Why you should update your WordPress website — and how to do it safely

If you’ve ever seen that little notification in your WordPress dashboard telling you an update is available and thought, “I’ll deal with that later”, you’re not alone. Updating your website can feel a bit nerve-wracking, especially when you’re not particularly technical. What if something breaks? What if the whole site goes down?

These are completely understandable concerns. The good news is that with a little know-how, keeping your website up to date doesn’t have to be stressful at all. In fact, it’s one of the most important things you can do to keep your website healthy, secure, and working well for your visitors.

With WordPress 7.0 on the horizon – one of the biggest releases in years – now feels like a good time to talk through what updating actually involves, why it matters, and how to approach it calmly and safely.

Why keeping WordPress updated matters

WordPress powers over 40% of all websites on the internet. That popularity is a double-edged sword: it means WordPress is brilliant, well-supported, and constantly improving – but it also means it’s a target for hackers and malicious software.

Every major update brings security patches that fix known vulnerabilities. If your site is running an outdated version of WordPress, those gaps stay open. Updates also bring performance improvements, which means a faster, smoother experience for your visitors, and compatibility improvements so that your plugins and themes continue to work as they should.

Put simply: an updated website is a safer, more reliable website.

What could go wrong – and why that’s not a reason to avoid updating

Occasionally, a major update can cause a conflict with a plugin or theme that hasn’t yet been updated by its developers. This might result in something on your site looking wrong, a feature not working, or – in rare cases – the site going temporarily offline.

This sounds alarming, but it doesn’t have to be. The key is simply not to update directly on your live website without doing a little preparation first. (I will explain more on this in a moment.)

A ‘live’ site is your real, public-facing website – the one your clients actually visit. A ‘staging’ or ‘testing’ site is a private copy of it, one that only you can see as you work on it, where you can make changes safely without affecting anything your visitors see.

Always test on a staging site first

Before applying any major update to your live website, the golden rule is to test it on a staging environment first. A staging site is simply a behind-the-scenes exact copy of your ‘live’ website where you can safely try things out.

Many WordPress hosting providers offer a staging tool built into their dashboard – it’s often just a click or two to set one up. Once you’ve created your staging site, you apply any updates or changes you want to make on there first, check that everything still looks and works as expected, and only then ‘push’ the updates to your live site for the rest of the world to see.

This simple step removes the vast majority of the risk. If something does go wrong on the staging site, nothing on your real website is affected and you have time to sort it out before your visitors notice anything at all. If it goes completely tits up, you can simply delete the staging site and start again. That’s the beauty of staging websites and why it’s best practice to always apply major updates to staging first, just in case!

If your hosting doesn’t offer staging, or you’d like some help setting it up, it’s worth asking your web designer about it.

Don’t update on day one!

When a major new version of WordPress launches, it’s tempting to update straight away – especially if it comes with exciting new features. But it’s generally worth waiting at least a few days to a week after a major release before updating, even on a staging site.

Here’s why: in the days immediately following a big release, the WordPress community works quickly to identify and fix any unexpected issues that only show up once the software is out in the wild. Plugin and theme developers also need time to release their own updates for compatibility. Waiting just a week or so lets the dust settle, which means there are usually fewer hiccups, and gives you access to a more stable, polished version.

WordPress 7.0, for example, was originally due on 9 April 2026 but has already been delayed slightly while the team who are building it iron out a few details around one of its headline features. This is actually a good sign – it shows the team take quality seriously.

What’s new in WordPress 7.0?

So what is actually coming in this big release? WordPress 7.0 is the first version to focus properly on collaboration – meaning that if you ever work with a team on your website content, you’ll soon be able to edit pages and posts at the same time as a colleague, with changes updating in real time, a bit like working in Google Docs with Auto Save.

There’s also a redesigned admin area, which will make the back end of WordPress look and feel more modern, and the introduction of some AI-assisted tools. For most small business owners, day-to-day use of WordPress will feel familiar, but the improvements under the bonnet are significant.

Your simple update checklist

• Wait at least 5-7 days after a major release before updating WordPress on major releases
• Back up your website before doing anything (your hosting provider may do this automatically – worth checking)
• Set up or use a staging site to test the update first, i.e. staging.yourdomain.com
• Check that your plugins and themes are also updated – outdated plugins are a common cause of conflicts and breakages
• Test your staging site thoroughly: check your homepage, key landing pages, contact forms (especially important to check that these still work after any updates, you don’t want to miss out on any enquiries because it ‘looked’ OK but in the backend the form is broken), and anything else that’s important to your business
• Once everything looks good, apply the update to your live site
• Check your live site one more time after updating, just to be sure (yes, even test those contact forms again!)

Not sure where to start?

If all of this feels a bit overwhelming, or if you’d rather hand it over to someone who does this every day, you don’t have to go it alone. Keeping a WordPress website updated and running smoothly is one of those things that can take a surprising amount of time and confidence – and there’s no shame in getting a little help. I help my clients through my Maintenance and Care Packages, so they never have to worry about updates like this, as I do it all for them. Get in touch if you want to find out how I can help manage the backend of your website so you always have peace of mind and don’t have to worry about the tech.