If you have been around a WordPress website you will know all about the notifications you see with the number of updates your website needs to have downloaded, installed, and configured. I am not sure I have ever logged into a website and not seen an available update notification!
There are 3 main categories of updates your WordPress website will need. WordPress Core Updates, Theme Updates, and Plugin Updates. All of these updates can and typically contain “security patches” that will fix potential security risks in the software being updated. So, performing these updates is critical to the security of your website.
If these updates are critical, why not just have them automatically apply? In a perfect world that would be exactly the plan! But since we are not in a perfect world, automatic updates can cause huge issues with your website. Many times plugin and theme updates are not as quickly updated as WordPress Core Updates. For example, WordPress releases their update today. The plugin and theme developers need time to see how their software interacts with the new WordPress core file update. If we update the WordPress the same minute it is released many of your plugins could stop working since they are not “compatible” with the new WordPress core files.
Same thing with plugin updates. Almost 100% of WordPress websites have more than one plugin. The majority of those plugins will interact with multiple parts of your website. If your MailChimp plugin has an update and it is automatically applied, it could not be compatible with your email form software plugin causing your website to stop sending you messages from your customers.
In some extreme cases, these plugin and theme conflicts can cause your entire website to crash and stop functioning. These types of issues can be adverted by NOT utilizing automatic updates to your website. The question isn’t if your website is going to experience issues, it is WHEN is your website going to experience issues.
The world of updating your WordPress website has gotten much more complex over the years as have the themes and plugins being used on your website. The overwhelming number of themes and plugins is what makes WordPress one of the best website platforms in the world, but this also has its own set of obstacles.
The team at SurfYourName.com has years of experience keeping WordPress websites secure and maintained. Our affordable Monthly Security & Maintenance Packages keep your website safe and secure without the risk of automatic updates crashing and conflicting. Give us a call today at 910-452-6345 and let us get your website updated, secure, and delivering results!
