A Few Reasons Why It’s Important To Always Use The Latest Version of WordPress

WordPress releases updates for its core system fairly frequently. If you’re a busy business owner, then taking the time to install each of these updates might seem tedious. Many people postpone the update until several updates have rolled around. Many of those same companies become victims of hackers because they weren’t up-to-date with the latest security changes.

You don’t want to be the company owner that delays installing the updates and then suffers because of it. There are several reasons why you should install each WP core update as it is unrolled. Here are some of those reasons.

Ensure The Security Of Your Site And Your Customers

The first and most important reason to always update your WordPress core is for security purposes. Hackers are surprisingly diligent workers. You can rest assured at any moment in time someone is working at exploiting a weakness in the WP system. After all, WordPress powers almost a quarter of the world’s websites. Finding a weakness in their system can give hackers a back door to millions of sites.

WordPress also happens to be open-source software. That’s an excellent quality in its own right, but it does present some additional security risks. Hackers have complete access to the source code from the moment it is released. This makes it easier for them to learn the system, spot weaknesses, and develop attacks.

The people behind WordPress are fully aware that there is always a target on their system. That’s why they work so hard to implement advanced security features. It’s also why they are constantly changing, improving, and updating the core code. WP stays one step ahead of the hackers by regularly releasing updates that make their attacks useless.

But what if you’re a website owner who doesn’t update your WP system? That means your site is now vulnerable to the latest malicious software. It could result in your company losing information about itself, it’s financing, or its customers.

A multi-billion dollar corporation can barely survive such a scandal. A growing business most likely cannot. A few moments spent updating your WP can protect you from this.

Improve Site Speed

Often, a core update is going to include some changes that improve the loading time of web pages. These performance updates are extremely valuable and do more than just improve your personal WP experience. A faster website is simply for business in many different ways.

Visitors like a website that loads quickly and is easy to navigate. If a site loads too slowly, then the visitor will bounce away and visit another site with similar content. You should constantly consider ways to improve the loading speed of your pages and to ensure that visitors remain on your site. Regularly updating your WP core is one way to do this.

Google also happens to be paying attention to the speed of your site. Recent changes in their algorithm take loading times into account when assigning a Page Rank. That means that improving site speed not only helps keep existing visitors, but it will improve your Google visibility and thus attract new visitors.

Small Investment With A Big Reward

We get it. Stopping to install an update every few weeks seems pointless and time-consuming. Who among us hasn’t delayed an update on their computer or smartphone? But managing a website, especially one that handles the personal information of customers, is a lot different. Those updates are what is going to keep your site safe, functional, and efficient. The updates are going to help your business grow faster by helping your pages load faster and your customers stay happy.

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Video Transcript:

Why You Should Always Use the Latest Version of WordPress?

Welcome to WP Beginner and thank you for watching. In this video, we’ll cover why you should always use the latest version of WordPress?

If you’ve been working on your site for a while and finally have it the way you want it to look. Then you might be worried about updating the site. You’re worried that it will break. This might cause you to not want to update the site. But let’s go for some reasons why you should always do this?

The first one is security and it’s the most important reason. Since, WordPress powers over 23% of the world’s websites. It is a big bullseye for hackers. So keeping it updated will keep your site more secure.

The second reason is the cool new features. Each release usually comes with great updates that they’ve made to the site. For instance with 4.0, came the improved plug in installation and 4.2 came with faster plugin updates.

Third reason is speed. WordPress developers, they’re always looking to make WordPress better and work to improve performances as well. Say with the 4.2 Update, they improved the Javascript performance for navigation menus to speed things up.

The next reason are bug fixes. Bug fixes are always a part of software updates. So, updating your site to the latest will fix any bugs that might be in the software.

Compatibility is also a reason to update your site. Since, plugins are created by third party developers. You want to back up your site before updating in case of plugins are no longer compatible with WordPress.

To make sure that you’re up to date. You can go to your dashboard and then the ‘Updates’ area and make sure you’re running the latest WordPress. You can also install and activate the WP Updates Notifier plugin. Then, go to Settings Updates Notifier to configure the plugin. This will send you emails when your site needs to be updated. From here you can add your email to get updates and if you want to just auto update your site install and activate the Easy Updates Manager plugin and choose what all to update automatically.

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*The information above does not constitute legal advice or opinion, nor is it a substitute for the professional judgment of a qualified attorney.