When you read the words ‘website update’, you’re probably not jumping up and down with excitement, but they’re a crucial part of every business that owns a website. Updates are essential for ensuring your website remains secure and accessible to potential customers. There’s nothing worse than a hopeful shopper landing on a website that doesn’t work!
So, how do you make sure your website is regularly updated?
I will walk you through my top five tips for keeping your WordPress website updated so that your website visitors don’t arrive in No Man’s Land.
- Create an Update Plan
Performing updates to the software that powers your website should be a regular process in your business. Create an update plan that details the actions you will take, who is responsible for each task, and any team members involved in testing. Your update plan should be a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) that any competent team member can carry out. For more guidance, check out Choosing Digital Marketing Services. - Update Out of Hours
Schedule your website updates for times when your business isn’t busy. This could be early morning, late afternoon, or even a weekend. If you have team members involved, it obviously needs to fit into their working day. However, you’ve got plenty of scope to plan updates for when your business is quietest. For additional tips, visit Online Marketing and Web Design. - Don’t Update a Live Site
Unless you have a very small business and infrequently receive website visitors, it’s always best to avoid performing updates on a live website. This is particularly important if you have an e-commerce website, a membership website, or a website with a lot of traffic. If you have regular website visitors, test updates on a staging website first. Your hosting company or design agency should be able to help you with creating a staging version of your website. Once an update has been tested on the staging site, it can be performed on the live site. For more on this, check out Fine Web Design Blog. - Backup Before Updating
Before carrying out any updates, ensure you have a recent website backup available. For busy websites, take a backup just before updating. For most small businesses, a backup from the last day or two will be fine. After confirming that you have a backup available, you can safely perform any website updates. You’re protected from any issues or errors because you can restore the website backup if you experience a problem. For more information, see Top Web Designs Experts. - Test After Updating
After you’ve completed your website updates, there’s one last step. It’s an extremely important step that is easily missed. You should take a few minutes to run through your website pages and check that they’re displaying correctly. Check each page of your website and ensure there are no visible errors. If your website contains any forms, test them by inputting your details. If the form successfully sends the inputted information to where you’d expect it to be (e.g., your contact form sending an email to your business), everything is working as expected. For more tips on post-update testing, visit Best Web Design and Marketing Service.
By following these tips, you can ensure your WordPress website remains updated, secure, and fully functional for your visitors. Regular updates will help you avoid potential issues and keep your site running smoothly. For more insights on website maintenance, check out Top Digital Marketing Services Guide and Web Design Experts DC.