As WordPress Web Designers, The Importance of Updating WordPress is Clear

Ever seen this warning at the top of your WordPress dashboard? Don’t ignore it.

Just like any software that you have on your computer or phone, WordPress needs to be updated on a regular basis. Unlike most software, though, WordPress is an open source community. That means there are hundreds of people around the globe working to constantly improve it and fix old problems. Updated versions are released frequently.

Updating your WordPress site may seem cumbersome, but it’s very important.

WordPress releases updates for three reasons:

1. To improve features. New features make WordPress easier to use or more useful. Don’t wait and update two or three versions at a time. It can be detrimental to your site, and then you must learn about many new features at once.
2. For your safety. New security features prevent hackers from breaking into your website and inserting malicious code. This code can harm your site and cause it to lose position in search engine results. Search engines may even unlist your site.
3. To fix bugs. New updates can fix functionality bugs in your site. So if something isn’t working properly, you may just need an update.

Don’t forget to update your plugins too.

Updating your plugins can be just as important as updating WordPress, and you should do so before you update WordPress. This can prevent your plugins from breaking, because developers do their best to adapt to the newest versions of WordPress.

Out-of-date plugins can be even more vulnerable to security attacks than outdated WordPress versions. To update your plugins, go to the  plugins panel and click Update Available. You can do a bulk action to update the plugins or find the link under each individual plugin that says update now.

Why is old WordPress software so vulnerable to attack?

Whenever a new plugin or WordPress update is released, a bug fix report accompanies it. Hackers find out the vulnerabilities of old WordPress versions by looking at these reports. Then, they can target outdated sites by going to the sites and selecting View page source to see what version of WordPress they are running.

The easiest way to avoid being targeted by hackers is by updating often. It’s much easier to prevent damage than restore your site later.

Still haven’t clicked “update now”?

MayeCreate can update WordPress for you to prevent your website from breaking. Call us at 573-447-1836, and we can schedule 15-30 minutes in an up-front contract to update your site. It only costs $25-50.

Check out this infographic from WPBeginner. Maybe some of those statistics will convince you.