Do you feel tired when an update notification appears in WordPress? Or are you dizzy and lazy every time the notification appears? Or are you lazy because you have to spend more time doing the update? If so, maybe you don’t understand the reason why WordPress must always be updated.
WordPress is one of the CMS that is very, very often updated to the latest version than other CMS. This is quite reasonable considering WordPress’ status as one of the best and most popular CMS in the world today.
But have you ever wondered if you are required to update your WordPress to the latest version? Isn’t there a certain effect if you don’t do the upgrade? Therefore, in this article, we will explain the reasons why WordPress should always be updated.
WordPress Updates are Free!
WordPress is free, and WordPress is developed by a community of developers. With each new release of WordPress, they fix bugs, add new features, improve performance, and improve existing features to keep up to date with new industry standards, and of course make it easier for users.
So in other words, when you don’t update your WordPress site, you are risking the security of your website and missing out on the new features/fixes that were brought in the latest version. Besides that, there is no harm in updating wordpress, because it is free!
Here are some of the benefits that you use the latest WordPress.
The reason why WordPress must always be updated
1. Keeping your WordPress safe
The reason why WordPress should always be updated first is that this security factor is arguably the most important reason why you should keep your WordPress website up to date.
WordPress is currently used by 23% of all websites in the world. Due to its immense popularity, WordPress is a popular target for hackers, malicious code distributors, and data theft.
The reason is because WordPress is open source, anyone can study the source code to learn and improve the capabilities of wordpress according to the user’s wishes. But it also means that hackers can study it too and find a way to break into sites that use WordPress.
But you need to know that not all hackers are bad. There are more good hackers than bad which means that security experts around the world can study the code and report security bugs/fixes. Whenever a security vulnerability is reported, the WordPress core team works diligently to release updates and fix issues.
This means that if you are not using the latest version of WordPress, then you are using software with known security vulnerabilities. Hackers can search for websites running old versions, and you may become a victim of hacker attacks.
Not only WordPress itself, plugins can also be used by hackers. You need to make sure that all plugins, themes, and the core itself are always up to date.
2. WordPress performance will increase
Next is to improve WordPress performance for the better. Yes, updates are not only for security reasons. Often a WordPress developer will improve the performance of WordPress itself, as do template and plugin developers. For example, WordPress 4.1 performs complex query fixes to improve wordpress performance, and WordPress 3.9 performs TinyMCE performance improvements. Plugins also perform updates to improve performance, perhaps to speed up scripts or queries to make them more efficient.
3. New features
Keeping your wordpress up to date also gives you access to new features. For example, recent releases of WordPress have included major improvements to the admin screen UX as well as accessibility improvements. Plugins can do this too, which means that keeping the engine version up to date gives you access to the latest features.
Every time WordPress updates, there will be new features and software changes. For example, WordPress 4.0 came with improved easy plugin installs, version 4.1 introduced inline image editing, and 4.2 came with faster plugin updates, version 4.3 with the more featured WordPress editor.
Now if you are using an older version of WordPress, then your WordPress experience will be a lot different from someone using the latest version.
You will have a hard time finding WordPress help on various forums because you are using an older version. Users on WordPress support forums will always assume that you are using the latest version of WordPress.
4. Eliminate Bugs
Further updates will eliminate bugs. It’s the same with plugins and templates. Make sure you update it because it will affect your wordpress. Your WordPress visitors are also more comfortable because they don’t encounter any bugs.
Despite rigorous testing of major WordPress releases, occasional bugs still persist in major WordPress releases. That’s why there is a timely small release of WordPress (the one with the XXX version) to fix those gaps. For example, recently WordPress 4.2.3 appeared to fix 20 bugs from the version 4.2 release.
Now if you go to a WordPress support forum asking for help, the first advice you will get is to update WordPress because maybe that will fix your problem. If you insist on not updating WordPress, then you will not be able to receive help and will have to find another way.
5. Increase speed
WordPress developers are always trying to make things faster to keep up with the times in WordPress. Each new release comes with several performance improvements that make WordPress run faster and more efficiently.
For example, WordPress 4.2 improved JS performance for navigation menus, and WordPress 4.1 improved complex queries which help with site performance using those queries.
Since speed is such a big factor in SEO, you should keep your WordPress updated to ensure maximum performance benefits.
6. Compatibility
The reason why wordpress must always be updated is compatibility. Yes, Frequent plugin and theme developers coordinate updates with major WordPress releases to ensure they take advantage of available new features and enhancements.
But in some cases, updates can make WordPress plugins not work if they don’t follow best practices and code commit standards. This is why it is very important that you always backup WordPress before updating.
That’s why updating is so necessary. And it will be better if you get the plugins and templates from the same source, so that when there is an update in wordpress, both of them are compatible with the new version of wordpress.
The following above are 6 reasons why WordPress should always be updated. Therefore, don’t be lazy to update when the update notification appears. ASPHostPortal as a wordpress CMS user also updates very often because of its many benefits.
