Keeping your Site Updated

Keeping your Site Updated

From time to time, themes, plugins & WordPress will require updating. Updates typically happen when developers release security patches or add extra functionality.

It’s good practice to keep your themes, plugins & WordPress version updated to the latest versions. The top two reasons for sites being hacked are insecure passwords & outdated (vulnerable) software.

In an effort to promote better security and to streamline the update experience, WordPress will automatically update itself, if it’s able to, whenever a minor version is released (e.g. v4.8.2, v4.9.1). These minor releases are usually for maintenance and security purposes or translation file updates. Only core WordPress files will be auto-updated. Your themes or plugins won’t be automatically updated.

Once your site is auto-updated your site administrator will be notified by email. If your WordPress installation can’t update itself automatically for one reason or another, your site administrator will be notified of this as well.

To update your WordPress version manually or to update your themes and plugins, hover your cursor over the Dashboard menu option in the left-hand navigation menu and in the fly-out menu, click the Updates link. Alternatively, click the Dashboard menu option and then click the Updates link underneath.

The Updates page is divided into three sections. If your version of WordPress requires updating, this will be displayed at the top of the page. Below that, you’ll be notified of any plugin updates and below that again, theme updates.

Updating your WordPress version is as simple as clicking the Update Now button. WordPress will download the necessary files, perform a validation of those files and then automatically update your site.

Before updating your site, it’s always wise to perform a backup first, just in case something unfortunate happens during or after the installation.



If there are any plugins that can be updated, these will be listed in the Plugins section on the page. To update your plugins, tick the boxes next to each of the plugins you wish to update and then click the Update Plugins button. The new plugin files will be downloaded and automatically installed.

If there are any themes that can be updated, these will be listed in the Themes section on the page. To update your themes, tick the boxes next to each of the themes you wish to update and then click the Update Themes button. The new theme files will be downloaded and automatically installed.

After your site has been updated, no matter whether it’s been done automatically, manually or just themes and plugins, it’s a good idea to give your site a quick test to make sure it’s functioning as expected. This will ensure that the new themes, plugins or even WordPress itself hasn’t introduced new functionality that adversely affects your site or changes how your site operates.


    • Related Articles

    • Customizing your Site

      Using the Customizer, you can modify certain parts of your website. When you click on the Customize menu option you’ll be shown the various theme options that you can change. Depending on the theme that is currently in use, you may see more or less ...
    • What is WordPress?

      WordPress is an Open Source software system used by millions of people around the world to create beautiful websites and blogs. It is completely customisable by the use of themes and plugins. WordPress is web software you can use to create a ...
    • Adding your Site Content

      Adding content to your site is an easy process no matter whether you’re creating a Post or a Page. The procedure for both is almost identical. Apart from how they display on your site, which was described earlier, the other main difference is that ...
    • WordPress 安装

      WordPress的系统要求 数据库 - MySQL 5.0& plus; Web服务器 - WAMP(Windows) LAMP(Linux) XAMPP(Multi-platform) MAMP(Macintosh) 操作系统 - 跨平台 浏览器支持 - IE(Internet Explorer 8& plus;),Firefox,Google Chrome,Safari,Opera PHP兼容性 - PHP 5.2& plus; 下载WordPress ...
    • WordPress 通用设置

      在本章中,我们将研究WordPress中的 General Settings 。 WordPress常规设置用于设置您站点的基本配置设置。 在设置管理屏幕中,它是默认设置屏幕。 以下是访问常规设置的步骤 - 步骤1 - 点击WordPress中的Settings → General选项。 步骤2 - 显示“常规设置"页面,如以下快照所示。 以下是一般设置页面上的字段的详细信息。 Site Title- 在模板标题中显示网站的名称。 Tagline- 显示有关您网站的简短句子。 ...