WordPress & WooCommerce Maintenance: PHP Upgrade, Search Fix, and Security Audit

An old client, Tessitorre, came to us with a request to resolve issues on a website we had developed some time ago.

A brief overview of the site: WordPress + WooCommerce, with additional plugins installed for enhanced search and catalog navigation. Everything had been working perfectly, but after about 2 years problems with search began: products stopped appearing, and search autocomplete also stopped working. An additional request from the client was to upgrade the PHP version on the hosting (it was still running 7.4, while 8.0+ had already become the stable standard).

We took on the job. We specifically chose nighttime hours based on the store's target audience so that, in case of downtime, it would cause as little inconvenience to users as possible. We decided to do a quick fix and accept possible disruptions rather than inflate the budget by setting up additional environments. A classic backup plus edits directly on production at night to minimize the impact.

PHP Version Upgrade

After diagnostics, it became clear that one of the plugins absolutely refused to work on the new PHP version — it had become so outdated that it was even removed from the WordPress repository: wp-transliritera. Yes, this happens often, which is why it's rarely possible to build a site once and for all and expect it to run forever without issues — it needs regular maintenance.

We replaced it with a modern equivalent and moved on.

Product Search Problem

The woocommerce-product-search plugin was used for search, with its own caching mechanism. After several attempts to get it working, nothing succeeded — the indexing would silently stop on one of the items. The logs, meanwhile, showed nothing.

To save time — both ours and the client's — it was decided to update the plugin version. This was now possible because we had already upgraded the PHP version. In addition, I prefer to check all versions with an AI scanner for possible threats and hidden backdoors — just in case. The situation with malware threats remains challenging, so an extra security check is never unnecessary. After the update, everything worked.

Security Audit

I also noticed in the hosting control panel that during the period when nearly all clients were hacked, the hosting was under a massive attack. Thanks to mchost for such "high-quality" services — I have never encountered anything like this with other providers. In any case, I recommend considering moving to another hosting provider; my task is to warn the client. I also installed antivirus software and rechecked everything for malware — the system is clean.

Planning and Reporting

During the preparation phase, the client was provided with a document containing an analysis of the existing solutions and an upgrade plan. Security reports were generated for each updated plugin to confirm no threats were introduced.

The client is satisfied :)

If your website also needs maintenance, get in touch — we'll diagnose and maintain it transparently and without surprises.