Scenario: You login to your website’s WordPress dashboard and you see several notifications telling you that your WordPress and your plugins are out of date. The buttons are screaming at you “New version available” or “Please update now.”
What do you do?
HINT: Do not update your WordPress website or your plugins yourself.
Call your website developer (or the friendly folks over at Orbit Design).
It may look like a simple push of the button, but your WordPress website is composed of many moving pieces. Since WordPress is an open source project, meaning thousands of developers all over the world are constantly working to improve the plugins and the platform, all these pieces are moving at different speeds and levels. If you give in to the temptation to attempt to update your WordPress or the plugins that add all of those great widgets, features and sliders to your website, there is a risk that your website will break. Proper precautions must be taken if you want to avoid this.
Your website is like a living, breathing organism. The environment that your website is in right now (the balance of plugin versions mixed with your WordPress versions) is harmonizing and functioning just fine. If you update without proper protocol, you run the risk of disturbing the equilibrium of that environment and therefore breaking your website. You should keep your website and plugins updated to protect it from malicious activity, however, you need to take proper steps when making those updates to avoid having a broken website.
As a word of warning: It’s harder (and more expensive) for your web developer to “fix” a website that’s been broken by an update attempt vs. having a professional take the precautionary steps to backup and update your website properly and on a regular basis. Your website deserves a little love, a little maintenance to make sure everything under the hood is in shipshape and up-to-date with the ever-changing demands of internet and technology.
That’s why we’re here to help. Orbit Design created the Website Health Program to help WordPress users keep their websites up-to-date and secure. Depending on how often you make content changes to your website, preventative maintenance like a monthly, quarterly, or bi-annual website and plugin update is recommended. We’ll work with you to find the proper balance and create a program to best fit your needs. Learn more about our Website Health Program here.