There can be plenty of instances where something is made easy for you but choosing to go ahead with it isn’t wholeheartedly in your best interests. What may be ideal for some may be only passable for others, and if what’s made easy is only passably beneficial for you then you might not opt to proceed with it. Even if doing so requires little to nothing of you. If you’re one of the thousands of people with a WordPress website though, providing your site with the most recent WordPress updates is both easy and darn-near universally beneficial.
Each time one of them is rolled out and made available you can be sure that the WordPress update benefits you’re going to receive from installing the update are going to give your site more of the resources it needs for optimal functionality. That’s always the aim for the software pros that put these updates together, and if they didn’t make each of them better than the last they wouldn’t continue sitting in that chair for long. The same can be said for any software update put together for any web publishing platform.
WordPress speed improvements are always a focus and that’s because faster page load speeds is always a high priority for every DIY webmaster who is focused on good SEO for their website. Page load speeds factor into how well a site will rank with search engines, although it’s only one of many factors that go into that. But it definitely has sway, and installing a WordPress update will almost certainly mean your website becomes faster.
The need for better speed is one reality, and another ongoing one that seems to be more important all the time is website security. There are more threats to a site now than ever before, and if your site becomes a source of malware infection or something similar for visitors it can spell real trouble. Especially if you have a WordPress business website. Fortunately WordPress security updates are also a part of every newest offering.
It's also a huge plus that these updates will often featuring security patches that are designed to address specific known threats that have emerged and are very prominent right now for WordPress websites. It’s good that you’ll be protected from having an encounter with one if you’ve been fortunate to avoid it to this point. It’s also always a good idea to have your site on Managed WordPress hosting if you have concerns about website security and page speeds. Two of the primary features of this type of hosting are better site performance and better site security.
Let’s now move to looking at our 6 reasons why you’ll have the best site performance and security when you install WordPress updates regularly.
Need to Proceed
Website management tends to be a fast-paced world, and this is why keeping your WordPress site updated is more essential than just optional or even recommended. Proceeding with updates right when they become available equates to having the peace of mind that your site is healthy and safe. And oppositely it is true that choosing to pass on an updated could have very negative consequences for your online presence.
So what exactly makes proceeding with updates so important, even if your site seems to be fine and you don’t seem to be any more at risk of a cyber security incident than before. There are plenty of good reasons why WordPress is continually evolving, and with each update comes news features, improvements, and security patches.
75% of WordPress sites used version 6 over the course of last year (2023) but the 25% who were still with an older version of WordPress for their site were at great risk for security breaches and missing out on new features. The WordPress update benefits you get with installing each and every new one right when it becomes available all contribute to a site that is more secure, increasingly compatible with latest web standards, and equipped to perform that much better overall.
The first of our 6 reasons here is going to be one that you can all relate to, and it’s based on the universal understanding that reputation is important.
Maintain a Good Reputation
A WordPress site that is left outdated is going to be more at risk of infection by malware, and with that the possibility that criminals may use your website in order to mass-attack high-level websites. It’s possible they go after financial institutions, streaming sites like Netflix, social media platforms such as Facebook, or the porn streaming sites you and your friends seem to like so much.
Any such instances may see your WordPress site being blacklisted by Google Safe Browsing, as well as by anti-virus software or by major browsers. Among WordPress benefit updates is the ability to nip this in the bud before it has the chance to blow up into something big and potentially messy.
Enhance website security
You have better be on top of security for your website nowadays, because the chance of it getting a bug or being breached is very likely higher than it has ever been. When you install a WordPress update you will be equipping your site with the latest security patches, and with them the risk of hacking or data breaches is reduced in a big way.
WordPress's open-source nature is always going to make it a target for hackers, but WordPress updates always include vital fixes for known vulnerabilities. If they are on the radar of the guys at WordPress, they’re the ones that are posing the greatest risk to WordPress websites these days.
New features access
With regular updates you’ll get access to the latest WordPress features and functionalities, which is the fastest and most far-reaching way to maximize your website’s capabilities and offer more customization options. Some of the best ones are the the Gutenberg block editor and the Site Health tool, and refinements and improvements for each of them come with each update so that experience made possible with your website is even better.
Boost website speed
We talked about how WordPress speed improvements are always a priority for webmasters, and that’s to be expected given how a site that hums along and loads pages quickly is always going to be better for users AND site SEO. A site that is running on an older version of WordPress and hasn’t had the most recent WordPress update is going to be slower.
Each new version of WordPress will deliver performance improvements that boost your website's speed and improve the user experience. Keep in mind that website speed directly impacts visitor behavior, and in the event a page doesn’t load quickly enough it may mean that the visitor doesn’t stay on your site. If that happens you start to accumulate a ‘bounce rate’ – which is a percentage of visitors to the site who leave it shortly after arriving for whatever reason.
Consider this – an estimated 40% of visitors will leave an e-commerce site if it takes more than 3 seconds for the landing page to load. Faster websites are a must for a better user experience and as we mentioned already they will rank higher in search engine results, so speed is really one of the biggest gains you can get from WordPress update benefits.
Resolve bugs & issues
Updates are also very much necessary for fixing bugs that may inadvertently be a part of major releases, and getting that fix for them is the way to enhance your site's stability and functionality. Even minor WordPress releases focus on resolving specific issues, which is what you want if your user is to have a seamless user experience. If you go WordPress forums you will see how the standard suggestion for troubleshooting bugs is to install the latest WordPress update
Better compatibility
Another major gain for you among WordPress update benefits is having all WordPress components (themes, plugins, WordPress core) updated automatically to ensure they’re all same ‘generation’ and have the wide compatibility you’ll be hoping to have. What can happen when you update some components more often than others is that you start to have incompatibilities that may incapacitate your website.
WordPress security updates can also be a part of this, and for those with complex websites using several plugins it is best to wait a few weeks before upgrading. The reason being that major upgrades may break some plugins/themes.
How to Update a WordPress Site
Start by looking at your WordPress dashboard or cPanel to see if a new update is available. There are several other ways to become aware on being available. You can get this information on the WordPress website, or find it directly on the WordPress interface in the Admin panel. We usually make readers aware of this information through our web hosting in Canada blog here, and that’s an option for you too if you’re a regular reader.
The process of installing the update is entirely straightforward and you should be able to do it yourself. If for some reason it’s too much for you then you can reach out to a webmaster or web developer and ask for assistance with it. One thing that you need to be aware of is the requirement to have a working backup of your site before you proceed with any changes.
If you have one you can quickly revert to your previous installation if any problems occur. With Managed WordPress hosting here you are able to have a staging site to test out the new version before you put it into place. It creates a copy of your live website in a separate staging environment for testing and it won’t affect your production site.
There are considerations you’ll want to go over before updating, because there can be risks to doing this and that may be true even if you know what you’re doing. Here’s what you need to consider:
- Incompatibility for plugins / themes: It’s never going to be that every plugins or themes is going to be compatible with every WordPress update. Mismatches between them can sometimes cause issues with your website's functionality.
- Bug watch: New bugs are always a possibility with each new update, and it’s a part of taking the bad with the good when it comes to WordPress update benefits. These bugs will usually be addressed with targeted fixes in subsequent updates, but you should still be aware of their possibility and be looking to identify them.
- Importance of Backups: Backing up your site before implementing any updates is always recommended. Doing so provides you with a safety net, and with it you’ll be able to restore your site to its previous state if any problems occur.
- Test with a Staging Site: This step is even more advisable for complex websites with numerous plugins, but for any site it’s good to test updates on a staging site first. This approach helps identify and resolve issues before they impact your live site.
Auto vs. Manual WordPress Updates
Scheduling auto updates for WordPress is going to be the best choice for people who have basic websites and are fine with staying in the middle of the road with their site and trusting in the process. For others who might have a larger or more complex site it may be to install updates manually, and so the last thing we’ll look at with this blog entry is when it makes more sense to go with one or the other.
The first comparison will be between minor and major versions of WordPress. As you’d guess, auto-update is recommended for minor versions and for major versions it’s advisable to do manual testing before updating. Here are your other considerations:
- Plugins: Auto-update is best for plugins that are reputable & trustworthy
- Plugins with Dependencies: Auto-update is inadvisable for plugins with dependencies (with an example being WooCommerce)
- Custom Themes: Auto-update usually isn’t the best choice for custom themes, and particularly those with child themes
Now is as good a time as any to determine if your WordPress site is up to date. If not, do so and gain WordPress update benefits with the latest features and security enhancements. It will make for a more secure and faster performing site, and there’s everything to like about that.
