Keeping WordPress up to date is becoming more important by the day. Many people ask “why is it important to update WordPress?” and there are many reasons, the main reason being security.
Why do I need to update WordPress?
As with most online ventures there is always the risk of attacks, which can be extremely dangerous – especially if whole websites are deleted. Your WordPress website or blog needs to be updated with the latest versions to decrease the risk of these attacks. The developers of WordPress monitor vulnerabilites and work to always try and prevent attacks, and they do this using updates of the WordPress platform.
Despite these obstacles, occasionally a hacker finds a weakness in your defenses and breaks into the castle. They might find a lose stone in the wall or find a way to dig under the castle into the courtyard. You can defend you blog from 99 different types of attacks, but it only takes that one hundredth unprotected way to allow someone to break through.
When a new type of attack is found the WordPress teams will investigate and create a patch for the vulnerability, and this patch is then issued to WordPress users in the form of updates. That’s when you get the message on your dashboard asking you to update.
Different types of WordPress Updates
Each WordPress update has a release number, such as 3.0 or 3.0.1. These numbers give you information about how major the update is, as well as give the developers a way to track what changes were made in which releases. The farther the number is to the left, the more serious the update is.
If the first number has changed, like from 1.0 to 2.0, this indicates a major change in the software. The developers might have rewritten major parts of the code or restructured how it works internally. This type of update can sometimes be tricky to handle since it usually involves updating your database or the way your files are structured. You should back up your blog before any update, but especially before this type of update.
The second number, or rather the first number after the dot, refers to a less major, yet still significant update to the software. It indicates that there have probably been some minor bugs fixed or a few small features added. You’re less likely to have problems when doing this type of update.
The third number, or the number after the second dot, refers to a small change in the software. This type of update is usually only released when a bug or security vulnerability needs to be fixed right away. Otherwise, they would wait to include the changes in one of the other types of updates.
Always ensure you back up your files before updating your sites, and if you are interested in researching a new update before doing the actual update on WordPress then simply Google the update or head over to the WordPress website.
Daniel Hall
