Imagine having a kid.
But this is no normal kid. He has a special “Upgrade” button on his tummy that you have to press every day to make him grow a bit.
The day you do not press upgrade button, he will not grow.
Hard to imagine?
Well, not in this internet world. In fact, such a kid exists.
And it is called “WordPress“.
It did not come with an upgrade button and till version 2.7, you had to carefully take out his organs and replace with a bit bigger ones. But when it entered version 2.7, an upgrade button grew on its tummy.
Now, every time a change is there, you have to only press that “Upgrade” button.
Although not everyday, but WordPress is updated quite frequently. And you have to stay in pace because often, the cause for fast releases is security.
So, ultimately, it is another responsibility for you as a blog or website owner.
And it might become a headache sometimes.
Why?
Because when a kid grows, his clothes and accessories also need to be changed!
And with WordPress, you have to take care of updating themes and plugins.
In this post, I will discuss about upgrades of WordPress itself, themes and plugins.
WordPress Upgrades
Upgrading WordPress is quite easy. Just press “Upgrade” when you get notified and after that, WordPress takes care itself. It’s like telling the kind to press “Upgrade” on tummy and it will do that.
WordPress is tested thoroughly but still, many times, bugs may slip through.
So, best way is to have a good upgrade schedule for your blog.
For Personal Websites:
Upgrade to major versions (e.g. 2.9.x to 3.0) after 3-4 days of release. For minor versions, you can upgrade more quickly.
For Business/Word Websites:
Wait at least a weak before upgrading major version. For minor ones, wait 2-3 days.
Waiting for some time allows you to easily find solutions for any possible problems.
Theme Upgrades
Now, one to kid’s clothes.
You have to make sure that kid is in good and well sized clothes. Do not worry, WordPress will not overgrow and your theme will not shrink if you do not upgrade theme but you may miss some new and useful features.
By updating theme, you make sure that you are secure and can use the latest WordPress features.
However, themes are also a mixed bag. They are essential but also easiest to break. And more often than not, themes are the ones that bring the website down.
Here are some things to keep in mind when upgrading theme:
Is Theme Customized?
Has you theme been customized? If yes, was it built on top of another WordPress theme? Once, I had a client who lost his theme after upgrade. How? The problem was that the developer had customized the default Kubrik theme but did not change the theme info. So, upgrade wiped all the customizations clean. Make sure you do not end up doing anything like that.
Is Your Theme Using Child Theme?
Customization using child themes solves a lot of problems. This makes upgrading fast and easy. If your developer had used Child Theme, say thanks and upgrade away.
Do You Know What You Are Doing?
Do you have any idea what you are doing? If you did not develop/install the theme, better ask your WordPress developer/designer.
Plugin Upgrades
Plugins are like accessories. And they are also essential to upgrade. You can’t let your 10 year old kid go out with a pacifier, can you?
Similarly, you need to keep WordPress’s accessories up to date.
Here’s a simple way to stay away from problems when updating WordPress plugins:
Essential Plugins
These are the ones which add something critical to your blog. For example, Akismet adds spam protection and W3 Total Cache adds caching. If these are disabled, you might have problems!
Wait 3-4 days before updating these.
Others
Other smaller plugins which are not so important or have worthy alternatives can be upgraded immediately.
Using the rules and advice in this post, you can make sure that your blog is always up to date and secure.
Now, it’s time to sleep knowing that your kid is perfectly fine.
Wait, before you sleep, do not forget to tell your friends or subscribing for more updates about kids(oops, WordPress I mean)!
Related Plugin: If you are having problems with your WordPress Blog, try WP Debug Bar plugin.
