Why Updating WordPress is Essential and Not Debatable

You have heard it time and again: you should be updating WordPress regularly. But is it really that essential for the health of your website? The answer? A resounding yes. In fact, updating WordPress is so crucial, it's not up for debate. It may seem harsh, but the short end of it is that updates are important for security, performance, bug fixes, compatibility and gaining new features for your website. Today, I'll share why keeping WordPress updated is so important as well as what needs to be updated and how often.

What's the Big Deal?

As I mentioned earlier, updating WordPress regularly is absolutely essential for your website. Here are the reasons why it's more important than it is for Superman to stay away from Kryptonite:

• Security – As hackers continue to exploit WordPress websites, security patches are included in updates that protect your website from those threats if you apply the update.
• Performance – Improvements are frequently added to the WordPress platform (core) as well as to plugins and themes to optimize them. This translates to a better performing (and sometimes faster) website for you.
• Bug fixes – The only way an issue can be resolved in the WordPress core, a plugin or a theme is through adding it to an update. If you don't apply the update, you don't get the fix.
• Compatibility – As major releases of WordPress become available, many changes are included that can cause older plugins to cease working. This is called a compatibility issue. Fixes are often included in plugin and theme updates to resolve such problems.
• Features – New sets of features are added to WordPress all the time, but your site can't benefit from them unless you apply the updates that include them.

Once you understand what updates can do for your website, it's also important to consider what needs updating on the regular. Here are the most crucial aspects of your WordPress website that need updating:

• WordPress Core
• Plugins
• Themes
• Scripts

When Good Updates Go Bad

Now you know why updates are important, but there's a caveat: sometimes updates can break your website due to compatibility issues. That's why it's essential to test updates before you push them to your public-facing website. The best ways to test WordPress updates is to create a local environment or a live staging website. Either way, the ideal setup is to have a separate website where you can freely test updates without it affecting (or breaking!) your live website. Once you have created your separate testing environment, you can migrate your website to the testing site and evaluate updates. This can be done with a plugin or a one-stop-shop such as Materiell. For details, check out Setting up a Development Environment and WordPress Development: How to Setup a Staging Environment. Once you have fully tested each update and ensured your website is perfectly intact, you can apply the updates to your live, public-facing website. On the other hand, if something goes wrong while testing, you can troubleshoot the issue to resolve it. This is where updating plugins and themes one-by-one can make it easier to catch issues when you're testing.

The Update Trifecta

With all that in mind, how do you know when it's the right time to test updates and apply them to your WordPress website? Ideally, as soon as any kind of update becomes available. Although, there's an exception to the rule for high-traffic or particularly significant websites. In such cases, it's best to wait until several updates are ready. Sometimes, you could update one plugin without issue but the next update could be incompatible with the previous one causing your website to break, for example. As a major WordPress core updates roll out, many plugins and themes are also updated around the same time. Testing them together can help you avoid these compatibility conflicts. You can test them and see if all the updates play well together.

Wrapping Up

There you have it: it's incredibly essential that you continue updating WordPress regularly. Otherwise, you open your website to security and bug-related issues. Your website could also break. Plus, you miss out on new features and performance upgrades. For those all-important reasons, updating WordPress is essential and isn't debatable. How often do you update your WordPress website? Do you think you should update more often? Share your experience in the comments below.