Posted by Katherine Movaghar on April 17th, 2023If you have a WordPress site, you’ve probably gotten a notification before letting you know that a new update is available. You may wonder if you should update now or if it’s okay to wait and do it later. So what could happen if you decide you don’t want to update anything?
#1 Potential Security Risks
One of the biggest reasons you should consider updating your WordPress site is to ensure that you’re protected against potential security risks. It’s understandable to not have any reason to worry if you’ve taken the correct steps to protect your site against any threats, but if you’re not installing the latest security updates then you’re basically leaving your site open and vulnerable to anyone out there. Preventing security problems is a lot better than having to go in and clean up a hacked site.
#2 Compatibility Issues
Not updating your site can lead to certain themes and plugins not being compatible with your version of WordPress, or even the latest version of PHP. Obviously you’re installing these things for a reason and you want them to work! If you decide to stay with the current version of WordPress and no longer update any further, while WordPress may continue functioning, PHP versions, which can and will be removed after end-of-life is reached, may cause your site to stop working in the future when you’re rolled into a new version of PHP automatically by your host. This is one of the main reasons why WordPress suggests frequently updating your site in order to keep things working. Keep in mind that you should consider updating plugins and themes on a regular basis too.
#3 Decline in Site Performance
Having site issues is common, but you might start to see an increase in these problems if you choose to opt out of updates. Your website might not have the updated functionality that other websites do which could potentially cause visitors to leave your website due to slow loading times or other issues. No one likes to visit a website that’s slow and takes forever to load! You might also start noticing that your WordPress dashboard slows down or that it takes you longer to edit and load pages. There are even some reliable websites that you can visit to provide you with data on how your website is performing. If you haven’t updated, you might notice that there’s a significant decline here as well.
How do you update your WordPress site?
Overall, updating your WordPress site is important and if you keep up with it you shouldn’t have to worry about any of the problems or issues talked about in this article. If you’re wondering how to go about updating your site you can simply head over to the admin area of your WordPress dashboard and you should see a section for updates. From there you can see if your site is up to date and take the proper steps to get there. Don’t forget to run a WordPress backup before updating anything to ensure that all of your files, images, plugins, and more are saved just in case! And of course if you have any questions about your site or are looking for some help, feel free to reach out to our team at hasOptimization!
