Updating Your Website an Important Part of SEO
Having recently updated my site to the latest version of my WordPress theme, I wanted to share some knowledge. Though I often preach to others to stay on top of WordPress plugin and theme updates, I myself, tend to put it on the back burner. I know if I’m this close to it and I do it that many, many businesses get behind with their sites, which can lead to poor performance that drags down your search position and also gives all visitors a bad user experience, which is the ultimate measure of your website. If you can’t turn your visitors into customers, it isn’t helping much.
Factors Often Improved by Updates
Often those updates that are done to your site by staying up to date with the latest plugin or theme options do improvements that you may have thought you needed a new site to take care of. In fact, my recent theme update seemed like a basic thing, but since I had gotten a few updates behind, it actually took care of one of the aspects of my site that I had been complaining about for quite some time. If I had just done the update, it would have resolved the issue. My particular gripe was a little functionality with the mobile version of my site that made it easier to navigate. There are a number of factors that can be improved with regular updates.
- Speed – Newer versions tend to run faster which may help with some of your speed issues.
- Mobile Functionality – As I mentioned, my theme update fixed one of my navigation issues.
- Security – With the constant changes in security, it is always good to stay ahead of this.
- Bells and Whistles – Often functions that you thought you might need a new site for can be built in with basic updates
Updating Plans
Most web developers will have reasonable monthly or quarterly plans to keep your site up to date, and if you have good communications with them, they can keep an eye out for new functionality or plugin options that can help you and be installed as part of your plan. I try to maintain an open line of communications with all of my clients and their developers, so if important new plugins like AMP or others come in to play, I can make them aware and their developer can install, or I can bring in a developer to help them if theirs has disappeared on them, which unfortunately seems to happen a lot these days.
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