What problems could arise from updating php version?
-
i havent really gotten a straight answer yet for this question - my client says:
"The developers are skeptical about the possibility to update PHP on our server as this could seriously damage the entire RV site functionality."
since i know nothing about php and any potential hazards i have to ask the community to see if there is any validity to these concerns.
we cant update our version of WP unless the version of php is first upgraded from 5.1.6 to 5.2.4
client wont do this because developers say its a potential nightmare
i , as seo, want a current updated version of WP for many obvious reasons
can anyone please tell me what, if any, problems could arise from upgrading the sites php? or is it just a lot of work and the developers are making excuses because they dont want to do it?
thanks very much to whoever answers
-
Alan,
I cannot think of an answer I have seen recently with the clarity of thought and ability to refute a very bad practice. (Especially on a security level). One thing we do with clients and upgrades (we do not handle clients on other peoples platforms) is to take a new update, give it a few weeks for bugs to be discovered and then do the upgrade on our end. We have clients sign off on us handling the upgrades, etc. from the beginning of the relationship.
For Erik I would suggest showing the client what has been said by someone with a lot of savvy experience. If the devs are worth their salt, they will change.
This was a good question and Alan delivered a great answer.
Robert
-
I've got very limited bandwidth for training (90% of my work comes from audits) - and is typically limited to in-person on-site for clients in the LA area because I find the in-person experience to be much more effective. Pricing depends on level and extent, and starts at $250 an hour so is ideal for groups (one fee regardless of participant count). Audits range from $3500 upwards of $7500 or more depending on scale.
-
what do you charge for
Individual Personalized Training? and site audits?
-
You can thank my combined 11 years SEO after 7 years web dev project management, with a background in information security and business ownership
-
i want to have your baby
brilliant answer!
i just copy/pasted the entire thing to my client - even got your pic and bio in there for added cred.
i have been asking this question in one way or another since early Feb. and you just nailed it
thank you very much
-
Any time you upgrade a server solution, the potential exists for things that are currently working to suddenly break. That is just the nature of technology. In an ideal world, this wouldn't happen, however unfortunately it's quite possible for many reasons.
Just one reason is technology developers cannot possibly test for every single unique server configuration on earth when working on an upgrade. They have time, resource and fiscal constraints.
In one example of how an upgrade from PHP 5.1.6 to 5.2.4 caused a WP site to collapse, the problem was neither with PHP OR WP. It was with a separate server solution related to firewalls that had to then be dealt with.
That example validates the concern expressed by the developers you're dealing with.
HOWEVER
Regardless of potential problems of this nature, it is irresponsible and deplorable for developers to refuse to upgrade servers out of the fear that something might break. Could you imagine 90% of the world still operating on IBM mainframe computers because of a fear to upgrade? The security implications alone are appalling, let alone business-case reasons.
Developers and systems administrators "should" be required to implement upgrades on a regular consistent basis, with the understanding that it is their responsibility to deal with problems that may arise, and during upgrades "should" also use intelligent best practices precautions and methods to ensure the least likely chance for a critical failure. THAT is the only proper business path for a business to remain successful long-term.
Hiding under the guise of "it's too dangerous" is a terrible pitiful excuse for laziness.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Too many redirects Homepage Problem
During a site move, a sub domain of website a redirected all pages to the homepage of website b. resulting a homepage algorithmic penalty for website b. The sub domain was deleted - and the sitemove for the main domain went through ok. However website b has 80,000 incoming links from the sub domain of website a. is there anything else that needs to be done to "inform" google that the mistake was fixed?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | FusionMediaLimited1 -
Is it a problem that Google's index shows paginated page urls, even with canonical tags in place?
Since Google shows more pages indexed than makes sense, I used Google's API and some other means to get everything Google has in its index for a site I'm working on. The results bring up a couple of oddities. It shows a lot of urls to the same page, but with different tracking code.The url with tracking code always follows a question mark and could look like: http://www.MozExampleURL.com?tracking-example http://www.MozExampleURL.com?another-tracking-examle http://www.MozExampleURL.com?tracking-example-3 etc So, the only thing that distinguishes one url from the next is a tracking url. On these pages, canonical tags are in place as: <link rel="canonical<a class="attribute-value">l</a>" href="http://www.MozExampleURL.com" /> So, why does the index have urls that are only different in terms of tracking urls? I would think it would ignore everything, starting with the question mark. The index also shows paginated pages. I would think it should show the one canonical url and leave it at that. Is this a problem about which something should be done? Best... Darcy
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | 945010 -
Google don't index .ee version of a website
Hello, We have a problem with our clients website .ee. This website was developed by another company and now we don't know what is wrong with it. If i do a Google search "site:.ee" it only finds konelux.ee homepage and nothing else. Also homepage title tag and meta dec is in Finnish language not in Estonian language. If i look at .ee/robots.txt it looks like robots.txt don't block Google access. Any ideas what can be wrong here? BR, T
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | sfinance0 -
Update content or create a new page for a year related blog post?
I have a page called 'video statistics 2013' which ranks really well for video stat searches and drives in a lot of traffic to the site. Am I best to just change the title etc to 2014 and update the content, or create a totally new page? The page has 2013 in the URL as well which may be a problem for just updating?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | JonWhiting0 -
Do I need to set Preferred domain when the non-www redirects to www version?
Hi mozzers, Not sure if I should setup preferred domain when the non www version redirects to the www version? if yes why? Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Ideas-Money-Art0 -
How long does it take for google to update title and metadata?
I updated my site's title and description about a week ago, however for some reason it's still not reflected in google search results. Here's my site and try searching for 'shopious directory'. Any idea why this is? I tried looking at webmaster tool and it seems that google didn't have any errors. Why is it still showing the old data?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | herlamba0 -
Can too many "noindex" pages compared to "index" pages be a problem?
Hello, I have a question for you: our website virtualsheetmusic.com includes thousands of product pages, and due to Panda penalties in the past, we have no-indexed most of the product pages hoping in a sort of recovery (not yet seen though!). So, currently we have about 4,000 "index" page compared to about 80,000 "noindex" pages. Now, we plan to add additional 100,000 new product pages from a new publisher to offer our customers more music choice, and these new pages will still be marked as "noindex, follow". At the end of the integration process, we will end up having something like 180,000 "noindex, follow" pages compared to about 4,000 "index, follow" pages. Here is my question: can this huge discrepancy between 180,000 "noindex" pages and 4,000 "index" pages be a problem? Can this kind of scenario have or cause any negative effect on our current natural SEs profile? or is this something that doesn't actually matter? Any thoughts on this issue are very welcome. Thank you! Fabrizio
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | fablau0 -
Using WP All Import csv import plugin for wordpress to daily update products on large ecommerce site. Category naming and other issues.
We have just got an automated solution working to upload about 4000 products daily to our site. We get a CSV file from the wholesalers server each day and the way they have named products and categories is not ideal. Although most of the products remain the same (don't need to be over written) Some will go out of stock or prices may change etc. Problem is we have no control over the csv file so we need to keep the catagories they have given us. Might be able to create new catgories and have products listed under multiple categories? If anyone has used wp all import or has knoledge in this area please let me know. I have plenty more questions but this should start the ball rolling! Thanks in advance mozzers
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | weebro0