“Should I update WordPress plugins” is one of the most common questions we get asked at Geelong Web Design – and it can be a daunting thing to consider for a lot of people.

This article is going to be short, simply because the answer is 100% YES! YES! YES!. All websites need maintenance, and in particular WordPress. Not because WordPress is an insecure web hosting platform, which it is not, but because it is popular. With popularity of legitimate use, comes popularity, aka a target for hackers and malware bots.

The good news – its generally a fairly easy fix to secure and update your site. A good developer (Such as the team here at Geelong Web Design!) will build the site using reputable plugins, and a strong core to prevent against security issues developing. Its also then important to choose a reliable and secure host, that will ensure the hosting server is well maintained, secure and updated. The guys over at Ed Web Hosting do a fantastic job of this. Ed Hosting also offers a fantastic Managed WordPress Hosting service, which gives you peace of mind each month, by knowing your site is constantly maintained and updated!

It also easy enough to update the site yourself, if you have the time and knowledge.

To update, just follow the below steps:

1. Take a backup of your WordPress site! (Dont forget this, Updates can and do go pear shaped, so an update is crucial for a quick roll back!)
2. Click on the “Plugins” link in the left hand side menu of your WordPress admin page.
3. The list of plugins will be displayed, check for any that say: “There is a new version of…” such as shown below: Click the link “View version…” to check out the details of the new version and see if there are any special steps required.
4. Once you are happy to proceed, cluck on the “update now” link to proceed with the update.
5. Repeat steps 3 to 5 for any other required updates.

The above process can be simple, but it can also lead to problems and cause damage to your site if there is a major update or something goes wrong.

Which is where a managed update can come in handy, such as the one linked above from Ed Hosting. Long story short, next time you say to your self “Should I Update WordPress Plugins?” don’t put it off, just get it done!