I believe that someone needs to be technically updating your WordPress website. Whether it's you, a team member or you outsource to us, someone needs to be doing it. 

The other day I heard a businesswoman say that her WordPress website is updated automatically without her even checking it. 

I think I physically shuddered. 

When a WordPress website is handed over to the owner, they are often not given instructions on what to do next. They are rarely trained on either the technical or the content side. 

In other words, you don't know what you don't know.  

When I talk about technical updates to your WordPress website, I'm including WordPress core, plugins, themes and even translations if your website doesn't use American English. Yes, Australian English is a translation, so there are extra files that need to be updated.   

I can understand that setting everything to update automatically seems like a time saver, and it means that you can let your website do its thing. 

For a (sometimes recovering) control freak like me, there are more disadvantages than advantages to performing technical updates automatically. 

The Advantages Of Automatic Technical Updates For Your WordPress Website

The automatic update can be set at the hosting level or with a WordPress plugin like Easy Updates Manager.  

There is no additional cost for the automatic updates unless you buy a premium plugin to control it. 

You don't have to spend money and/or time learning how to do the technical updates.  

The Disadvantages Of Automatic Technical Updates For Your WordPress Website

The automatic updates can occur anytime, including when your website has the most visitors.

You don't know what has been updated. If there isn't an activity log on your website, it's challenging to track down what happened to cause an issue if one occurs.   

If there has not been a website backup beforehand and the update fails, you may have to find a website backup from a long time ago to restore. That's assuming that your website performs regular backups. 

You don't know if the plugins and themes are compatible with the WordPress you have running. 

You don't know if the plugins will place nicely together after updating them. 

The biggest issue for me is that if you don't know when the technical updates are occurring, you won't know to check your website. If you check your website daily, you will notice if something goes wrong. However, how long will it be before you notice that your website is down or not performing correctly? Hours? Days? Weeks? 

Some of the errors I've come across when plugins have been updated:

• The new version takes up too many resources on poor hosting, which gives a white screen of death
• An update switches off a setting after the update so that the plugin is no longer functioning
• The plugin simply no longer works, such as the contact form
• Page builder plugin that causes the colours to change on the website
• The plugin has not been updated for that version of WordPress, so it fails when activated  

Some of the errors when themes have been updated:

• Colour changes with the new theme 
• Position changes with the content       

Note: A child theme should be used so that when the theme is updated, any customisations do not get changed. 

How Much Do You Value Your WordPress Website?

If your website is nothing more than an online business card, it may not matter if it is down for a while. 

If your website brings in leads and makes sales, then losing your website will cost you money. The money that you could have earned through sales and the money needed to fix your website. 

What Are Your Options?

Keep your fingers crossed, hoping that technical updates work for you. This may work for you if you're a risk taker with a basic website. Until it doesn't. 

Learn how to do technical updates yourself. We have the Stress Less  WordPress Website Maintenance Training Guide that takes you through a step-by-step process of how to update your website. You can find more information on the step by step training guide here.

Outsource to KISS WP Websites with a webcare plan. Of course, other companies do this, but this is our website, so we promote ourselves 🙂 There are a variety of webcare plans based on the needs of your website. All web care plans currently include one-on-one time with me, Karen Leslie, to ensure that your WordPress website is aligned with your business needs. You can find more information about our webcare plans here.       

Summary On Whether Automatic Updates Are Best For Your WordPress Website

Are automatic updates the best for your WordPress website? I would say no. It's one of the reasons my business, KISS WP Websites, was created - to provide the resources lacking with WordPress websites. With us, you are not alone. We're on your side.