WordPress Security: Upgrades

The most common cause of WordPress security issues is old plugins, hacked plugins, unsafe plugins. It’s all plugins! And passwords. I’m not sure which is worse – an easy password or a hacked plugin.

Today we’ll go through how to upgrade WordPress the right way. This is not trendy, not exciting and there is no really complicated math to it – you just click the button! But let’s go through a few things that we do for all our clients before we click the button!

Essentials of Upgrading WordPress

The biggest scariest thing about upgrading are the stories of completely decimated sites afterwards. In the story – the site comes down, pieces of the site fall out of the sky and nothing is ever the same again.

Unfortunately I’m not really exaggerating all that much. Some of you know exactly what I’m talking about. It is not pretty when the source of our livelihood goes down and you have no idea how to fix it!

That is exactly why we’re featuring this security week on WordPress Barista. This week is to help prevent huge fails like the above. So here are your essentials for upgrading WordPress:

First, backup.

Yes – this is not optional. If you do not do this and something does go wrong, you will have no recourse. Use this tutorial for a plugin that will do the heavy lifting for you.

Second, upgrade.

I know it’s scary, and yes sometimes the bad stuff does happen. But if you delay upgrading, more bad stuff is likely to happen – like sending porn to your grandmother who reads your blog.

1. It should be repeated: you backed up, right?
2. Upgrade your plugins first. All of them.
3. Clear the cache. Click around – everything good?
4. Upgrade your theme or theme framework, if upgrades are available. (If you don’t have a child theme, you may not want to upgrade – see this post on Frameworks & Child Theme FAQs.)
5. Clear the cache, click around – look ok?
6. Upgrade WordPress. Press the button. We’re right here if things go awry – support@wpbarista.com.
7. Clear the cache.

Not too hairy, right?

For all things good and right, do it. Upgrades are not optional. Unless you enjoy redirecting your readers to performance enhancement products.