Website Maintenance

Website Maintenance and Why You Should Always Keep Your Website Plugins Updated.

Website Maintenance and regular updates are crucial for better website performance. We are constantly being told to update our mobile phones or the operating systems we use on the laptops that we use, and more. But if you use a WordPress website, you might be asking why are updates for a WordPress website so important?

The WordPress platform is regularly tested and updated for the best possible performance. Just like the updates for our phones, these WordPress updates can help us discover new features, reduce the number of problems we run into, and maintain positive user experience. Along with the website updates, plugins that run on your WordPress website are also being tested and updated as often as WordPress itself and if not more.

But because they come so frequently, it can be easy to forget all about them as the usual work day takes over and so convince ourselves that an update isn’t something we really need. However, if you want to get the most out of your WordPress website, you need to regularly update your site and the plugins that are used.

 

 

Features Are Released for Three Reasons:

1. To improve features. New features make WordPress easier to use or more useful.
2. For your safety. New security features prevent hackers from breaking into your website and inserting malicious code.
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.

Backup your site BEFORE you run updates!

Before you run any updates, it is critical that you have a current backup of your site & database. From time-to-time, there will be compatibility issues between new versions of WordPress & different plugins. These compatibility issues can take your site down and you’ll need to be able to fix the problem at a code level or restore the site or plugin from a backed up copy.

Elemental Media backs up your website on a daily basis if you are currently part of our Maintenance package. If you aren’t using it then I would strongly recommend it.

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 Then, they can target outdated sites and hack them. 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”?

Elemental Media can update your website for you and prevent it from breaking. Call us at 0800 772 0547, and we can schedule in a 15-30 minutes talk about updating your site. It only costs from £39 per month for peace of mind. Remember, we also have a variety of packages so that we can also give you an hour of other updates, which can help with the following:

Update images on the website to keep it fresh and up to date

Add new policies or documents

Add weekly newsletters to the site

Change photos should staff members leave or if new ones arrive

Update Calendars or events

Add content immediately to warn of any sudden changes

Keeping you in the loop to ensure your site is up to date with ever-changing regulations, such as GDPR.

You can see all our Packages Here: Website Maintenance and Support Packages

Don’t just believe us about, here are a few other blog posts that show it’s importance:  Code and WP Beginner