5 Reasons Why You Need To Update Your Website Regularly

Recently, one of my customer’s websites got hacked and did quite a bit of damage.

It is very possible that it was caused by not updated website.

If you have multiple websites on your hosting, all pages, not just one, can be harmed by hacking.

So… regular maintenance and updating the website is necessary!

5 Reasons Why You Need To Update Your Website Regularly

1 | Theft, “damage” or destruction of the website

Due to an out-of-date website (the platform itself – WordPress, plug-ins, themes) it can be hacked.

If you may have thought: ah, I don’t have any enemies! Robots, not people, take care of the hacking. 😉

And even if you have plug-ins, themes on the website that you don’t use, they need to be updated, or better yet deleted from the website.

2 | Personal data of visitors and customers

If you collect personal data of visitors and customers on the website, then it is necessary to take care of the security of this data as well!

This is e.g. in online stores, portals with online courses …

3 | Website speed

With regular website updates, your website can also be faster, which means more satisfied visitors!

Also, don’t forget that the PHP version also needs to be updated (this usually speeds up the website a lot).

4 | New functionalities

With updates, you can also get new functionalities – e.g. in WordPress – better page builder, GDPR management …

5 | High Bounce Rate

Bounce Rate is the percentage that tells you how many visitors leave your site quickly, without further action (e.g. buying, viewing another page…). Of course, this percentage is not only affected by the updated website, but it is one of the important factors.

But how often should the website be updated?

Depends on the size of the website, the traffic importance of your website. For most pages, the following applies:

• ideal: monthly,
• ok: every 3 months,
• still ok (+ if there are not many changes on the web, new content): every 6 months.

How to update the website?

If you are updating your website yourself, here is the procedure I recommend:

1 | Creating a backup (ideally manual backups).

2️ | WordPress update.

3️ | Plugin updates.

4️ | Update themes.

5️ | Check the PHP version on hoasting and update if necessary.

6️ | Testing and troubleshooting.

Note: This is a process for WordPress websites.

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