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Why it’s Essential to Update a WordPress Website?

Manage Website, SEO, Website maintenance, Website Security, WordPress website / By / / , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

WordPress holds a significant market share of 35% amongst all websites globally.

One of the reasons for its popularity is its simplicity, cost-effectiveness, wide range of pre-built plugins, strong community support, ease of updates, search engine optimization advantages, and other contributing factors.

In the world of web development, updates aren’t just important – they’re crucial! They’re the superheroes that keep your website safe and robust, with the power to enhance performance and security. And if you’ve ever been nagged to update your phone or computer, you know that a little TLC (Tender Loving Care) goes a long way in keeping your digital life running smoothly.

Updating a website provides clear advantages to a business. Several of these advantages include:

  • Improved visual appeal
  • Offer great content
  • To keep up with the SEO
  • CMS for editing content
  • Keeping your website fresh
  • Keep website secure
  • Increase website effectiveness
  • Change the way you do business
  • Usability
  • Enhance loading times

Check out our Article: Why is website maintenance necessary for businesses in 2023?

Updating your WordPress site is an essential task to consider.

  • The latest version of WordPress is being used by 22% of WordPress sites.
  • The official WordPress directory contains over 54,000 plugins, and new ones are added daily.

The WordPress platform is a security fortress, with regular testing and updates to keep it performing at its peak. No loopholes allowed! Unleash the power of WordPress updates! Like your trusty apps, mobiles, and computers, these updates guarantee a seamless user experience and unlock new features. So, update away and say goodbye to pesky issues! As you work your magic on your WordPress site, don’t forget that your trusty plugins need some love too! Please give them a little attention by testing and updating them.

Regular updates to a WordPress site are essential for maximizing its features, although some people may choose to avoid them as they perceive them to be unnecessary tasks.

Various Updates are available for WordPress to enhance your Website.

Security Updates

Security UpdatesAccording to Wp White Security, free automated tools can detect vulnerabilities in 73.2% of popular WordPress installations.

According to Sucuri’s investigation, a significant portion (36%) of hacked WordPress sites utilized outdated versions.

For a WordPress site to be effective, it should contain relevant information for the business and its customers. Security updates are an essential factor to consider for the safety of sensitive information. As cyber-attacks on WordPress websites become more frequent, website owners must prioritize protecting their information, details, and passwords. Implementing necessary security updates can effectively prevent unauthorized access to websites by malicious software or hackers.

Regular security updates are necessary to protect your website from potential threats from hackers and prevent any problems from affecting your visitors. Delaying these updates increases the risk of compromising your site’s security. Outdated software allows hackers to exploit vulnerabilities and gain access to your site to steal sensitive information.

Features Updates

Features UpdatesWordPress typically releases new major versions every 152 days on average.

Updating your website’s core features is essential to provide a better user experience and staying up-to-date with technology. This modernization will bring new capabilities to your website. Feature updates are not frequent but can make a significant impact on visitors. Monitoring the features during the update is essential to create the best user experience possible.

Performance updates

Performance updatesResearch has shown that even a 100-millisecond load time delay can significantly decrease conversion rates, with a drop of up to 7%.

Improvements to website performance can have mutual benefits for both the website owner and its users. Regular performance updates for your software and plugins can help to identify and resolve glitches or bugs, ensuring a smoother experience for your website visitors. Regular website performance updates can enhance the visitor experience and ensure its proper functionality. Implementing this measure can prevent visitors from encountering issues while browsing the website. If individuals are required to vacate the premises, it could potentially detrimentally affect your business.

Also, check out our Article: How to Select the most suitable WordPress Themes for your website’s Requirements.

Upgrade your WordPress site ASAP! Here are the top reasons why you should do it now!

Don’t let your website become a sitting duck for cyber attacks! Keep your WordPress updates up-to-date and stay one step ahead of potential risks. The proposed change may result in challenges for business and website users. Listed below are some reasons why updating your WordPress site may be beneficial.

Experience a new level of Excellence with our Enhanced Features!

The updated version of WordPress provides several advantages. Your website will have access to several new and improved features that can increase its strength and versatility. Previously restricted tasks will become simplified and more easily completed with the update. In version 3.0 of WordPress, users were provided with multi-site installations and custom navigation menus, while in version 3.1, the Admin bar was added for more straightforward navigation between sites.

Thanks to adding new features, WordPress development has become increasingly straightforward and impressive with each update. The WordPress 4.1 release included the addition of inline image editing, and the 4.2 updates included updates to plug-ins.

The latest stable version of WordPress, 5.2, includes updates such as improvements to accessibility and additions of new icons on the dashboard, such as Instagram and BuddyPress. The Plugin Compatibility Checks feature includes an automatic check to determine if the PHP version on your site is compatible with installed plugins. WordPress has a mechanism to prevent compatibility issues by not allowing the activation of a plugin that requires a higher version of PHP than what is currently being used by the site.

Enjoy Superior Performance

When developing websites, priority is given to user-friendliness and performance by website owners. After completing your website updates, a comparable experience will be achieved. The website maintains a steady high-performance level for all visitors, without fluctuations. An examination is underway to determine the effect of past WordPress updates on website performance.

  • We observed that websites that updated to the latest version of WordPress had improved ease of use when executing complex queries.
  • The latest version of WordPress has resulted in improved JavaScript performance for navigation menus.

Optimizing a website with quality performance is crucial for SEO. After updating the website, ensuring it functions to its full potential is essential.

Guaranteed Compatibility

Keep your WordPress website running smoothly by staying ahead of the game and keeping your software and plugins in sync! Don’t let compatibility issues slow you down – update regularly for a seamless user experience. Discovering that your new website plug-in and outdated WordPress version don’t play nice together is like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole – a frustrating and time-consuming experience. Don’t let your WordPress site fall behind! Keep it up-to-date by updating the version and staying compatible with the latest and greatest plugins. Don’t be left in the digital dust! Upgrade to the latest WordPress version and experience all the exciting new features waiting for you.

Ensure that your Website is Appropriately Secured

Did you know that the web world is buzzing with WordPress fever? This open-source software is a crowd favorite, with a whopping 35% of websites worldwide rocking the WordPress platform. Unfortunately, WordPress’s widespread popularity has made it a prime target for malicious hackers. Hackers are like relentless treasure hunters, constantly scouring the source code of websites in search of coveted data to steal.

As cyber warriors, security experts bravely navigate the treacherous terrain of bugs and security fixes, fearlessly studying the intricate codes that keep our digital world safe. When it comes to security breaches, WordPress doesn’t play around. They’re like the superheroes of the web, swooping in to save the day once that vulnerability meter starts ticking. With determination and skill, the WordPress team springs into action when a report is filed, crafting a wizardly update that specifically targets the issue and banishes it for good!

  • According to Sucuri, there was an increase in WordPress infections from 83% in 2017 to 90% in 2018.

Protect your website from cyber-attacks! Upgrade to the latest version of WordPress and keep your digital assets safe and secure. Stay ahead of the hacking game by keeping up with your site’s latest WordPress themes and plugins. Don’t let those pesky hackers get their grubby little hands on your precious content! Don’t leave your website’s safety to chance – make this one smart choice and lock down your online fortress for good!

Easy Adaptability to Change

As you dive deeper into the WordPress world, you’ll become best buds with its functions and feel like a pro navigating its features. Are you afraid to take the leap and upgrade to the latest version of WordPress? Don’t be! It’s time to embrace the change and unlock new possibilities for your website. Say goodbye to mediocre website management and hello to the powerful and updated features of the latest WordPress version!

Don’t wait any longer to elevate your online presence – switch today and watch your website soar to new heights of success. By consistently refreshing your website, you’ll elevate the user experience to a new level of awesomeness. By upgrading to the latest version of WordPress, you’ll not only make your life easier, but you’ll also unlock a world of practical functionalities that’ll make your website sing like a bird on a sunny day. So don’t hesitate, make the change and embrace the endless possibilities!

Bug Fixtures

Don’t let pesky bugs ruin your WordPress experience – update your site and say goodbye to those glitches for good! Beware, fellow web developers, the presence of pesky bugs in your website is highly probable if your code contains any sneaky loopholes. Say goodbye to pesky bugs on your website with the magic of regular and effortless WordPress updates. Each new WordPress release is like a superhero swooping in to save the day by squashing pesky bugs from the previous version. Don’t let pesky project problems hold you back! It’s time to upgrade to the latest and greatest version and soar to new heights of success.

Better Experience for the Visitors

Every website aims to conquer the digital world and achieve its ultimate purpose. Whether you’re looking to rake in some cash or provide visitors with unbeatable value, your website can be expertly crafted to achieve both! In the fiercely competitive online market, captivating visitors is vital to achieving your goals. So, let’s pull out all the stops and keep those clicks coming! Revamp your online presence and exceed visitors’ expectations by keeping your WordPress website up-to-date.

Also, check out our Article: Optimize Images: What Is WebP In WordPress?

What are the Indicators that suggest a Website needs updating?

That is a straightforward solution. Upon logging into your WordPress site, the dashboard will display a highlighted screen at the top left, just below the home button, as depicted in the accompanying image. By clicking on that, you can discover the current version you are using and also the most recent available version.

wp-update

Before that.

It is recommended to prioritize taking a backup well in advance.

Can you explain the reason?

It is essential to ensure that the plugins used on your WordPress website are compatible with the latest version. A potential compatibility issue could result in your website being taken down. To solve the issue, it is necessary to either restore the previous version or substitute the plug-in with an alternative.

Say goodbye to the fear of losing your precious data! With countless free and paid plugins, you can quickly secure your backups with just one click.

Wrapping it up

Keep your WordPress site fresh and fabulous by updating it regularly – guaranteeing it will reign supreme every time. Rest easy knowing your website is fully protected and operating at peak performance without interruptions. Your website’s success depends on attracting visitors and generating business, and with regular updates and plug-ins, you’ll be unstoppable!

We’d be happy to discuss our services if you’re looking for WordPress website services to help you increase your website traffic. Contact us now.

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Migrating your WordPress website: what you need to know

Hosting, Manage Website, Optimize Website, Security, Website Security, WordPress site, WordPress website / By / / , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Are you planning to move your WordPress website to a brand new hosting provider? Many companies are faced with the choice to migrate their website to another hoster because they have problems with their current provider, who they may be fed up with!

Of course, no one wants to worry about switching WordPress web hosts. We all want 100% uptime, great load times, and an affordable solution, all in one package.

But unfortunately, the world of WordPress hosting doesn’t work like that, and the perfect scenario is almost impossible. Suppose you are unsatisfied with your present web hosting provider. In that case, you may have already experienced some of the following five reasons why businesses migrate their WordPress website to a new host.

1. Too Much Downtime

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All providers on the market guarantee 99.99% uptime. But how many of these companies can back up those words with actual uptime and peak WordPress performance?

Your website is a vital component to the success of your business, and that’s why you need a hosting service that offers stable uptime that will protect you from any loss of revenue or customers. There are several reasons why downtime can harm your bottom line:

Missed opportunities: If you’re in eCommerce, you can lose many sales opportunities, and if you’re in B2B SaaS, you lose product registrations and leads.

Damaged reputation: Downtime can easily damage your company’s reputation. First impressions count, and so do second ones. So if users want to access your website but experience downtime, that’s a big problem that could keep them away.

Wounded SEO: Depending on the duration and intervals of downtime, your SERP ranks could be affected. Repeated website downtime will give Google enough reason to push your website down in the rankings.

Consequently, anything shorter than 100% uptime means a drop in traffic and revenue. There is no room for downtime or website errors for a quality hosting provider and a reliable web experience.

2. Terrible Customer Service

Is there anything more disappointing than not being able to reach a customer service representative when you need to resolve an issue? Your business could depend on whether you can resolve the glitch, error, or problem quickly. There could be numerous difficulties if your web hosting experience is miserable. When problems occur, you require to be able to get in touch with a customer service representative right away.

Before choosing a hosting provider, you should at least check if the customer service team is up to the task! It would be best if you ensure that will solve all your problems before you decide on a provider.

To evaluate the quality of your hosting provider’s customer service, you require to analyze the following aspects:

Feedback time: How much time does the current holding company require to respond to your request? If you encounter a roadblock with your WordPress website, time is precious, and there is no excuse for not responding to your call. A fast response time is something you shouldn’t even negotiate.

Resolution time: If the hosting team are expert, the resolution time shouldn’t be more than a few minutes. Every second is crucial, and if your website doesn’t load properly, customers might churn. So, if you are stuck with a hosting company that takes too long to respond to your requests, you should cut your losses by switching to a new company.

Expertise: If you receive a quick response to your inquiry, but it’s unclear and doesn’t provide a practical option, then that response is no help! Make sure that you work with an employee trained to answer and solve any of your hosting queries.

A good hosting provider will offer you every kind of support, from a ticket system to live chat and email to phone and video calls – 24/7/365! Having multiple assistance choices at any given time can resolve critical issues quickly and with additional preventive measures.

3. Slow Loading Time

1,638 Slow Loading Photos Stock Photos, Pictures & Royalty-Free Images - iStock

Internet sites tons time is crucial to the success of your company. A delay of just one second can cost a company. Whether you’re producing content or selling a product on your site, fast data transfer can distinguish between acquiring brand-new clients and shedding them to your competitors.

Your hosting solution can make a significant distinction when it comes to the performance of your WordPress internet site. A modern SSD drive can read data much faster than a traditional hard drive, it may be much more costly, but the efficiency is well worth it. For this reason, you should choose a robust hosting provider with the latest infrastructure and solid-state drives.

Durable WordPress organizing carriers additionally use VPS environments or cloud networks to dedicate more resources to each client, resulting in faster loading of pages and databases. If the hosting infrastructure is designed for speed, the provider should make extra efforts to optimize the speed of your website additionally.

Caching helps your website deliver content faster while reducing the load on the web servers. A powerful hoster will offer you a caching system with plugins and add-ons for your static files and databases.

4. Poor Security

2,044 Health Data Protection Stock Photos, Pictures & Royalty-Free Images - iStock

Today’s technology has changed every industry, and one of the most significant issues is cybersecurity. Suppose you have a WordPress website that is not adequately secured. In that case, you are in for an absolute nightmare with stolen data, website glitches, and other malicious intentions that could harm your business.

Your WordPress web hosting plays a significant role in your WordPress website’s safety, security, and upkeep. The wrong host selection will result in inadequate protection of your build and all other websites hosted on the same server.

Despite WordPress’ robust core, you may need additional layers of protection for your website.

One of the essential steps for better WordPress security is automatically updating the core, themes, and plugins, which is, fortunately, an option in almost every hosting plan.

Suppose you’re working with a professional WordPress development agency. In that case, your development team will most likely provide an additional layer of monitoring to ensure that automatic updates don’t override any site features.

Other useful features for online security are automatic backups and SSL certificates. SSL certificates are crucial because they can encrypt communications between servers and browsers. Furthermore, SSL certifications gradually contribute to your search engine position, improving your position in SERPs.

Besides automatic updates and SSL certificates, an excellent hosting plan includes regular scans and solutions for malware and viruses, web firewalls, and protection against DDoS attacks.

5. Missing Features

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The host is a service that you have to pay for. So, to make an informed decision, you need to understand the features that each hosting package offers you and the impact that these features will have on your WordPress website.

It’s great to have all the essential features for your hosting package, but wouldn’t you like to get more for your money? There are features that you may have to do without, such as:

Great server location: Server place is just one of the most critical elements that affect the speed of your WordPress website. Usually, a website will load faster if accessed from a geographically close location to the server location.

A plethora of useful plugins: Do not look for a more significant number of plugins – seek plugins that you can benefit from! Ensure that your organizing service offers you plugins that increase your website’s security, improve your search engine optimization and simplify the monitoring and maintenance process.

Performance-oriented architecture: You deserve nothing less than breakneck speed and performance for your WordPress website! It would be best to have a web host that guarantees optimal use of modern technologies for maximum speed and efficiencies, such as Nginx, MariaDB, PHP7, LXD containers, and a minimalist hosting stack customized for WordPress.

Sandbox setting: With the sandbox or hosting a setting, screening and optimizing an improved variation of your WordPress website is a much more effective process, ensuring no downtime or other inconveniences on your live site. The sandbox must provide access to an SSH connection, at least SFTP, the database, and other files. If you run into problems, you have the time to fix them or find alternative solutions.

Server Space: Your current hosting plan may have worked well initially, but as your traffic increases, you will need to switch to a hosting plan with enough server space to support this growth. So, when comparing different hosting plans, you should choose one that offers the most storage space at the most affordable price.

Payment plans: With web hosting, you usually get what you pay for, but sometimes a comprehensive plan isn’t even necessary. How can you tell if you’re paying excessively? If your plan has many features, some of which you never use, or your website is still small, but you’re hosting it on a server with more storage than you need, you should reconsider your options.

The bottom line is that you must never settle for the cheapest solution for WordPress hosting. Check thoroughly what features are offered and if the company provides you actual advantages over other hosting providers.

Choosing A Managed Hosting Provider 5 Best Managed WordPress Hosting in 2022 Compared (Pros & Cons)

Once you have selected the attributes you need, you should choose a new hosting partner for your WordPress website that can handle heavy traffic, withstand security attacks, and provide an excellent foundation for your content.

A managed hosting service monitors and maintained every technical aspect of your WordPress website. The number of websites that have switched to managed hosting has increased over the past 8-9 years, and along with WordPress websites, this is the predominant way to manage businesses online.

The Top Four Advantages Of Using A Managed Hosting Provider Are

Better website security: Managed-to-host services offer unparalleled security compared to other types of WordPress web hosting. A managed provider offers the highest level of security, daily backups, malware scans, and updates that prevent hacker attacks on your website.

Uptime monitoring: Speed and performance directly impact search result rankings. Most managed-to-host providers offer 24/7 website monitoring, so you don’t have to worry about your website’s performance at any point in time.

24/7 support: Managed hosting providers have trained experts who know the technical details of the platform and how to solve common and complex problems.

Customizable solutions: Most managed hosts can support almost any niche, from educational blogs to e-commerce websites and everything in between. Will certainly customize the option to fit your company’s needs, not the other way around.

If you pay a bit more for a high-quality hosting provider, you will get additional security layers, 24/7 support, and regular malware scans. A top-notch hosting plan also includes top-notch caching plugins and CDN access, measures that can significantly impact the speed of your website.

At My Web Maintenance, We’re passionate about WordPress website design, hosting, and maintenance. We offer website design, web hosting, and maintenance solutions for your business to help grow your online presence.

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