That little red number in your WordPress dashboard isn’t a suggestion. It’s often the difference between a secure website and a compromised one.
What Those Updates Actually Contain
WordPress updates fall into three categories:
Security Patches (Critical)
When security researchers discover vulnerabilities in WordPress, themes, or plugins, developers release patches. These updates are urgent. Hackers actively scan for sites running vulnerable versions.
Bug Fixes
Software has bugs. Updates fix them. That checkout process glitch? That weird formatting issue? Often solved in an update.
New Features
Less urgent, but important for keeping your site modern and compatible with other software.
The Real Risk of Ignoring Updates
Here’s what happens when you ignore updates:
- Vulnerability disclosed — Security researchers publish details of the flaw
- Hackers notice — Automated tools start scanning for vulnerable sites
- Your site gets hit — Without the patch, you’re an easy target
- Damage done — Malware installed, data stolen, SEO rankings destroyed
The window between vulnerability disclosure and active exploitation is often just hours. Not days, not weeks — hours.
Why People Don’t Update (And Why Those Reasons Don’t Hold Up)
“Updates break my site”
Sometimes, yes. That’s why you test updates on a staging site first. But you know what breaks sites more reliably? Getting hacked.
”I don’t have time”
Updates take minutes. Recovering from a hack takes days or weeks, plus the cost of lost business and reputation.
”My site is too small to be targeted”
Hackers don’t manually select targets. Automated tools scan the entire internet. Your small business site is as visible as a corporation’s.
”It’s been fine so far”
Every hacked site owner said this at some point.
The Right Way to Handle Updates
1. Test First (When Possible)
Major updates should be tested on a staging copy of your site. This catches compatibility issues before they affect your live site.
2. Back Up Before Updating
Always have a recent backup before any update. If something goes wrong, you can roll back.
3. Update Regularly
Don’t let updates pile up. A site 6 months behind on updates is much harder (and riskier) to bring current than one that’s updated weekly.
4. Monitor After Updates
Check your site after updates. Make sure forms work, checkout functions, and key pages display correctly.
How SparkHost Handles Updates
We update every site we manage every week. Here’s our process:
- Staging test — Updates applied to a copy of your site first
- Compatibility check — Automated and manual testing for issues
- Production update — If tests pass, updates go live
- Monitoring — We watch for any post-update issues
For critical security patches, we update immediately with additional monitoring.
Action Items
If you manage your own WordPress site:
- Log in and check for pending updates right now
- Take a backup before updating (your host should offer this)
- Update WordPress core, themes, and plugins
- Test your site’s key functionality
- Set a weekly reminder to repeat this process
If this sounds like more work than you want to do, that’s what we’re here for. Our WordPress maintenance services include managed updates with testing, so you never have to worry about it.