Blog items tagged with "domains"
PHP and Exponent in 2017 (and Browsers too)
This article is a follow up to PHP AND EXPONENT IN 2016. Roughly one year after that previous article, PHP development is proceeding at breakneck speeds and we have seen two minor versions pass (though v7.2 is in release candidate status). Here's how it affects Exponent CMS.
The current release of Exponent (v2.4.1) is compatible with PHP v5.3 through v7.1. However, it is not compatible with PHP v7.2 (this will be corrected in the v2.4.2 release). The next release of Exponent (v2.4.2) will be compatible with PHP v5.5 through v7.2. We'll drop support for PHP v5.3 and v5.4 in that release because they are simply too insecure and should not be used in a production environment. And even though we will support PHP v5.5 in the next release, it is no longer recommended for production use since it was marked 'end of life' over one year ago. PHP v5.6 and v7.0 will be supported by their organization through the end of 2018, at which point only PHP v7.1 or later would be recommended. Another reason to remove old PHP version support in Exponent is that many of our 3rd party libraries simply no longer support ancient versions of PHP.
While we're on the subject of obsolete software, many browser software versions have also been termed 'end of life' and it is strongly encouraged they NOT be used! This would include Internet Explorer versions less than v11 (Edge in Windows 10 is considered Internet Explorer v12/v13). A beneficial side effect to this is that recommended browser versions are all now HTML5 compliant...which means that Exponent shouldn't need to use patches/tweaks to support HTML5 non-compliant browsers.Therefore, in the near future (though not in v2.4.2), we will drop support for obsolete/ancient browsers, which in turn should speed up page loading a bit.
PHP and Exponent in 2016
The primary scripting language used in Exponent CMS is PHP, just as with most other CMS packages such as W***P****, J***la, and D***pal. PHP is a scripting processor running on the web server which parses the PHP scripts to perform a task or output a page. Unlike javascript which is processed within the browser on the viewer's device. PHP development has been advancing at break-neck speed over recent months, and here's how it affects Exponent CMS.
Exponent CMS v2.0 was originally released supporting PHP version 5.2.1 or later, which at the time was v5.3.x. Support for PHP v5.4 was added in Exponent v2.0.7. Support for PHP v5.5 was added in Exponent v2.2.1. Support for PHP v5.6 was added in Exponent v2.3.1. Support for PHP version 5.2.x was DROPPED in Exponent v2.3.2 because several of the supporting libraries no longer supported such an old version of PHP. And support for PHP version 7.0, the current stable release was added in Exponent v2.3.7.
Most site administrators have little control over which version of PHP their web host server is running, but some hosts do offer a selection within their 'control panel' settings. Therefore, you have to trust your web host provider in keeping your PHP versions up to date since many of the updates remove security vulnerabilities. PHP version 5.2.x has been obsolete for quite some time. PHP version 5.3.x was termed 'end of life' meaning it was no longer updated in August 2014. PHP version 5.4.x was termed 'end of life' September 2015 and PHP version 5.5 reached 'end of life' a few months ago. With that being said, PHP versions 5.6.x and v7.0.x are the only recommended and supported versions available, both of which will be supported until at least late 2018. PHP version 7.1.x should be released before the end of 2016 and is in beta testing now.
Therefore, if you have a new enough version of Exponent to support a newer version of PHP, you should probably encourage your web host provider to move to it to prevent security attacks from harming your site or data. Furthermore, running PHP v7.0.x will give your site a tremendous speed increase because it is so much more efficient. The next version of Exponent (v2.3.9) will be released in a few days and supports PHP versions 5.3.x, 5.4.x, 5.5.x, 5.6.x, and 7.0.x and likely supports 7.1.x though testing isn't complete. You can expect Exponent to drop support for PHP v5.3.x very soon, with v5.4.x support not being provided too much longer either.
Part II - .HTACCESS - Advanced SEO Tips For Your Exponent CMS Website
In Part II of my Advanced SEO Tips for Exponent CMS websites, I'll discuss how you can utilize your .htaccess file to practice better SEO.
.HTACCESS
Your .htaccess file, which also ships in your Exponent CMS install, is used to override the Apache or PHP configuration files on your web server.
The .htaccess file can be pulled down from your Exponent site's public_html directory much like the robots.txt, which I discussed in Part I of this advanced series file can through FTP or cPanel/WHM. The one catch here is if you're trying to pull it down from cPanel/WHM, you must check the box that allows you to see hidden files (dotfiles) in your directories.
For SEOs who are optimizing Exponent CMS sites, there are two primary modifications that they can make to the file in order to make their Exponent CMS sites more SEO friendly.
Forcing a Preferred Domain URL
The first .htaccess modification you can make to optimize your website for SEO is to force a www. or a non-www. domain URL structure. This prohibits the possibility of two identical pages being indexed by the search engines with a www. and a non-www. version of the same website (the dreaded duplicate content issue!)
In the latest releases of Exponent CMS that support canonical URLs, this isn't such a big deal (so long as you're defining the canonical URL), but in previous versions of Exponent CMS before 2.2.0, you'll want to make sure you put this modification in place.
All you need to do is pull down your .htaccess file, uncomment out the example rule you want to follow, fill in the proper domain name, save, and re-push your file to the live server:
301 Redirects
During a website redesign project, one of the most important items to cross off the go-live check list (for the SEO minded at least) is to ensure you have any 301 redirects in place for URLs that have been indexed by the search engines.
Often times when a website is moved from one CMS platform to another, or undergoes an SEO overhaul, the URLs of each web page are updated.
When this happens, SEOs want to ensure that every URL that's been indexed by the search engines are permanently (301) redirected to their new URLs so the website does not lose any of their current organic rankings, nor deter potential customers who have found the website via organic search and landed on a “Page Not Found” (404 error) because the URL they landed on wasn't properly redirected.
Plotting out 301 Redirects is relatively simple in the .htaccess file. All you need to do is pull it down from your public_html directory and at the bottom of your .htaccess file start adding your 301 Redirect rules, which would look as such:
These two .htaccess modifications are critical for websites undergoing SEO programs, particularly when that site is going through a redesign.
About the Author
This blog post was written by Chris J. Everett, a small business SEO consultant based in Atlanta, Georgia.
Chris has used Exponent CMS extensively over the past 5 years and writes about topics related to the SEO friendliness of the system.
To learn more about Chris, connect with him on Google+.