As one of the most popular CMS platforms available on the market, WordPress is responsible for supporting robust websites for large companies/organizations and even the government. In order to keep up with the integrity of such sites, it is imperative to provide ongoing maintenance, which includes the regular installation of WordPress updates that become available via the WordPress dashboard.
Although it may seem like an inconvenience, or a lot of extra work, performing regular updates on a consistent basis can save you from a number of risks to your site.
Here are 3 reasons why updating a WordPress site is so important:
1. Security
Like anything popular on the Internet these days that attracts the most attention, there is a significant increase in being a target of a security attack. Neglecting to install critical updates, such as security patches leaves your site extremely vulnerable to malicious activity, such as hacking. Fortunately, WordPress being such a popular choice amongst the web design world, the software is well supported by the WordPress community and suspected vulnerabilities are often and quickly addressed.
2. New Features and Functionalities
Bypassing WordPress updates will most likely result in you missing out on the latest and greatest of the new features and functionalities being offered. Why continue to run older versions of the software when it will only result in conducting CMS tasks inefficiently? Updating WordPress can bring forth upgraded usability tools such as enhanced navigation bars and menus making your job as a designer easier.
3. SEO Survival
In the event your website were to be hacked, not only would you risk losing important data and consumer trust, but you would also lose your hard earned Google search rankings. Sites that contain malicious codes are quickly un-indexed by Google and stripped from their placement in the Google search rankings.
While no one forces you to follow through on updating your WordPress website, the consequences of not doing so can weigh heavily on your online digital presence and business success. There are many other reasons why updating a WordPress website is important and you can find these reasons through a quick independent search on the Internet.
