Video Transcript
Welcome to Bacan.net. I'm Miguel, one of the technicians available to you when you call with any questions. Today we are going to answer a question from one of our clients. They asked how to update their website. They have a WordPress website. So today we are going to look at what you need to do to update your WordPress.
Why do you need to update your website? Many users don't update. What happens? Even though we put a lot of systems in place on our servers to protect your site, such as network firewalls and application firewalls, if the site itself is insecure, there is very little that can be done. We currently have more than 30,000 security filters, but updates correct errors that appear frequently — usually security vulnerabilities. That is why updating your site should be one of your main priorities when it comes to maintaining it. It is essential to update your site constantly, as soon as a security advisory or update is available. Updates typically fix security issues and sometimes also fix design problems and search engine indexing issues. So an updated site is a site that remains secure, fast, and running without issues. Therefore, do not hesitate — your site must always be on the latest version.
Some users ask us if they can avoid updates. You can avoid them if you want to have problems. So never skip an update. Sometimes what happens with updates is that your theme is not compatible with the latest version. That is why it is necessary to have themes that update alongside the main program. In this case we are talking about WordPress. If your theme does not grow alongside your WordPress, you will have problems. In that situation, you need to change your theme. Honestly, it can be a premium theme or a free theme that is permanently updated. Among the most downloaded WordPress themes, there are many beautiful, practical, and useful options that will allow you to keep your site up to date.
There are also some premium themes that are extraordinary, for just a few dollars, and they do a very good job. Below, in the description, we will provide links to some very high-quality themes that are always kept up to date and will work perfectly on your website.
How to update your WordPress? This is the main question that inspired this video. First, when it comes to updating WordPress, you need to keep three aspects of WordPress in mind. The first is WordPress itself — the main framework that contains everything. From time to time, WordPress releases an update that fixes security issues detected recently. As soon as a WordPress update appears, you should update, ideally as soon as possible.
The second aspect that is very important to update is your theme — the design layer of your website. Many users use free themes provided by WordPress; others use premium themes. That is a personal decision of the webmaster, essentially a business decision, but one with major consequences. If an update for your theme is released, you also need to apply it. Many webmasters keep up with the WordPress version but fall way behind on the theme version. This is a serious mistake because it creates many problems. It is fairly easy to maintain security filters for known WordPress vulnerabilities, but it is harder to maintain them for theme-specific issues. That is why it is essential to keep your theme on the latest version.
The third very important section to update is plugins — the small programs that extend your website's capabilities. There are plugins for almost everything: keeping your site protected, improving search engine indexing, and more. As soon as a plugin update appears, apply it — don't hesitate, because the majority of the time they fix security issues, and sometimes also add capabilities and features.
To recap: WordPress must be kept up to date, themes must be kept up to date, and plugins must be kept up to date. If you like, let's now see in practice how to perform an update on a WordPress website. I invite you to look at the screen and we will go step by step through what you need to do to apply WordPress updates.
We are inside the WordPress admin section. As you can see here, there are two pending updates. They are easy to identify because of the red number two shown in the upper section. When we go into the Updates section, it will show us that two updates are pending. We have one plugin — in this case the Google Maps plugin — and one theme pending update. Let's go to the plugins section first. It is easy to identify because an orange bar appears, and easy to update — you simply click «Update Now». The system begins updating the plugin, corrects any security issues, improves performance, and enhances the plugin's features. In just seconds, very easily. One click and the system updates it automatically. We wait for the bar to turn green, which means it has been updated.
Done! It is updated. We can see it in green, confirming it is updated. Simple as that. Now let's go to theme management, where we had one theme pending update. As you can see, this user has a total of four themes, but only one is the main theme for the website. What we will do is delete any theme that is not in use. We even have one to update, but it is better to delete it and reinstall it later if needed. We will click «Delete» on each unused theme so they disappear from the installation, which also eliminates risks related to those themes — potentially significant ones. If we go back to «Updates», we will see that there are none pending. Also, as you can see, the WordPress version is up to date, currently at 4.7.1, and our installation is now completely secure and ready to work at its best.
Allow me to offer one very basic tip that we see our clients regularly overlook. You can install many plugins and themes on your WordPress site. Many of them may even be inactive. If you have 10 themes but only use one, or 20 plugins with only 5 active, please delete everything you don't use. The leaner your installation, the more secure, faster, and easier it is to maintain. Security tip for your website: remove all unused themes and plugins. I also want to offer you our maintenance service. Some webmasters prefer to have Bacan's technicians take care of keeping the site permanently updated and protected against brute-force and other attacks that constantly occur online. If you want us to handle it, we have a maintenance service for $49 per year, and with it, you sleep soundly without worry.
Many people think it can be difficult to keep WordPress updated, but as you have just seen, it is really simple. Sometimes we forget, so don't worry — someone at Bacan is keeping track of your site's updates every day. Question of the day: write to us in the comments below about whether you find it easy to update your WordPress, whether you do it regularly, and whether you use any automated update system — because those exist too.
We look forward to your comments on our channel. That's all for today's video. We hope it has been useful — that is our goal, to make learning and updating your website just a little bit easier. Also, if you liked this content, please give us a Like — it helps many more people find this video. If these topics interest you, please subscribe so that every time we publish a video, you'll receive it in your email and stay up to date on all things webmaster, web hosting, web design, and internet security. Until next time!