As a business owner, you know that your website is important, but how often do you update your website? We’re not just talking about making sure you have new photos and fresh content. We’re talking about website updates for the back end of your website. While updates may seem like a hassle or just another thing taking time away from important projects, they’re actually important and vital to the functionality and protection of your site.
Updates of any kind can seem like a hassle and waste of time when you could be doing other things. So, often times, we put updates off until later…and later…and later. We’ve all been there. A notification pops up on our computer or phone saying it needs to update to a new version of the software, and we think, “This software seems to work just fine.” We ignore the notifications or click “Remind me later.” But our devices and websites don’t remind us just for fun. Technology companies don’t come up with updates unless they’re important.
So, why is updating your website so important?
Security
We cannot stress enough how important updating is for your website’s security.
“With WordPress in particular, the majority of minor-version updates are to fix various security issues that have been discovered,” said Jordan Hazen, technical system administrator at Old City Web Services. “WordPress can be configured to keep its core software updated automatically, and it’s a good idea to have this enabled.”
If you are looking to get your WordPress to update automatically, go to your Easy Updates Manager in WordPress and enable that setting. If you would like, WordPress can also send emails when a new update is available. To set up that service, go to WordPress settings and enable your Updates Notifier. It is important to note that if you do an automatic update, your site can break. If we do your site update and it breaks, we are there to fix it for you right when it happens.
Although your host’s servers may have tight security, a website that is behind on updates becomes vulnerable to security threats. It makes you more susceptible to hackers and viruses. A big target of hackers is websites, such as e-commerce sites, that contain sensitive information such as credit card numbers. A website using old software has a much higher risk of being hacked. An old plugin might have stored credit card numbers in plain English while a new version would encrypt the numbers for safety. If your site got hacked, you could be subject to legal action from those whose credit cards were stolen. They could state that you did not store their information properly. So, not only is your site at risk but also the wellbeing of your company.
New Features
With new updates come new features. This is a good reminder that website updates really are there to help you and work in your favor, and they’re an incentive to update to see what new cool features are available to make your work and website better overall. Each update comes out with new features unique to the update. One of the most recent updates is WordPress 4.7 which was released at the end of 2016 and presented a new default WordPress theme for 2017.
Here’s a video introducing the new update:
The new features include immersive featured images, video headers, and subtle animations. The update was mainly focused on business websites. Some of the more technical features include the ability to edit shortcuts icons, the ability to add pages in your menu, the ability to add live custom CSS, and more.
Better performance
When you update your website, you will notice that your site’s performance will improve overall. Updates often improve plugins, themes, and WordPress in general. WordPress releases updates when they know they can help things run more efficiently, so you’re always working with the best tools. Think of it as car maintenance. If you have a car part that is older, it might be wearing down and not working as well as it once could. Once you put a new part in your car, you’ll notice the difference in performance. Just as it is important to maintain your car along the way, it’s important to make updates to your website along the way for optimum functionality.
Bug Fixes
Nothing is perfect and no website is ever done. WordPress is the most popular content management system in the world, not because they did everything perfectly the first time they released the program but because they are constantly working to improve their product. A common reason for updates is fixing something that was not working to its potential previously. These updates will also help with the functionality and speed of your website.
How we can help
As you can see, updating your website is crucial to its security and performance. It’s important to maintain the best website you can for your business. We know that as a business owner, your to-do list is neverending. This is why we offer services to update clients’ websites for them. Working with our knowledgeable team takes the guesswork out of the process and assures you that you are taking the best steps to protect and enhance your website.
If you are interested in our services, contact us to set up a free consultation and let us show you how we can help!