Keeping Your WordPress Site Updated
Updates
A WordPress site isn’t something you build once and leave alone. It’s software, and software needs maintenance. Here’s what gets updated, why it matters, and how we can handle it for you.
What actually needs updating
WordPress Core
This is the WordPress software itself, the Content Management System (CMS); the engine that runs your site, your admin dashboard and your content. Core updates fix bugs, close security holes and keep things working with newer versions of PHP and modern browsers.
Plugins
Plugins add features to your site, like contact forms, SEO tools, sliders, booking systems and ecommerce. Most sites run 10 to 30 of them, each from a different developer. Every plugin is a piece of code that can go out of date or have a flaw found in it. Plugins are where most WordPress security problems start.
Themes
Your theme controls how your site looks and is laid out. Themes get security fixes and compatibility updates too, and an outdated theme can break when core or plugins move forward without it.
Why this matters more now than ever
For a long time, many small business sites got by on security through obscurity. If nobody knew your site existed, or it had limited audience, nobody was trying to break into it.
That’s no longer true. Automated bots & AI, armed with an ever growing list of exploits, scan the entire internet around the clock looking for known plugin and theme vulnerabilities. They don’t care how big your business is or whether your site is well known. Once a vulnerability is made public, bots start testing sites for it within hours. Even sites that aren’t linked anywhere or indexed by search engines are being found and exploited.
Your hosting firewall and daily backups do a lot of the heavy lifting, but they can’t make up for outdated software. Keeping core, plugins and themes up to date is the single most effective thing you can do to keep your site safe.
Our recommendation
Run updates as often as possible. Security fixes come out constantly, and the gap between a vulnerability going public and bots exploiting it keeps getting shorter. If you have a simple site with a straightforward configuration, running automatic updates can keep your site secure and your costs low. If you have a complex install, lots of plugins, or unique needs, we recommend scheduled manual updates.
Update plans
Automatically Monitored Auto Updates
- Updates run automatically on a schedule, and are automatically tested. If an update causes a problem, your site is rolled back automatically, then we can discuss why, and what development would need to happen to allow this update. This works well for most small business sites.
Scheduled Hands-On Backup and Update
- A member of our team takes a fresh backup, runs your updates manually, and checks your site afterward to make sure everything looks and works as it should. This is best for sites with custom features, ecommerce or plugins that need extra care. You can book it weekly, monthly, quarterly or whenever you need it.
After Incident Website Support
Hourly- Give us a call at 778-956-9090
Not sure which fits?
Get in touch and we’ll take a look at your site, and business needs, and recommend a plan that fits them.
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