Tips and tricks for quickly updating your WordPress website

WordPress has helped many a small business owner and hobbyist create a great looking website that is endlessly customizable and suits many different needs. WordPress sites usually run great, but there are times when these sites can slow down and cause some hassle for those in charge of maintenance.

Luckily, there are many easy fixes to keep your WordPress website running smoothly and at optimal levels. Here’s a few ways to ensure proper site maintenance and avoid headaches when it comes to your WordPress website.

  • Update Themes and Plugins

The first step you should take to increasing the speed and functionality of your website is making sure it’s been properly updated. To do this, you should first update your themes and plugins, before moving onto the next step of updating the WordPress Core as a whole.

Reversing these steps can result in compatibility issue which will further complicate the issue and be generally counterproductive to your goals. Updating themes and plugins is a simple task: simply access those which you’ve already installed on your dashboard and navigate to the “update” section. You can update your themes and plugins all at once or on an individual basis, whichever you prefer.

  • Update Your Core

This is the quickest and easiest step in the entire process. To update your core, simply look for a notification at the top of your WordPress dashboard. All you need to do is click the link and sit back and relax. The site will update itself quickly and you’ll be able to use and customize it again when the update is complete.

When the update is complete, there are a few additional steps you’ll need to take, such as reactivating your caching plugins, and testing your website. Both these steps are important to ensure your site is still running optimally and the update has not interrupted any important or frequently used processes.

  • Manual Updates

While your WordPress site will easily update automatically, you can actually maintain greater control by taking over the update process yourself. This is certainly more time consuming, but it’s a great option for those who know what they’re doing and want specific changes made from the update.

If you take this route, there’s a few steps to the process: you’ll first need to prepare for the update by following a few prompts from the dashboard, then downloading the latest version of WordPress in a .zip file. Next, you’ll wean to deactivate your plugins then delete wp-include and wp-admin directories, which you can do from your FTP client. Finally, you’ll check wp-content directory and upload all of the needed files from the root directory. Once all of this is completed, you can start the manual update.

Final Thoughts

Updating your WordPress site should be easy, but if the process is causing you headaches or need the help of an expert, there’s no better place to turn to than NAx2 Creative. NAx2 Creative is your one-stop shop for all necessary steps and information pertaining to your WordPress websites and its optimal function. Click here to contact me today!