How to improve PHP web performance

November 25, 2016

By improving PHP web performance, we mean the achievement of minimum loading time of web application so that it is loaded quickly and imparts a user-friendly experience. So, this requires us to take a number of important steps:

  • One of the important things we should keep in mind for this is that we should avoid using for each loops and instead of it, make use of array_mappings and other predefined functionalities.
  • Also, we should reduce the number of executables in one particular loop.
  • In addition to this, the database design and database structure are also critical factors affecting the website loading time. So, the database needs to be designed absolutely according to the requirement taking care to include neither any extra tables nor any extra columns.
  • Another important step is to check for the memory usage in normal and peak usage conditions with the provided PHP functionalities.
  • This is followed by checking whether the variable holding resources objects and large datasets are freeing up the memory and whether garbage collector is freeing it up.
  • Also, we need to assign ‘null’ before we ‘unset’. This is where we can try and use singleton classes as much as we can.
  • Along with these steps, we should also keep discovering places where we can minimise the code and maximise its execution for which we can use ternary operators instead of the normal condition evaluation blocks etc.
  • This also depends on queries which we run in a particular page, so, we should check which query is taking more time and get the same fixed in order to improve the loading time.
  • We should also check if there are any SQL queries running in loop. This code needs to be improved so as to eliminate the execution of SQL queries in loop. We should take care not to use any unnecessary loop while writing the code which may unnecessarily lead to an increased page load time.
  • Here, we can try to add indexes in Database table columns where ever we need to reduce the SQL query time.
Indexes:

An index can be created in a table to find data more quickly and efficiently. The users cannot see the indexes; they are just used to speed up searches/queries.

Create Index Syntax
Create Index index_name
On table_name (column_name)]
  • It also depends on server how the page will load.
  • The HTML side also needs to be checked and also whether there are any large images on the website that are taking the page longer to load or if there is bad JavaScript that is affecting the speed. The images on your website add to the page size. The reason is simple enough – larger images take longer to load.
  • Selection of Image format is also important. When the quality of the image is our top concern, JPEGs make for the perfect solution.
  • Compression of the image should be so done as never to affect its quality. This is where we have to strike a balance between the quality of an image and its size. Using the JPEG format, a compression of up to 70 percent usually yields pretty good results.
  • While implementing or enhancing a particular page we need to make sure all the related stuff is in the most recent version, this is also an important factor contributing to improvement of the PHP web page performance.

So, by following these simple steps, we can enhance the performance of our PHP web application by leaps and bounds.

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