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Why update themes & plugins?

Why Update WordPress, Plugins And Themes?

It is crucial to always update your WordPress website, plugins, and themes to their latest versions. Each update aims to improve the performance of your site. Whenever you see an update notification on your Dashboard, you should install the latest version.

Why Update WordPress Core, Themes, And Plugins To The Latest Versions?

Bug Fixes ~  Developers try to ensure that the WordPress release, Themes, and Plugins are free from any bugs and run tests to minimise those bugs. However, many are not caught and become a part of the final release. These make your website vulnerable to attacks by hackers. Many minor updates are released to fix these issues, without necessarily providing new features (just fixes).

Compatibility ~ To avoid compatibility issues, you must update your WordPress core to the latest version along with themes and plugins. In case some of your plugins are not following the best practices, they can break your website with the WordPress update. It is best to avoid such plugins as they make your site vulnerable to attacks and use plugins published by reputable publishers only.

Performance ~ Developers consistently work hard with an aim to improve the performance of your website and make it faster. Every release comes with performance enhancement features for your site.

Security ~ WordPress powers a large number of websites across the world. As it is the most popular CMS (Content Management System), it is the most attractive target for hackers and malware distributors. To keep your website secure and in good health, updates are critical. Hackers can search for the sites running on the older versions and plugins installed with outdated versions. You must install themes and plugins only from the most reliable sources. Make sure that the developers provide frequent updates and regularly fix the issues. It is best to avoid installing plugins that have not been updated for a long time.

From the security point of view, updates are indispensable. That’s why you must keep your WordPress Core, Themes and Plugins installed to the latest versions. It is important to backup your website before updating your WordPress version, Themes and  plugins. In case your site breaks due to a compatibility issue or some other reason, you can restore it.

Latest Features ~  Latest versions of themes and plugins bring new features for you to use. Latest features make the plugins or themes more useful and help in improving the overall performance of your website.

Support ~ If you try contacting the support team of your Theme or Plugin supplier, you must update it to the latest version before expecting any help. Most common issues are fixed with the latest releases. That’s why the support team will first ask you to update your plugin to the latest version before they try to help you.

To maintain good health of your website and keep the performance of your site optimum, you must update all the installed plugins and themes to the latest versions. You should not postpone the upgrade process unnecessarily as the websites with the older versions of plugins and themes are more susceptible to the attacks by hackers. It is a best practice to check for the updates of your site, themes and plugins at least once a month, or arrange for automatic updates.

Jane Cluff

Jane Cluff

Senior digital strategist

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