Just like any other software that is being constantly improved and updated, WordPress comes with constant updates. As the largest CMS in the world and hosting over 75 million sites, WordPress invests a huge amount of time and money in updates, improvements and security fixes.
Keeping your WordPress site up to date is key if you want to outrank your competitors and provide increased value to the end-user. Because your website is the main point of digital interaction between you and your customers, you need to ensure that it runs smoothly and that it exceeds the expectations of anyone who is visiting your domain.
Below we’ve listed the top 5 reasons to update your WordPress website in 2020 and keep it running perfectly.
1. Good Brand Impression
Gone are the days when you get customers by the word of mouth. Now everyone is looking for reviews online and when they land on your site, your prospects want to be pleasantly surprised. Nothing can affect you more than a website that loads slowly, has outdated plugins, comes with bad architecture, or is very hard to navigate.
Modern digital users who are quite keen on finding everything fast will dramatically punish you If you cannot deliver them what they seek, which is a seamless navigation experience. You need to make a very good first impression, so you need to have a website that looks great and enables your site visitors to find any type of information with ease.
An eye-catching website that is easy to use will allow you to remain competitive in your niche. Always know that a good brand impression goes along to ensure your prospects will choose you over the competition.
2. SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Keeping your site up to date, which involves ensuring it loads quickly, has streamlined navigation, has fresh content and has an appealing design with plenty of internal links, goes directly into your SEO efforts. All of the above can greatly improve your SEO rankings and also decrease the bounce rate. All of these work together to enable you to rank higher in SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).
Fresh content is king here. If you don’t have a blog yet, you should start one ASAP. A blog that gets two new blog posts a week will help your site rank higher and will enable you to get a fresh stream of customers.
Thus, by keeping your WordPress site up-to-date, you can enjoy a fresh stream of customers eager to see what you have in store for them. Ensure there are no broken links and that the flow is just perfect between pages. This will enable new site visitors to explore all the areas on your site and preferably buy from you or contact you for an offer.
3. Security and Protection Against Cyber Criminals
While WordPress is known for its top-notch security patches, you still have to protect yourself. Cybercriminals are getting smarter by the day, so you need to be 100% prepared to tackle them and stay protected.
Keeping your WordPress site up to date involves choosing a good hosting company, switching to https (or installing SSL certificate), installing a WordPress security plugin, disable file editing, using two-step authentication + a very strong password, changing your login url, limiting login attempts and even hiding the .htaccess and wp-config.php files.
However, the most important thing you have to do is keep your site up to date. With every new update, developers improve your site strength and add new layers of security to it. Update your WordPress site to the last version and gain the peace of mind that you are protected from any potential cyber-attacks.
4. Design
Another reason to update your WordPress site in 2020 is that you can get a much better design. Trendy sites convert much better and are more appreciated by site visitors. Getting a professional website design ensures that your site loads quickly, is compatible with all mobile devices, looks professional, and even reinforce your brand.
Having a nice-looking website with clear calls-to-action will entice users to discover more about your brand and connect with you more easily. In the end, it is a pleasure for a site user to click that shiny, moving CTA button just for the fun of it. If they discover something amazing behind it, that’s even better.
A nice-looking design that promotes your brand style and colors will only lead to increasing on-page engagement rate, which will boost your SEO. Consequently, this will bring you more high-quality traffic to your site, which will help you get more sales. It all starts with a site that looks top-notch and works flawlessly on all devices.
5. To Ensure it Works on all Devices,: smartphones, etc…all devices that are launched on the market
Lastly, keeping your site up-to-date ensures that it works seamlessly on all devices. As time goes by, more and more devices are being launched on the market. Smartphones with large screens (phablets), large tablets, tiny laptops, and even foldable smartphones come with unique traits and require site owners to implement responsive design.
If your website is not responsive and cannot be accessed from certain devices, you can be sure that you’ll fall behind the competition. Updating your WordPress website ensure that it runs seamlessly on the latest devices launched on the market and gives you peace of mind that you won’t lose any of your potential customers.
A website that works on all devices comes with a wide range of benefits. First, it gives you more mobile traffic. Second, it comes with lower maintenance needs. Third, it offers you faster pages, so that you can convert more people. Ultimately, a responsive website allows you to enjoy streamlined reporting and enables you to see how your content is performing on various devices.
Conclusion
These are just one of the top reasons to update your WordPress site in 2020. We can help you with bespoke WordPress maintenance plans to make things easier. Contact us now to learn more.
