
I am not a cybersecurity specialist, and maintaining the website's underlying infrastructure is not my responsibility. But recognising a potential issue and raising it with the appropriate person felt like the right thing to do.
Don't wait for the pothole to get bigger
Like our roads, websites need attention, even when everything appears to be working fine.
That does not mean every PHP website is vulnerable, or that an older website needs replacing.
But it does raise an important question.
What would your business stand to lose if your website stopped collecting enquiries, or the information customers trusted you with was compromised?
We often focus on what a better website could bring us. More enquiries, more customers and more revenue.
But what about the trust we have already earned, the customers we already have and the reputation we have spent years building?
Sometimes, looking after what we already have is just as important as investing in something new.
At Vivid Media Cheshire, I help businesses across South Cheshire improve their website performance, accessibility and customer experience.
If you are unsure when your website was last reviewed, I am offering a free initial PHP and website maintenance check to identify any obvious concerns that might need attention.
This is an initial observational check rather than a penetration test, full cybersecurity audit or guarantee that a website is secure. It can cover PHP version information when it is visible or supplied by the website owner, WordPress Site Health warnings where access is appropriately authorised, obvious outstanding maintenance concerns, and publicly observable performance and accessibility issues. Anything that needs server-side work would be referred to your existing developer or hosting provider.
Whether it is your own website or one belonging to a business you know, I would welcome a conversation or an introduction.
After all, it is easier to inspect a small crack than deal with a pothole that has been left to grow.