This is post #17 in my Website 101 series; all posts in this series are tagged website101. Subscribe now so you don’t miss future posts.
Now that we have a WordPress website installed and the WordPress software up to date, we have to make sure all the other components stay up to date too.
Yes, even though we updated WordPress, we still have updates to perform. Why? Well, the power of WordPress comes from the vast array of little software add-ons that are available from programmers all over the world. Many of them are free or cheap, very easy to use, and very powerful. In order to take advantage of these add-ons, we need to do a little maintenance work.
Plugins
Plugins add a wide variety of features and functionality to WordPress. Things like adding a Facebook “like” button to your posts, adding the ability to track statistics on the number of visitors to your site and what content they like most, and automatically posting your content to Twitter are just some of the features than can be added via plugins with literally just a few clicks on your part.
So, all of these little addon programs, provided by different programmers, need to be kept up to date. The procedure is quite simple, and can even be done in bulk.
You may not always want to do this in bulk, but let’s go through the process this time to get a feel for it. This is pretty safe since the site has just been setup and is not yet “live.”
Click on the Updates menu option on the dashboard.
You’ll see a section on Plugins.
Click on “Select All” and then “Update Plugins.”
You’ll see a status screen like the following:
Themes
We looked at themes a while back. As you may recall, themes basically control the look, feel, and layout of your site. If your theme needs to be updated, you’ll see that on the dashboard too. And in the themes section:
The procedure is essentially the same, with one big exception. Themes control a lot, and often end up getting customized as your site evolves over time. As that happens, there may be certain settings and files that need to be backed up before updating a theme and then re-applied after the new theme is in place. That’s beyond the scope of this series – you’ll need to review the specific procedures for the theme you select.
Stay up to date
As you can see, the procedures to keep WordPress are very simple and straight-forward. Keep everything up to date to ensure that your site remains runs smoothly and remains secure.
This is post #17 in my Website 101 series; all posts in this series are tagged website101. Subscribe now so you don’t miss future posts.