How to Update WordPress Safely

Why would I update my WordPress site? I like it the way it is now! youre thinking.Well, your site might be safe for now but there are lots of monsters under the bed just waiting to attack it in the future. Thats why updating your WordPress site safely should be  one of the 10 WordPress commandments for everyone.Specifically:Why should I update my site?There are a couple of items that make this list, which will probably help you understand why updating really matters:Security. The WordPress platform faces lots of bugs, vulnerabilities, and hacks daily. Each one can be more or less dangerous. It depends  whether youre having good or bad luck. However, with each WordPress update, a number of bugs are always fixed and a number of security holes are patched, effectively making it harder for anyone to break into your site.New features and functionalities are added to each newly released version. Whether its completely new stuff, or just making the old stuff work better, those updates bring a lot of improvements. They will not only ease your work as a website owner, but will also improve your visitors experience.Speed.  Each new release comes with optimizations geared at making your website faster. Who wants a slow site anyway?Compatibility with modern tools and technology. Technology evolves so fast that its hard to keep up but WordPress somehow does. And some modern plugins require you to be on the newest version of the WordPress core in order to use them.If youre still not convinced that the update is essential, this resource will give you even more reasons why you shouldnt wait any longer.How to update my WordPress site safely?Okay, updating your site is easy, it takes 5 or 10 minutes tops.Here are the steps you should follow:1. Back up your siteBy backing up your site, you will make sure that your content is stored somewhere safe, so it wont be affected by the update. And in case anything goes wrong, you can always restore the old version of your site fr om the backup.There are lots of WordPress backup plugins  out here that will handle things for you on autopilot. So right now, proceed to install your plugin of choice, and then back up your files, database, themes, plugins, and uploads.Lets take BlogVault as an example to illustrate how backing up is done.Note. If BlogVault seems a bit too expensive ($7.4 / month), there are some alternatives available. Particularly, the new options in the Jetpack plugin allow you to take advantage of daily backups, one-click restores, spam filtering, and 30-day backup archive for the price of $3.50 / month. Quality-wise, Jetpack has everything you could need.After installing the main BlogVault plugin, go to the plugins section in the wp-admin, sign up to the service, and youll have the BlogVault dashboard on the screen right away.Add your site by clicking this button:After adding the site, click on Backup Now:Once the backup is done, click on History from the same menu to see all your backups.Yo u can download the backup to your computer or upload it to an off-site storage (I like to use Dropbox for that).2. Turn caching offIf you have any caching plugins enabled, turn them off during the update.Caching modifies the way your website works on the back-end, which will have an impact  on its performance, and who knows what else.3. Update your themes and pluginsJust like WordPress itself gets frequent updates, plugins do too (even more frequently). So first, update your themes and plugins.Lets start with the plugins.Go to your wp-admin and click on the button recommending you to update WordPress:There, youll see a list of all your plugins that need an update too. Select them all and click on Update Plugins:Return to that same WordPress update page, and do the same for themes. (By the way, make sure your plugins have been updated successfully. You should see an appropriate message when you come back.)Heres the panel for updating themes:Note. Theres also a second  way of upda ting your plugins and themes.Go to your wp-admin dashboard and click on Plugins (the sidebar menu). There, youll see a list of all your plugins. Those that are out of date will come with a message notifying you of the update available:Click on update now for each plugin thats outdated.Do the same for themes. Go to Appearance Themes (the sidebar menu again), and the themes list will appear. Check if your current theme is updated. If not, youll see something like this:Click on Update Available and then on update now:4. Update the WordPress coreIts funny how updating WordPress itself is actually the easiest and quickest step in the whole process.So, to update the WordPress core safely, you just need to click one single button. Which is:At this point, your site is  using the latest WordPress version!5. Turn the caching back onSince you disabled the caching mechanism before the upgrade, its time to reactivate it.6. Check if everything is okayNow your site is updated, but its a good id ea to browse around and make sure that things are in order.Go through your pages and posts to see if they are displayed properly. You dont really need to check every small detail, just take a general look.7. Back up your site againIf everything went well, you can back up your site again, just to have the most up-to-date version saved somewhere safe.Its very important to keep any major changes to your sites structure under control and always have the most recent image of the site backed up. If youre using Jetpack for backups, for example, you get a 30-day archive of all your backups, so reverting back to a previous one will not be a problem if anything should go wrong.So this is how you can update your WordPress site safely. At first, it might seem a bit difficult to go through all those steps, but the second time around youll be able to do it in less than 5 minutes. Be honest, when was the last time you updated your WordPress site, your plugins and themes?Free guide5 Essential Tips to Speed Up Your WordPress SiteReduce your loading time by even 50-80% just by following simple tips. * This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links and then purchase the product, well receive a small fee. No worries though, youll still pay the standard amount so theres no cost on your part.