There are many good reasons why you should keep your WordPress website updated and maintained at all times. Here are five of the biggest reasons why you should keep your website up to date.
Get the Newest Features
By updating your site regularly, you’ll be able to take advantage of the full suite of WordPress features, plugins and themes, many of which are only available to those who are running the latest version of the site. These updates can improve the user experience and functionality of your site and are worth updating to.
Better Compatibility
As users update their Internet versions, leaving your website stuck on an old version of WordPress and plugin themes can cause issues like longer page load times, buggy functionality and the dreaded page crash. All of these things will kill the user experience on your site and can lead to fewer leads, sales or conversions–in other words, outcomes you want to avoid at all costs.
Website Security
Most WordPress security exploits happen on sites that haven’t been updated in a while. From getting your website hacked to being exposed to transaction vulnerabilities, leaving your site out-of-date can expose you to all kinds of nasty threats. Every broken link, outdated plugin and uninstalled platform fix represents a risk to your business and your customers.
Another huge risk is that, in the unfortunate event that your site is hacked, Google and other search engines might blacklist your site, effectively wiping out all of the efforts you put into building your SEO rankings. Reversing this can be an absolute nightmare, involving large amounts of back-and-forth with Google to fix the site, re-scan it and verify it to be safe again.
Continued Plugin Functionality
Plugins are one of the most useful and intuitive WordPress features. Do you want to add new functionality to your website? Simply install a new plugin, and you’re off to the races. What happens if you leave those plugins to sit on the shelf too long without tending to them, however, is that they start to fail.
Similar to the way WordPress site updates patch security risks with the platform, plugin updates also fix security risks inherent to the plugins themselves. Think of them as parts of a car. If your car’s brakes needed maintenance, you’d get them fixed, wouldn’t you? Of course, you would; it would be dangerous not to. The same is true of updating the plugins on your website. They are the parts that make your site function the way you want it to. Take care of them!
Better SEO Performance
Websites that stay up-to-date tend to have better page load times and performance, which in turn create a better user experience that translates into more favourable web metrics. Google’s bots factor these things into their SEO ranking algorithm, meaning that it pays from an SEO perspective to keep your site functioning in tip-top shape.
Conclusion
It can be tempting to simply take a set-it-and-forget-it approach to your website, but those who choose that route do so at their own peril. If you don’t have the time or knowledge to conduct website maintenance yourself, Net Ninjas offers a variety of security update packages to suit your needs.
Whether you use our services or perform the tasks yourself, you’ll reap substantial benefits for your website compared to those who allow their site to languish on its own for years. Like in medicine, the key to taking the best care of your website is the prevention of issues, not the treatment of symptoms once problems arise.
