A question we often get is "Should I / Can I update wordpress?". The answer deserves a little bit more than a yes/no answer.
Wordpress is a very stable and professionally developed platform. Almost always the wordpress core updates go smoothly and there are no issues. The problem is that many wordpress plugins and themes are not developed by professional companies. Those that are often have so many different themes and plugins it can take them some time to incorporate any fixes that an update may cause. It is often times that these themes or plugins are the culprit for failed wordpress updates. The wordpress core team is simply unable to test every combination of the over 20,000 plugins available with its updates.
When we update a wordpress site, the below is our process:
- Read the release notes or changelog to see what the updates change.
- Test the update on a development site. That way, if anything breaks, you can troubleshoot before updating your live site.
- Ensure we have Back ups of your site.
- Install the updates.
- Review and test your site. Focus on the items that were noted in the release notes or changelog.
We recommend all of our clients subscribe to our wordpress maintenance plan so we can automatically and frequently perform the above steps whenever there are pending security updates.
Please note: if you attempt to update your site on your own, we recommend:
- Seriously, please consider letting our team do it!
- Do the updates on a Mon-Thur before Noon. This gives our support team plenty of time and availability to fix the site should it break.
- If the site breaks and you are not on an active support plan, you will be billed for all time needed to fix the site. If you need it fixed urgently, you will be billed at our current emergency rate.