There are two questions we get asked regularly "Why are there so many updates to WordPress?" and "Do I Have To Do Them?"

First of all the fact WordPress updates, all the time is an excellent thing. Without getting too technical here are the reasons both WordPress itself, WordPress themes and WordPress plugins update so regularly.

Security

I am sure we do not have to tell you how persistent hackers are. Our server team has a specific department that spends ALL day EVERY day defending the server from attacks from hackers trying to get direct access. If we built your site we will have installed WordFence a website firewall just check out the stats in your WordPress admin area, and those are just people trying to hack into your WordPress admin area, there are many more attempts per day made at the server level. Another way for hackers to access a server is via an out of date website. If a hacker gets in they are normally there for one of four things.

Just to mess up your site

2. To steal information like your clients' details. The penalties for data breaches now can be huge to the point of bankrupting any small business it is just not worth the risk.

3. To bring down the server

4. To send spam from the server.

As hackers find new ways to access sites and servers the programs we use are updated to fill the security holes, this is a constant cat and mouse battle.

This is where we should all be VERY thankful. If you were not using WordPress or some other script that is well maintained and updated you would be employing security specialists and programmers at £50 plus an hour regularly just to keep your site up to date and secure.

Changes In Computer Languages

For both security reasons and improvement reasons the webs programming languages (the background coding that runs your site) are constantly changing, evolving and improving. These programming languages are set worldwide if your site does not keep up with them, eventually, it will just stop working.

Improvements

Scripts like WordPress are constantly improving themselves to give you and your users more and better functionality. Obviously, this results in regular updates to WordPress itself. As a result of these updates, all the plugins your site uses also need to be updated by whoever wrote them in order to make sure they keep working with the new version of WordPress

Sometimes a plugin developer may stop updating a plugin and you will need to find another plugin to do the same job.

So the answer to "Do I have to do them?" is MOST DEFINITELY YES or you will end up with at best a broken site or at worst a hacked and destroyed site. What is more, this is part of the 3001web terms of service we INSIST that ALL clients keep their sites up to date to protect the servers for EVERYONE!

Running a website is like running a car, they need regular maintenance to continue to run smoothly. The good news is that the maintenance bills are nowhere near as hefty and can be free if you learn to run upgrades yourself.

If you do not have the time or experience to do these updates yourself please upgrade to one of our managed hosting packages and we will do them for you automatically.

Updating WordPress

Updating Your WordPress Version

Updating WordPress Themes

Updating WordPress Plugins

Why Do I Need To Update WordPress?

Don't want the hassle of updates? Let us do it for you.