I’ll admit it. Before I got into web design and web development I believed that once a site was built, it was good and done. Didn’t need to touch it and everything will be fine.
The truth is that while your site may not change, the environment around it does and it’s unavoidable. Imagine that you built a house and never made updates to the roof, siding, and windows ever. It would start looking pretty bad and have potential damage, wouldn’t it?
The same is true of your website.
The internet is changing every second…literally. There are constant new security threats arising, performance upgrades in web browsers, and abandoning of old technology (cough*Flash*cough). This is not to scare you, but to make you realize (much like I had to) that being passive towards your site is a disservice to your business.
So here’s what I discovered all website owners need to be aware of:
WordPress Updates
Historically, WordPress releases about 2 major updates a year with a handful of smaller updates in between that address performance, security, and maintenance issues. We typically recommend clients do these updates (and sometimes your hosting company will automatically push for the update), but knowing that there are times it may break some features on your custom site. This is true for any custom website developed by any web company. We all build sites to the current version of WordPress and sometimes future releases may cause minor breaks.
Plugin Updates
Again, most custom WordPress websites will utilize plugins which are essentially like add-ons to the website. Some plugins are paid, some are free. Some are well-maintained and others aren’t. Some create conflict with other features on the site, some don’t. The challenge comes when some of these plugins have security vulnerabilities and they need to be updated. Clients usually contact us if they’re ever concerned and sometimes they have us make these updates for them. We’re cool with that.
Content Updates
Dear client, this one falls on you. We love building in WordPress because it makes it easy for our clients to manage their own sites. We include a training session and for those with basic computer skills, learning comes pretty quickly. We always recommend that you update your site often for several reasons, but the main reason is for SEO purpose. Search engines see updates to your site as the site being relevant- relevant sites get bumped up in the search algorithm.
Overwhelmed by all these updates? Don’t be. We have several clients that have us handle all this stuff on their behalf including managing the site, writing blog posts (lots of KEYWORDS!!!), and making updates. The only thing we ask is that you don’t be a passive website owner.
