It’s super important that you keep your WordPress website theme and plugins up to date. This will help prevent your website from breaking and will also keep it secure from hackers. It’s real easy to update your theme and plugins too.
There are three kinds of updates you need to take care of separately. Let me explain them quickly:
- WordPress Updates
If you don’t update your WordPress manually, WordPress will update itself automatically in a few days, so you don’t need to worry about this one too much.
- Plugin Updates
Plugins are used to enhance your website. Over time, the plugin authors will update them with added functionality to fix bugs or to keep them compatible with the latest version of WordPress. You have to update most of your plugins manually.
- Theme Updates
Similar to plugin updates, your theme also needs to be occasionally updated. Depending on what theme you are using, this can be a simple two click update or a little more complicated. (For example, if you are using the ‘Risen’ theme, it’s a little more complicated.)
1. LOGIN
Just login to your WordPress website and click on the ‘Updates’ link in your Dashboard (to the left of your screen after logging in). You’ll be able to tell how many updates you have to take care of by looking at the white number in the orange circle.
2. SELECT & INSTALL UPDATES
Your next step is to select what updates you want to take care of. You can do that by selecting ‘Select All’, when appropriate, or select individual updates by checking the box next to them. For me, I like to perform each update separately. The reason I do this is to make sure the update doesn’t actually break the website. If it does, it’s a lot easier to troubleshoot because I know which plugin caused the problem. If I have 4 updates and ‘Select All’ and update, then it’s a lot harder to know which one was the culprit if something goes wrong.
Either way, the vast majority of the time, you will have no problems updating your plugin. If you do have a problem, I’m a quick email away and would be happy discuss how I can help you out.
That’s it. You should be all set! Keep your WordPress website up to date, and you’ll keep your website alive and active!
The post Keep Your WordPress Up To Date! appeared first on TL Sites.