Having the latest WordPress update is much spouted advice. Lists on how to have a successful website, how to keep your website secure, and more all mention that you should keep your WordPress up to date. Why? What can you expect when you download the next WordPress update?
Faster, Better, Stronger
Typically, WordPress updates exist to make an already great thing better. Having the latest update means your site is running at peak performance. It just doesn’t get better than this. Of course, some new products have bugs. If you’re using a WordPress curated service, you can expect a small delay between when an update comes out and when your site gets it. Services like WP Harbor want to ensure that everything in the update is working according to plan. Mistakes a rare, but they do happen, and switching to a compromised version won’t help your site. If you’re updating your WordPress yourself, you can wait a week or so as well—just don’t forget to update!
Security Patches and Fixes
The world of online security is a world locked in the equivalent of an arms race. Hackers, phishers, and scammers figure out a security loophole. Programmers figure out what they found, and close the loop. Then it’s back to the hackers again. When you’re running an outdated version of WordPress, you could be inviting trouble. You’re running a version with known flaws that people out there already know how to exploit. As nice as it would be to just get every solution in one swoop, that’s not how programming works. There can always be a more secure version, because people are always trying new ways to break the existing version.
Behind the Scenes Cleanup
Sometimes you run a WordPress update and everything stays exactly the same. It looks like nothing happened at all! Most of the time, that’s not true. Something did change, deep in the coding. This could mean that a section was cleaned up to make it easier to work with. They may have added the basis for a feature they’re going to release down the road. It could be a lot of things that make coders worldwide nod in wonder, but won’t impact your day to day use of WordPress. It’s still best to get the updates, because other plugins and features may rely on them.
A Targeted Solution
Sometimes an update comes out that’s focused on just one issue. This could be a serious breach of security, or a cleanup to a previous coding error. When a targeted solution is released, it’s best to get this update right away. It’s a serious enough problem that WordPress focused just on fixing that. It should tell you a little about what you’re up against.
The latest WordPress update is filled with the best code WordPress has to offer. It’s continually evolving and improving. By getting the latest updates you can expect fast performance, easy integration with plugins, security, and the foundation for great stuff.