If you have a WordPress website, at some point you may have to update it and upgrade its plugins, theme, etc. But have you ever wondered what the WordPress upgrade process looks like? Perhaps, your web developer has advised you to update your website, but you’re unsure how they will do it, how much time it will take, or the costs involved.
In this blog post, we have shared some basic information about the WordPress site update process and its importance, along with its estimated costs.
Let’s start!
What is the WordPress site update?
WordPress website upgrade involves updating its core (WordPress core), themes, and plugins to their latest versions. The developers or development community of WordPress core, plugins, and themes keep upgrading their code to comply with the new web changes, fix the existing glitches, or change some features. With these changes, your WordPress website must be updated too.
When should you update your WordPress site?
Whenever the developer makes any updates to plugins and themes, you must ensure to implement the upgraded plugins/themes on your WordPress website as well. Also, whenever there is any update in the WordPress core, you must update the software version of your WordPress site too.
Why is it crucial to upgrade a WordPress site?
If the software, plugin, or theme of your WordPress website is outdated, your site may experience challenges like:
- Lack of security
- Bugs & glitches
- Display of warnings to the users
- Lack of website optimization and performance
- Unexpected issues in the website flow.
What’s the process to update a WordPress site?
To update a WordPress website, you must always hire a professional web developer or a website agency because it requires experience & expertise to update a website. Although by just clicking the “update” link with a theme or plugin, you can update them instantly, doing this can break some of the features of your site.
If you are on a budget, you can hire a WordPress developer from India who can help you upgrade your WordPress website.
Process to update a WordPress site:
Step 1: Take a full backup
The first step that every professional web developer in India will take is to take a complete backup of a WordPress site. The backup should include all the files & folders along with the database of the site. Having a fully functional backup will empower your web developer to restore it in case of any unforeseen interruption during the upgrade process.
Step 2: Update WordPress core
The next step is to upgrade the WordPress core to its latest version. This upgrade doesn’t require any special skills, and you can do it as well, but make sure to take a complete backup first.
How to do it?
Go to your WordPress dashboard, and you may see a message on the top that says something like “WordPress x.x.x is available. Please update now.” Just click the link “Please update now,” and it will show you a caution note to take a full database backup, which we already did in the first step. So, you can go ahead and update the WordPress core. In most cases, it doesn’t break the website.
Step 3: Update plugins
The next step is to update all the plugins to their latest versions. Again, updating a plugin is as quick as clicking a link. Still, in many cases, if not most, the website may break if it’s not done correctly because your web developer may have made customizations during the build of the site. Those customizations may go away when you update it.
Step 4: Update theme
Now, this is the most crucial part of updating a WordPress website. In most cases, this update breaks the website. Because it’s least likely that a web developer would not customize the theme of the site, when you update the theme without the assistance of a professional developer, it can break your website design because all the customizations inside the theme files will go away. In many cases, our clients reported that when they updated the theme themselves, it showed the default design of the theme, which may be different from their own/customized design. Therefore, always consult or seek help from a website developer from India who can provide you with the required assistance at an affordable price.
Step 5: PHP Update
This update is done on the server level. You can also ask your web hosting provider to update the PHP version of the server to match the latest version of the WordPress core. Updating the PHP version of the site can also show some warnings or errors, because some of the deprecated code may not work with the newer version of PHP. So, you will have to hire a WordPress developer to do the needful. Hire an Indian WordPress developer to save on costs.
Step 6: Test the website
After all the steps mentioned above are done, you must test the website properly to ensure that all its features are working as expectedly. If you find any glitches or errors, engage a web developer to fix them.
How much time does it take to upgrade a WordPress site?
It may take a few hours to a few days to upgrade a WordPress website. The actual time to do it may depend on the level of customizations done in the plugins and themes.
How much is the website update cost in India?
A website developer in India may charge you between $150 and $300 or more to upgrade your WordPress site.
