Why is important to do updates of WordPress core and plugins on time
August 21. 2019
Do you own a WordPress website? Then you must be familiar with some or all of its many advantages. Having a site that is practical, user-friendly, and convenient at the same time – it doesn’t get much better than that, does it? There are things to be careful about, though. For one, you must do updates of WordPress core and plugins on time. You might have heard about it once or twice in the past. But you have probably been wondering about why it is essential to do it in the first place. Luckily, WP Full Care‘s WordPress experts have some answers for you right here. You’ll soon find out just why it’s so vital to keep track of your WordPress updates and do them timely.
The most important reason of them all – your website’s security
With each new release of WordPress, various bugs are being fixed, new features added, and overall performance improved. A community of developers enhances features that are already there. That helps WordPress to stay up to date with the latest industry standards. By not updating your WordPress website, you put your website security at risk.
WordPress powers almost 1/4 of all the websites out there. So it’s safe to say that it is immensely popular, and the benefits of using a WordPress website are numerous. And due to all the popularity it gained over the years, WordPress has also become popular among hackers and data thieves. Naturally, you want to save your website from people wanting to jeopardize its security, which is why it’s so important to do updates of WordPress core and plugins on time.
WordPress offers you the solution to all of its potential issues
Luckily for all its users, WordPress has the advantage of security experts around the world who can study the code and then report security bugs, as well as fixes. So naturally, there are vulnerabilities of the security every now and then. But each time they happen, it urges the core WordPress team to work hard in efforts to release a new update that would fix the problems that occurred.
So it’s simple. By not using the latest WordPress version, you are using software that has detected security vulnerabilities that can easily be fixed. You might have been unaware that hackers might also use plugins. So, it’s essential to be certain that your WordPress core, as well as plugins, are always up-to-date.
If you do updates of WordPress core and plugins on time, you’ll never miss out on new features
Every time there is a new release, WordPress offers some cool new features and useful changes to its software. Not convinced? For example, WordPress 4.0 introduced improved plugin install experience, whereas 4.1 presented the option of online image editing. Similarly, version 4.2 gave its users faster plugin updates. So, if you do updates of WordPress core and plugins on time, you’ll get the chance to enjoy it’s new features as soon as they become available. That is something that could prove to be very important, whether you are only starting an online store with WordPress or have been using it for ages.
Updates help your website run faster
In the online world, there has always been a tendency to make things run faster and more efficiently. And this is what updates are for. The new WordPress releases always come with performance improvements. These help your WordPress site run faster, and it also improves its efficiency. So, by not updating your WordPress core on time, you’ll be missing out on essential improvements performance-wise. And we all know that speed, as well as performance, can be essential factors in SEO. And we all know boosting the SEO of a WordPress website is one of the major things website owners worry about.
How can you keep your WordPress website and all its plugins up-to-date?
Keeping your website up-to-date is not something that should be too difficult to achieve. Once you log in to your WordPress dashboard, you’ll see the number of available updates. They’ll be highlighted in the menu to the left. All you need to do is click “Updates” and then install all those available.
You may like to know that some minor security features and bugfixes are updated automatically. However, you can allow WordPress to install those major releases automatically, as well. Head to wp-config to configure this manually. Another way of doing this is to set it up using the help of the Easy updates manager plugin. This plugin gives you the option of setting what should and shouldn’t be updated automatically on your WordPress website.
Not to forget
When updating the plugins, themes, and the WordPress core itself, the best option would be to do it in a testing environment. The reason for this is that you need to test if any of the plugin updates have made it incompatible with another plugin. Also, if you are doing the core update, you must check whether the plugins and themes are compatible with the newest WordPress version.
So there you go. To achieve maximum speed, performance, security, and SEO, you simply need to do updates of WordPress core and plugins on time. Do not miss out on all of the features and perks of having a WordPress website. If you feel like you cannot keep track of the updates, there is a simple solution to that problem. Just find a reliable team to handle your WordPress website maintenance. This way, you’ll have professionals taking care of your updates, as well as any other WordPress issues that may arise. However you decide to do it, just make sure your website is always updated on time.