Navigate through the back end of your WordPress website or blog and there’s a good chance you’ll see one or more of these update prompts. The developers at WordPress and creators of various associated themes and plugins are constantly working behind the scenes to freshen their products and Darnell Smith urges webmasters to take them up on their reminders. He is the owner of Business in the Black, a web development that creates custom websites for small businesses to manage on their own. He says lots of novice webmasters are hesitant to push the update button because they are fearful of their website crashing or things not acting right afterward, but he says it is a necessary fear to overcome.
Here are three important reasons to keep everything up-to-date on your WordPress website or blog:
- Security – Hackers and spammers are everywhere infiltrating the most popular systems and software, including WordPress. Most updates are released to increase security and WPBeginner says 83% of hacked WordPress blogs were not updated properly.
- Fixes – Sometimes there is a glitch or a bug that needs a tweak and an update is released to overcome it. It could be minor annoyance that makes your blog a little off or a major headache that affects the functionality of your blog.
- New features – To keep current and competitive, developers might add new and exciting things to their systems and plugins.
Be sure to back up your site first and maybe this will help you overcome your fear of pushing the update button.
Still not convinced it’s worth the trouble? Listen to Darnell Smith’s thoughts in this clip from The Marketing Mojo Show.
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