WordPress Updates and Your Website
Globally, the most popular Content Management System (CMS) for websites is WordPress. With over 455 million websites using WordPress, it continues to be the clear CMS winner.
The reason for its continued popularity is the ease with which a person with no web development skills can look after and update a website.
It's no surprise then, that when it comes to looking after a website - most self-managed websites focus on maintaining and managing the pages of the website and its content. Forgetting the importance of managing the underlying WordPress technology.
At Conversion Leadership we provide comprehensive WordPress website support as part of our SEO services. From SEO and updating page content, to updating WordPress and its plug-ins - your website deserves proper care.
That's because keeping your website looking fresh and working hard, needs attention and care.
Updating WordPress to the Latest Version
WordPress is incredibly handy when it comes to keeping your website content manageable. However, it’s this ease of use that also makes it vulnerable to security hacks.
The WordPress developer community is very proactive when it comes to fixing bugs and security problems quickly. Though that also means you need to update the version of WordPress your website uses frequently to ensure that you are keeping it safe.
Sadly, there are many WordPress websites with lots of custom development that makes them challenging to update to the latest version - it's a high-risk task.
Fortunately, there are sites, like ProManageWP, that are dedicated to helping you to update WordPress and provide step-by-step instructions to help guide you through.
Updating Plug-ins to the Latest Version
It is very common for WordPress websites to be built with a number of plug-ins that provide a website with some pretty sophisticated functionality. From shopping carts to quoting forms and appointment bookings, plug-ins often handle the revenue making bits of your website.
Just like WordPress, the individual plug-ins that are used by your website can be targets for hackers.
The developers of plug-ins spend a lot of time keeping updated with the latest “exploits” so that they can keep plug-ins functional and secure.
So when you don’t update the plug-ins, the consequences can be as extreme as if you didn’t update WordPress to the latest version.
Thankfully the developers of WordPress have made it easy to update WordPress and your plug-ins.
The Ups and Downs of Updating WordPress
While the WordPress and plug-in developers have taken care to make it easy to update your website. With cool features like single button click updating and explainer notes to help you understand why you need to update.
The website designers and developers you use to build your website may be in more of a hurry and take shortcuts that introduce website maintenance challenges.
For anyone who has gone ahead and just clicked the handy update buttons; they know that things don't always work as expected. Unfortunately there are often unexpected hurdles you have to jump over when you do WordPress updates - to resolve the weird things that end up happening on your website.
As mentioned earlier, heavily customised development during the build of your website may not survive some updates. Breaking your website.
The theme (the add-on that gives your website the branding, look and feel you wanted) may contain code that relies on a particular version of WordPress or a plug-in. Preventing you from updating without problems.
Your plug-ins can also break your website, if they don’t maintain compatibility with the latest version of WordPress.
The Thankless Task of Updating WordPress
Even from a skilled website developer’s perspective, updating WordPress and plug-ins is a messy and thankless task.
Unless the front-end (the web pages, menu, content and design) visible bits are broken there is little to see from the effort and long hours put into updating WordPress.
So when it comes to businesses that “look after” the website themselves, it’s not surprising that they may not be putting website updates on the weekly or monthly to-do list.
Let’s put this into perspective though.
You spent time and money building a great website and then got too busy to look after it. But failing to keep your website updated with the latest version of things is like throwing money out the nearest open window.
For every hour that your website is unavailable or covered in junk images and rubbish content, you are losing prospects, search ranking on Google and brand reputation.
The worst case - you forget about your website, it falls into a state of disrepair or becomes vulnerable to attack and suddenly find yourself in a ransom situation.
Some Easy Solutions
There are a number of solutions to your WordPress updates situation.
The first and most obvious is to put your website updates onto a monthly to-do list and have one of your team get this done regularly so your website is kept up to date.
The next option is to talk to the team who are building your website and find out what type of website maintenance packages they have. Getting the website builders to look after it for you after it has been finished will give you a seamless transition and complete peace of mind.
When your website developers don’t provide maintenance services, you can find companies that specialize in WordPress maintenance. Often the company where you host your website will have partners that can help you.
Increasingly there are SEO companies who, like Conversion Leadership, include the updating of your website as part of their services.
Many because Google and other search engines now place greater importance on website security. Whether it’s having an SSL certificate, being fast loading, mobile friendly or having updated CMS technology, the search engine bots are always looking for new ways to differentiate between good websites and great ones.
The thing to take from all of this… your website is a lot like a new puppy.
It works hard for you. In return you have to take responsibility for its care, if you want to keep receiving its love.
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