Importance of Website Maintenance
If you have a WordPress website, then you’re guaranteed WordPress Version updates/upgrades and WordPress Plugin updates/upgrades.
If you ask, people may tell you that your website will continue to run fine without updating. Please don’t be misled. If the updates weren’t important to your site, they would never be published.
Plugin’s are designed by different individuals. These designers work on their own schedule and updates can be random. WordPress sites are built, using multiple plugins, with individual updates popping up at any time.
I charge a flat monthly fee for WordPress updates/maintenance for your Website.
When you hire my services, you have the assurance your website is kept updated and the confidence your site is secure.
The fact that security fixes are tied to upgrades can be both confusing and annoying, but it is a policy that is here to stay for the foreseeable future.(and not just for WordPress CMS)
Why should you update your site? Here are just a few reasons:
One massive and certain problem with not updating is that software always contains security vulnerabilities. So once they’re discovered, it’s easy for a malicious hacker to exploit them.
There are five main reasons for keeping every aspect of your WordPress site up to date, which are:
- Security
- Performance
- Bug fixes
- Compatibility
- Features
Each of these is important for different reasons, but it can be argued that security is the most important of all. If you don’t have your website and plugins updated, you’re vulnerable to security problems.
(You have heard or seen these Bank Phishing Websites? Those are often hosted on unsuspecting real WordPress or Joomla Site in a Sub Directory WITHOUT the Website Owner being aware of it, UNTIL the hosting Company shuts down the Website due to Complaints.)
One of the reasons that WordPress is increasingly becoming the target of security attacks is because it’s so big. A CMS that powers up to a quarter of the internet will doubtless attract the attention of anyone wanting to insert malicious code, take sites down or steal data.
Updates aren’t just for security. Often they’ll improve the performance of WordPress itself, or of a plugin or theme. A reason for Minor WordPress Releases is to fix bugs.
Major releases tend to be very stable and bug-free thanks to the meticulous development cycle and the legions of people helping with testing, but sometimes a bug will slip through the net, and a minor release will come out to fix it.
Plugins and themes are the same: Make sure to have them updated, in case they fix bugs that could be affecting your site.
After a major WordPress release, a lot of plugins will get an update to ensure compatibility with the new version, or to make use of new features.Occasionally, you might find that an update to WordPress or to a plugin results in compatibility problems with another plugin, which is why it’s important to back up the website before updating.
Keeping your site up-to-date also gives you access to new features. Plugins can do this, too. This means that keeping things up-to-date gives you access to the latest goodies.
Keeping your installation up-to-date is an important part of managing any WordPress site. It will ensure that your site performs as efficiently as possible and more importantly, it will keep on top of bug fixes and security patches. It’s one of the most effective methods for enhancing security, especially when teamed with the use of strong passwords.