PHP (an acronym for Hypertext Preprocessor) is a free server-side web programming language that is used by millions of websites on the internet. PHP allows websites to be dynamic and provides a host of useful features thus providing website visitors with a better user experience.

Internet users are much more sophisticated that they were years ago and expect to see dynamic features on websites they visit.

Advantages of using PHP

1. PHP is free of any cost, freely available and most hosts provide PHP as part of the hosting package. If PHP is part of the package, then it is already installed, fully functional and available to be used.
2. PHP's processing speed is quite impressive and this results in quicker navigation and page load times.
3. PHP is one of the simplest programming languages to learn and there are numerous helpful sites, forums and tutorials available on the internet.
4. PHP can be learnt piece by piece or objective specific so that there is no need to master an entire PHP course.
5. PHP interacts well with servers and databases.
6. Provided it is done correctly, PHP can provide a great deal of security to your site.

You should learn PHP

Learning PHP is easy and fun and will give you a greater insight and understanding on how websites and the internet work. There's a huge thrill in putting up some code done by yourself and seeing it work in action.

Most website owners leave the programming to an external programmer. Whilst this might make sense, it involves a great deal of unnecessary costs as programmers' fees are usually high and most charge by the hour. If you start learning PHP yourself, you can start doing small scripts or changes yourself and thereby saving some money. As you get more proficient, you can do bigger things with PHP at absolutely zero cost.

Initiating changes and additions are less time consuming and can be done quickly if you program yourself. As the internet and websites are constantly evolving, there will always be a situation where you will need to make some quick changes to your code. Having a programmer do it might create time delays.

PHP allows you to do lots of fun things on your site and it is quite possible to invent a unique site that provides a unique function or service that nobody else has or has thought about. This uniqueness can be your Unique Selling Proposition that can catapult you and your site to great success.