Why its Important to Update a WordPress Website?

WordPress acquires 35% of market share among all websites in the world.

And the reason is its simplicity, cost effectiveness, huge pre built plugin, larger community support, easy to update, seo-friendly, and many more…

We know that importance of web development technology and so when it comes to offering better security and strong performance, updates play a very crucial role for websites. If you just take a look at our day-to-day lives, you must have noticed that you are continually being told to keep your apps, mobile phones or even the computer updated all the time.

Updating a website offers evident benefits to the business. Some of them are:

Similarly, making updates to your WordPress site is very important too. 

22% of WordPress sites are running on the latest version of WordPress.

54k + WordPress plugins in the official directory, with new ones being added daily.

Just to ensure there are no security loopholes left out and the performance remains at its best, WordPress platform goes under regular testing and updating. When you go ahead with updates on WordPress, just like in case of apps, mobiles and computers; you will be able to ensure you don’t end up with issues, will able to find new features as well as offer a user experience which is positive in nature. When making updates to the WordPress site, the plugins which you use for your website also get tested and updated.

Just because updates come frequently, many simply avoid them thinking them to be unnecessary tasks. However, it has to be understood that when you update your WordPress site regularly, you will able to enjoy its benefits for sure.

Different WordPress updates to make for your website

Security updates

73.2% of the most popular WordPress installations are vulnerable to vulnerabilities which can be detected using free automated tools.” – Wp WhiteSecurity

36% of the hacked WordPress sites that the company investigated ran an outdated version. – Sucuri

Your WordPress site must be having information related to your business as well as customers. So when you are considering the safety of such information, security updates play a key role. With increased cyber-attacks on WordPress websites by the hackers, it will become crucial for the website owners to ensure all the information, details and passwords are properly protected. Again, it will become possible to avoid any kind of takeover of your website by any malware or hacker with proper security updates.

By ensuring security updates, you can ensure to secure your website from possible threats from the hackers and stop any issues reaching your website visitors. Such kind of updates are very important for your website as if you spend more time without having them, and you increase the chances of risking your website. If you are making use of old software, then it will become possible for the hackers to find the weak spots and use them to enter your website using malicious code and steal your important data.

Features updates

152 days is an average time for WordPress to realease new Major versions

Updating the core features of your website is also one of the important updates to be made. You will be able to offer better user experience to the people coming to the website as well as stay on top in terms of technology when you will make a new update to the website in terms of new capabilities. Such a step will update your website based on modern needs. Feature updates are not that regular, but when made, they are capable enough to leave much of an impact on the website visitors. When making the update, it is important to watch the features keenly as they will help you build a website which can let you create the best user experience.

Performance updates

100-millisecond delay in load time can cause conversion rates to drop by 7%.

When it comes to your website, updates to the performance are very much beneficial for you and for your visitors. Your software or the plugins you use can easily have glitches or bugs and so by going for performance updates for your website or plugins, you will be able to remove them or adjust them in a manner that you will not have the issues again. When you keep your website adequately updated in terms of performance, you will be able to offer a better experience to the visitors and at the same time, ensure your website works as expected. Such a step will stop your visitors from getting into trouble when they are on the website. This will force them to leave the site, which will then prove to be an adverse effect on your business.

Top reasons why you should have your WordPress site updated

You increase the chances of risks when you neglect WordPress updates for your website. This will create inconvenience for the business and website visitors. There are a few reasons why you should go ahead with WordPress site update and it has been mentioned below:

Have enhanced set of features

The update to WordPress comes with its own set of benefits. You will be able to have your hand on several features which are new and improved that can simply make your website robust and more versatile in nature. The tasks which were restricted in the older versions will get simplified and easy to get done when updated. Say, for example, the WordPress users got the functionalities of multi-site installations and custom navigation menus in 3.0 version while the addition of Admin bar for easy navigation between sites was what users got through 3.1 version.

With every update, WordPress development turned out to be simple and impressive in nature with the addition of new features. Inline image editing was something that WordPress 4.1 came up with, while plug-in updates are what got delivered with 4.2 version.

If we talk about latest stable WordPress version 5.2 then it comes with new updates like Accessibility Updates, New set of Dashboard Icons including Instagram, BuddyPress, etc. Further it comes with advance Plugin Compatibility Checks where it will now automatically determine if your site’s version of PHP is compatible with installed plugins. If the plugin requires a higher version of PHP than your site currently uses, WordPress will not allow you to activate it, preventing potential compatibility errors.

Enjoy superior performance

When it comes to developing a website, every website owner wants their website to be easy to use and be high in performance. You will be able to experience the same when you update your website. So every time a visitor visits the website, they will be able to enjoy consistently high performance that comes without any lows. Let’s see how the websites were able to enjoy an enhanced performance with previous WordPress updates:

• The sites which updated to WordPress latest version were at ease when using complex queries.
• The navigation menus enjoyed improved JS performance with latest WordPress version.

A quality performance is very important from the SEO aspect and once your website has been updated, you can get to make sure that it works to the best of its capabilities.

Guaranteed compatibility

So as to ensure the software and plugins are compatible with each other, you should always work towards keeping your WordPress website updated. This means if you plan to use a new plug-in for your website while following an older version of WordPress, then it will not take long to find out that both of them are not compatible with each other. In such a scenario, you should be updating the WordPress version so that it will get compatible with the latest plugins that have been installed. Again, if new features are coming up with the latest WordPress version, you will not be able to enjoy them if you are using an older one.

Have an adequately secured website

WordPress is one of the well-known open-source software available in the market and it is a fact that around 35% of the websites around the world are on WordPress. The very popularity of WordPress has got it the attention of the hackers. They always try to get into its source code and steal the data from the websites. Security experts report the bugs and the security fixes all the while studying the codes. A security breach gets reported to the WordPress team once it reaches a stage of vulnerability. Once the report is made, the team at WordPress work towards coming up with an update which will target the issue and resolve it.

WordPress infections rose from 83% in 2017 to 90% in 2018 – Sucuri

This clearly means that if you are not using the latest version of WordPress, you are more prone to have security threats for your website. This means that you should work towards following the latest WordPress themes and plugins for your site so that your site will not fall prey into the hands of the hackers. This one decision will keep your website secure and safe.

Easy adaptability to change

When you use a version of WordPress for some time, you get acquainted with it and get comfortable using it. At this stage, making a shift to a newer version of WordPress may not seem to be a comfortable idea at all. The latest version of WordPress comes with all the best and updated features which can help you deliver everything as expected and so you should think about making a shift as soon as possible. Keeping your website updated will help you offer a neat user experience on your website. Moreover, with the time you need to make the change and updating to the latest version will help you be easy at experiencing changes all the while going for the effective functionalities of WordPress.

Bug fixtures

Getting your bugs fixed is one of the main reasons why the WordPress site should be updated. There are chances of bugs getting into your website if the code has loopholes. With regular and minor WordPress releases, such bugs can be easily removed from the website. Every new release in WordPress is focused on resolving some bugs which got surfaced with the older version. So if your project is facing some issues, then it is time, you make the change and move to the latest version.

Better experience for the visitors

All the websites are developed with a goal to achieve. It can be designed to generate income or offer some valuable content to the visitors. Whatever be your goal, you need to do your best to keep the visitors engaged on the website so as to stay ahead in the market. The best way to reach your visitors and fulfil their demands is by updating your WordPress website.

How do I know if my site needs to be updated?

Well that’s quite simple. Just login to your WordPress site and your dashboard will show the highlighted kind of screen in the left top most place below home button (As mentioned in below image). Clicking on that will let you know the version you are running and the latest available version too.

Make Sure to Take your Backup First… Well in Advance….

But why?

It’s not necessary that all the plugins used in your WordPress website are compatible with the latest version. There might be a compatibility issue which might results in taking down your website. You‘ll need to be able to fix the problem by restoring the old version or by replacing the plug-in with other.

There are many plugins free as well as paid that offers you one click backup support.
Hence make sure to backup your website. Also Don’t forget to back up your database as well.

Updating your WordPress site regularly will ensure that it stays on top every time. It will ensure your website remains secure and the performance of the site is not altered at all. The main aim of building a website is all about attracting the visitors and bringing in business and, regular version and plug-in update will ensure that.