Why Updating Your WordPress Plugins Is Important

WordPress is the most popular and frequently used open-source content management system available at the present date. One of the significant reasons behind all its popularity is that it provides the user with access to an ocean of website favorable plugins. The utilization of WordPress plugins is an excellent way to enhance the functionality of a website. These plugins permit developers to combine a broad range of front-end and back-end functionalities in a WordPress website simply with the help of a few clicks. Meanwhile updating WordPress plugins is also important for working smoothly. 

However, constant updation of these plugins is extremely important to protect the site from a number of risk factors. Here in this article, we will discuss the main reasons for updating WordPress plugins but before that let us understand what is a WordPress plugin in brief.

WHAT IS A WORDPRESS PLUGIN

A plugin is a ready-made piece of code that can be added to your WordPress website with an aim the add extra functionalities to it without doing much endeavors. 

Over 50,000 WordPress plugins are available at the present date to ease the task of developers. However, some of these plugins are completely functional and the advantages they offer cannot be seen directly. These plugins usually support the backend operations, such as search engine optimization, the security of the website, loading speed, and performance.

A plugin can be as simple as something that provides a specific visual theme for your website or it can be as complicated as something that can convert your website into a fully functional online store like ‘Woocommerce’. Hence, the level of complexity of your website largely depends on the choice of plugins you make. 

REASONS TO UPDATE WORDPRESS PLUGINS

More than one in every three Web sites on the web are build using WordPress today. Hence, the demand for WordPress plugins is enormous. Consequently, developers are constantly working on new plugins so that they can add an improved user experience and functionality to the site/application. But, as technology is continually growing, plugins are also required to be in the line. They, accordingly, are required to propose new features and functionalities and repair the bugs that were left unaddressed in the earlier versions. Hence, regular updations of the plugins is mandatory to keep the ball rolling smoothly. The reasons to update the WordPress plugins are many. Few of them can be seen as under

1. Enhanced performance and loading speed

The performance of a WordPress Website largely depends on the plugins used in the same.  Hence, the more up-to-date the plugins will be, the better will be the performance of your site. It will also give a better speed to the site by making the pages load rapidly, buttons function correctly and images load transparently.

2. Better security 

The security of any website or web app is one of the major concerns at the present date that needs to be addressed properly. Hackers are looking for weaknesses in the websites on a constant basis so that they can misuse them easily. Despite the best efforts incorporated by the WordPress plugin developer, bugs always find their way in the production code and this is what hackers attempt to utilize. The updation of plugins includes a number of bug fixes that can ensure extra security to your website by diminishing the possibility of digital attacks.

3. Better Google ranking

Google also looks for the same things in a website that humans do, a convenient and pleasing browsing experience. A reliable, protected, and fast website is the primary choice of individuals. When you update your plugins, you take good care of all such things. This eventually helps you to gain a better ranking for your website in the search engine result pages of your favorite web browsers.

4. Enhanced functionality

When more and more users install a plugin, they start to give suggestions to the plugin author on what else should be added to the plugin and the author releases an updated version containing a number of suggested extra functionality.  When you update your WordPress plugin, you are able to access all such new functionalities. 

5. An improved plugin quality

It is a general belief that the more number of plugins a website will be having, the better the website will be. However, it is going to be true only if the utilized plugins are optimal in terms of functionality. Hence, the quality of installed plugins is much more crucial as compared to the number of utilized plugins. When you update your plugins on a regular basis, you are ensuring a better quality of your plugins.

6. Better reputation of company

A well functioning website is a precious asset to a company. Hence, maintaining a website is crucial for guaranteeing the company’s online goodwill as well as gaining consumer’s faith.

7. Compatibility with WordPress

Whenever a new WordPress version is released, it may encounter compatibility issues with some plugins. This can result in a broad range of possible problems such as the site not loading properly, messed up design, main functionalities not working, security issues, and so on. Hence, developers are required to update their plugins as soon as possible whenever a new version of WordPress is released in order to avoid such problems.

Looking at the above discussion we can conclude that regular updating WordPress plugins is extremely important for a WordPress website. This is something that should be taken seriously and should not be avoided. The best part about updating WordPress plugins is WordPress itself indicates you whenever the updates are available as shown in the picture

However, if you find it a tough chore or have no time to handle this then don’t worry as we provide a good option to solve your problem.

We, at Indylogix, offer a number of WordPress maintenance plans that you can leverage to ensure the regular updates of your WordPress plugins as well as maintaining other stuff associated with your WordPress website. Do get in touch with us today to know more about the plans!