How To Update WordPress Sites for Beginners
Looking to update your WordPress website, but not exactly sure where to start? In this tutorial for beginners, we will go over the easiest and safest route on how to update your WordPress site without causing any downtime.
A majority of new WordPress website owners are concerned with potentially breaking their site, which is completely understandable as your website is a critical asset.
Once the WordPress development process is completed, the site will require maintenance going forward, so it’s important to ensure your site is always updated to the latest version.
Importance of WordPress Updates
It’s extremely important to note that WordPress updates should never be ignored. Typically, there’s a reason why a new update was released, so ignoring those messages can have serious consequences.
You can potentially break your website and cause theme functionality issues by neglecting the latest WordPress update. For example, you may notice a contact form not functioning accordingly, or, a particular page might not properly load.
You’ll end up spending additional money by paying your WordPress developer to remediate any issues, so as you can tell, we’re serious about WordPress updates 🙂
The WordPress CMS itself is maintained by an experienced team of developers located around the World. They take a collaborative approach to find and fix bugs, add new features, and investigate security threats. WordPress updates are regularly released based on this collaborative approach.
Some WordPress hosting companies will offer an automated system, which is typically built-in to their backend. This will allow you to schedule automatic WordPress updates, with that said, there are times when the automated update doesn’t work, so you’ll notice a notification in your WordPress dashboard.
Luckily, there are several ways to safely update your WordPress website to the latest version, so we will go over the easiest method for beginners. We recommend this method as it doesn’t require any manual modifications to your website code or server changes.
Before Updating WordPress – Follow This Process
If this is your first time attempt at updating WordPress (without the help of your WordPress developer), then hang tight, I’ll show you the easiest method below.
It’s extremely important to complete a full backup of your WordPress site before initiating the update process. It’s key to prepare for any possible issues that may arise before updating to the latest WordPress version.
At this point, I’d recommend logging into your hosting account and downloading a full website backup which will most likely download as a zip folder.
Having a full backup of your WordPress site is important to prevent accidental data loss after the update is completed. It’s best practice to have a backup on standby in case a website modification causes an odd error message.
How To Update WordPress (the easiest method around)
1. Update WordPress via WP one-click system
This method is straightforward and typically takes less than a few minutes to fully complete. The installation process can be completed with one click, which makes it the easiest method.
There are numerous methods listed online, but this is recommended for beginners and advanced users alike.
First, log in to your WordPress dashboard with the admin account. Then, you will see the notice that a new version of WordPress is available at the top of your WordPress dashboard. Now you just need to click on the Please update now button to initiate the update.
Once you’ve selected the Update Now button, you’ll initiate the WordPress installation process, which will update your site to the latest version. The WordPress updates page will display, so you’ll have to press the Update Now button again.
The success message is then displayed which will confirm that the latest WordPress update was implemented on your site.
At this point, your WordPress website should be updated to the latest version, so you’ll want to ensure the front-end functionality is still correctly working. We recommend manually testing the primary website pages to ensure there aren’t any errors present.
Here’s a link to the WordPress releases page which will display almost every WP update in chronological order, including detailed information on each update.
If you need assistance with updating your WordPress site, please contact us for a free consultation.
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