Maybe you know it too. You have a WordPress site created, everything works beautifully, the number of visitors increases and you are happy. However, as time goes by, various updates start popping up in your site administration. Your site is still working, though, so you just ignore them. After all, why waste time constantly updating something that works anyway?
We encounter this approach of website owners quite often. It is true that WordPress requires quite frequent updates. We have described more about them in our recent article. It is not only about updates to WordPress itself, but also to individual plugins or PHP. It often happens that something needs to be updated every week, which can be annoying for some people.
However, updates are not just for show. They have a real impact on the security and efficiency of your website. What happens if you ignore them?
How do WordPress updates affect security?
More than 30% of all websites in the world today are built on WordPress. And this fact is an excellent breeding ground for hackers. That is, if they manage to find a flaw in the system, they are able to disrupt millions of websites around the world thanks to it.
And it really pays off. Hackers are using advanced technologies to expose flaws in websites. Fortunately, WordPress developers are one step ahead of the curve and quickly fix any flaws they find. However, in order to get the security fixes you need to have the latest version installed as well.
Hackers can cause a lot of damage
How a hacker disrupts your website is always individual. In some cases, they may render it completely inoperable, while other times they may inject malware or steal valuable data. In many cases, however, you won’t even notice the hacker’s attack at first glance. For example, as part of a competitive battle, hackers may inject codes into a website that worsen its SEO. You’ll drop lower in search results and you won’t know why.
Nice example of how the update solved a security flaw
Often several security risks are removed in a single update. In many cases, these are quite dangerous flaws. For example,
Good. But why would a hacker attack my website?
It is important to realize that a hacker nowadays is no longer a person who sits at a computer all day and guesses passwords. Automation dominates this field as well. In practice, the way it works is that the hacker programs his own virtual robot that automatically crawls all WordPress pages and verifies their WordPress version. Since bugs in older versions are already well known, if it finds that your WordPress is not up to date, it can easily get into it.
This is how hackers can attack thousands of un-updated websites at once.
Updates also improve intuitiveness of use
It’s not all about security. Updates add all sorts of interesting features and improvements to WordPress that make it easier to use. So you can use your website even more efficiently. A good example in this respect is
Of course, various bugs that negatively affect the functionality of the site and interfere with the intuitiveness of use are also removed as part of the updates.
Is your website slow? Older WordPress may be the cause
Statistics show that if your website loads one second slower, you could lose up to 7% of conversions. In the long run, that can be thousands of euros in lost profit. Not to mention that loading speed is one of the essential SEO factors. If your page loads slowly, you’re likely to drop lower in Google searches and your competitors will be able to quickly overtake you.
Of course, site speed depends on many factors. But one of them is the version of WordPress. In general, each new version improves the efficiency of the site itself. Thus, it also ensures fast loading times. If you compare the loading speed of the same page built on an outdated and the latest WordPress, you will most likely notice a change in speed even to the naked eye.
And why do those plugins need to be updated as well?
The same applies to plugins as to WordPress itself. If you use outdated versions, there is a risk that
Not to mention that if you update WordPress, some plugins may stop working. Or rather, they will only work in a limited mode. If you update them whenever they offer you such an option, you are assured that your site will work safely and quickly. Not to mention that you often get new convenient features in new plugin versions.
I want to have a fast, functional and secure website, but I don’t have time to update. What should I do?
We completely understand. You want to spend your precious time on important things, not on laborious manual updating of WordPress or plugins. That’s why we’ve decided to provide the Safe Web service. We will take care of regular updates of WordPress itself, plugins or PHP, so that your website will always be as secure, fast and functional as possible.
You can order Secure Website service in minutes, even from your smartphone. Then you don’t have to worry about a thing and you can focus on growing your business.
