Why regular updating of WordPress and backups are essential

Keeping your WordPress site updated is essential, yet many site owners delay or ignore this task. Why? Updates can be tedious, and there’s always a chance that something might break, especially if your theme or plugins aren’t fully compatible with the latest version. However, even if your site is running smoothly, skipping updates can lead to severe consequences.

Hackers thrive on outdated websites. They exploit vulnerabilities that would have been patched with the latest updates. WordPress updates aren’t just about adding new features; they’re crucial for closing security gaps that hackers are eager to exploit. Though updating might seem like a hassle, it’s critical for keeping your site safe.

Safeguard Your Site’s Reputation

Failing to update WordPress doesn’t just put your site at risk—it also endangers your reputation. Many hackers aren’t after your data; instead, they plant malware on your site that targets your visitors. If Google detects malware, your site could be blacklisted, joining the over 10,000 other websites blacklisted daily for similar issues. Once visitors encounter malware on your site, they’re unlikely to return and may even warn others to stay away.

Hackers Target All Sites, Big or Small

A common misconception is that only large, popular sites are at risk of hacking. The truth is that no site is too small to be targeted. Whether your site gets millions of visitors or just a few, it’s still vulnerable. Hackers often target smaller sites, assuming they’re less likely to be updated and therefore easier to exploit. Outdated WordPress sites are prime targets, regardless of size.

Security Begins with Updates and Backups

Many WordPress sites are running on outdated versions, leaving them exposed to known vulnerabilities. Over 70% of popular WordPress versions have security flaws that could be fixed by simply updating to the latest version. Updates are designed to patch these issues, making your site more secure. But updates alone aren’t enough—you also need to regularly back up your site. In case an update or hack causes issues, a recent backup ensures you can restore your site quickly and avoid data loss.

Get the Latest Features and Keep Plugins Updated

Updating WordPress isn’t just about security; it also allows you to enjoy new features and improvements. Each update brings enhancements like better editing tools, performance boosts, and new customization options. Additionally, keeping your plugins updated is just as important as updating WordPress itself. Outdated plugins can introduce security vulnerabilities and cause compatibility issues, leading to potential site crashes or malfunctioning features. Regularly updating both WordPress and your plugins ensures that your site remains functional, secure, and fully optimized.

Maintain Compatibility and Site Stability

Outdated themes and plugins pose significant security risks, and they can also cause compatibility issues with the latest WordPress versions. When you update WordPress, you might find that some older plugins or themes no longer work. While this can be inconvenient, it’s actually a safeguard. Using outdated software can lead to severe security vulnerabilities. Keeping everything updated ensures your site remains stable, secure, and fully functional.

Prevention Saves Time and Money

Skipping updates might seem like a way to save time, but it’s a risky decision. If your site gets hacked, the time and money needed to fix the damage will far outweigh the effort of regular updates. The costs of rebuilding a hacked site can cost thousands of dollars, where as investing a little regular time in updates and backups now can prevent a lot of costly problems later.

Keep Your Site Running Smoothly and Securely

The most successful WordPress sites are those that are regularly updated, backed up, and well-maintained. While no site can be completely immune to attacks, keeping your software current and regularly backing up your data are crucial steps in minimizing risks. Pair these practices with robust security measures, and your site will be much less appealing to hackers.

For small yearly cost we can do it for you

If you struggle to keep up with updates, backups, and other essential maintenance tasks, consider using our standard hosting and maintenance plan. Its a small yearly cost for securely running a business website. We’ll handle all the updates, backups, and security checks so you do not need to, ensuring your site stays secure, optimized, and running smoothly.

If you want to remain with your own host and maintain your new wordpress website yourself, this is what we recommend below.

Maintaining a WordPress website is essential to ensure that it stays up-to-date, secure, and optimized for performance and search engine visibility. With regular maintenance, you can help prevent issues like website downtime, malware, security breaches, and poor user experience. In this article, we'll discuss the top tips and techniques to maintain your WordPress website.

1. Regularly Update WordPress Core, Plugins, and Themes 

WordPress frequently releases updates for its core software, plugins, and themes to fix bugs, enhance features, and improve security. Therefore, it's essential to regularly update your WordPress website to ensure that it's running on the latest version. We recommend at least monthly.

You can update WordPress core, plugins, and themes from the WordPress dashboard. To update WordPress core, go to the "Dashboard" menu, click on "Updates," and click on the "Update Now" button next to the WordPress version.

To update plugins and themes, go to the "Plugins" or "Appearance" menu and click on the "Update" button next to the plugin or theme you want to update.

2. Backup Your Website Regularly

Backing up your website is essential to ensure that you don't lose critical data in case of a website crash, plugin conflict, security breach, or other issues. Regular backups can help you restore your website to a previous version if something goes wrong.
If we do not host your website we highly recommend you contact your website host to organise a backup plan for your website before doing any updates.  Updates alone aren’t enough—you also need to regularly back up your site. In case an update or hack causes issues, a recent backup ensures you can restore your site quickly and avoid data loss.

With a Webeasy Standard Hosting and Maintenance plan we include weekly backups of your website ( we hold 3 backups of site ) which we can quickly reinstall a copy of website if needed and get you back up and running fast.

 

3.Use a Secure Hosting Provider

If you do not use Webeasy to host your website, then choosing a secure hosting provider is essential to ensure that your website stays protected from security breaches, data loss, and other issues. Therefore, it's important to research and choose a hosting provider that offers security features like:

• SSL certificate: SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificate is a security protocol that encrypts the data transmitted between your website and the user's browser. SSL certificates ensure that your website stays protected from data breaches and other security threats. Many hosting providers charge yearly extra for this ( check with yours ) Webeasy supply standard with hosting account.
• Firewalls: Firewalls are software programs that prevent unauthorized access to your website's server. A good hosting provider should offer a firewall that blocks malicious traffic.
• Backup and restore: A reliable hosting provider should offer regular backups of your website's data and provide an easy way to restore your website in case of a data loss or security breach. Webeasy backup your full site weekly and hold 3 version of it so we can reinstall quickly if needed.
• Php Versions: Allows you to update PHP versions on your hosting account easily, incase any of your updated plugins will not work on your current version of php.
• Monitoring: If you are on our standard hosting and maintenance plan we also have a monitoring feature where we are informed if your website goes down. Make sure your host has this feature to alert you if this happens. Otherwise you could have costly downtime on your website and not even know about it potentially for weeks.

Maintaining a WordPress website requires regular updates, backups, optimization, and security monitoring. By following the tips and techniques discussed in this article, you can ensure that your website stays up-to-date, secure, and optimised for performance and search engine visibility.

 

Compare - It all comes cost and your time

Our standard hosting and maintenance plan is $396 a year. This comes with

• Hosting - Reliable Australian based Server
• SSL certicate - Free with hosting account
• Regular Backups - Incase your site gets malware, hacked or crashes after wordpress  or plugin updates we get get back up and running quickly
• Monitoring - If your site goes down we get alerted
• Maintenance - Monthly updates of wordpress and plugins to help keep secure and up to date. Also with monthly reports.

Compare yourself

We highly recommend you add up the cost to you in lost time to complete the monthly required wordpress website maintenance your self, and pay your current host for all the above essential requirements of running a secure and optimised website to get a true refection of cost and time. Then you can make a more informed decision on deciding on what host and who you want to do the website maintenance.