Why you should update your website software

Why you should update your website software

No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as any manner of thy friends or of thine own were; any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind. And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
– John Donne

 

No website is an island (especially not if you want customers to find you!) so as the owner/editor you need to be aware that you can’t set up a website and then forget about it. Now that it’s on the Internet you need to keep it up to date. It may help to think of it like a bricks and mortar shop, which requires maintenance and occasional remodeling to remain attractive to customers.

Keeping your website up to date has important SEO implications, as relevant and recent content is a large part of search engine rankings. If your website hasn’t been updated in many years then it may no longer be visually appealing and more importantly it may not have been designed with mobile devices in mind (from where the majority of users now do their searching!).

device-usage

At HostAway we are more concerned with the code that makes up your website, particularly if your website runs on popular Content Management Systems like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal or Magento.cms-market-share Due to their widespread use, these platforms are popular targets for hackers. Updates to the core software provide the following benefits:

 

Security

The number one reason to update, new exploits are constantly being discovered which are then patched by the software developers.

New Stuff

Want the latest features? Need to use a new plugin? You’ll need the latest version to be compatible (this is a double-edged sword, occasionally older plugins won’t work with newer core software so if things break, call us or restore from your back-up!).

Performance

Feel the need for speed? Improvements to load times and page performance are often a major driver for updates.

Whilst we’ve mentioned this in the past, we want to remind customers of the importance of updates due to some critical vulnerabilities that were recently exposed in Joomla, affecting versions 3.4.4 through 3.6.3. If you are running Joomla we strongly suggest updating this immediately or contact your web developer!

We understand that many of our customers don’t have the time to monitor and perform updates each week. Therefore we offer a maintenance service for $200/year where we take responsibility for keeping your website software (not content) up to date and ensuring your site remains free from malware. If you’d like more information on this service or have any questions about how to keep your own site up to date please don’t hesitate to contact us.

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