WordPress is one of the most popular CMS platforms on the internet today. It’s easy to see why: it’s free and open-source, meaning that anyone can download and use it for free. Furthermore, it’s extremely flexible and customizable, making it an excellent choice for any website owner looking to build their own site from scratch or update an existing one.
Keeping your website up to date is critical for security and also so that you get access to new features and performance improvements. However, updating a site based on WordPress can sometimes be more risky than beneficial especially if it’s a mission-critical site with many visitors.
Let’s see why and what precautions you need to take before updating your WordPress website in this article.
What is WordPress Update?
An update is a way to improve the functionality of the WordPress website. The WordPress development service team releases a new version of the core software, plugins, and themes every month.
These updates are critical to keeping your website secure, ensuring compatibility with other applications, and getting access to new features. You can access the WordPress website to know if there are any updates available for the WordPress version you are using.
The WordPress update can be comprised of a few simple steps:
1. All you need is to log in to your WordPress admin account and click on the “Update WordPress” button.
2. You will be asked whether you want to update the WordPress core, themes, or plugins.
3. If you have installed any plugins or themes from outside the WordPress repository, then you will not see them.
4. You can install any available updates from the “Updates” sub-menu. After clicking on any update item, WordPress will show you the change log of the update.
A change log is a log of what has been updated in the new version of that particular plugin or theme. You can check these logs to know what new features have been added to the updated version of the plugins.
Why You Should Care About WordPress Updates?
The WordPress core is regularly scanned for any security vulnerabilities by various organizations. Whenever a security vulnerability is discovered, then the WordPress team develops a patch for the same and releases it as an update. Nonetheless, if you do not install the available update, then your website can be hacked easily.
Apart from security, WordPress updates are also crucial for compatibility. WordPress releases are maintained for about one year. After that, the team starts developing the next version of WordPress. This means you may find it difficult to use certain features of your WordPress website as time progresses.
On the contrary, if you have installed the latest WordPress version, then you will have access to all the features and functionality. However, if you are still using an old version of WordPress, then you may find it difficult to use certain functionality on your website.
Things to Remember Before Updating WordPress Core
Before updating the WordPress core, you need to perform a few critical tasks. You should update your WordPress version, WordPress themes, WordPress plugins, and WordPress Theme Customizer.
You should also update your WordPress core regularly. The WordPress team releases a new version of the core software every month. This means you can update your WordPress core to the latest version every month as well.
However, If you are on a shared hosting account, then you should wait for at least two months before updating the WordPress core.
Shared hosting accounts are relatively slower compared to dedicated server accounts. This is because your website is hosted on a server that is shared by many other people.
So with that in mind, if your site is mission-critical and on a shared server, it’s usually best not to migrate immediately.
How to Safely Update WordPress Core?
WordPress core is the most critical component of your website. Hence, you need to be extra careful while updating WordPress core. There are several factors to consider while doing so, some of them include:
If you have a mission-critical website, then you should not update WordPress core immediately. You should update the WordPress core when you have the bandwidth to deal with issues.
If your website receives a lot of traffic, then you should not update the WordPress core immediately. You should wait until the rush dies down. You can also update WordPress core during off-peak hours.
You should also make sure that you have a recent backup of your website. This way, you can restore your website from the backup in case anything goes wrong.
You should also make sure that your host supports regular backups. This way, you can also restore your website from the host backup in case anything goes wrong.
You can update the WordPress core by downloading the latest version of WordPress and uploading it to your website. You can also use the “Updater” plugin to update the WordPress core.
Reasons to not immediately update your WP plugins?
WordPress plugins are developed by third-party developers. These developers are constantly working towards improving their plugins, adding new features, and releasing bug fixes.
You should update your WordPress plugins to the latest version. However, you should not immediately update your WordPress plugins. Remember to make sure that your website is not dependent on a specific version of a plugin.
There are two ways to update your WordPress plugins.
You can either go to your WordPress admin account and click on the “Update Plugins” button or you can go to your WordPress dashboard and click on the “Plugins” sub-menu from the left menu.
You will see a list of all the installed plugins on your website. You can select all the plugins and click on the “Update” button to update all the plugins.
Conclusion
Updating your WordPress website may seem like an easy task. In reality, it’s not as simple as it seems. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you could end up causing a huge headache for yourself and others who use your site. It’s important to make sure that you update your WordPress site safely by following the steps above.