Scribe Beginners WordPress Maintenance User Guide
- June 1, 2024
- Scribe
Table of Contents
Scribe Beginners WordPress Maintenance
Product Information
Specifications
- Product Name : WordPress Maintenance
- Function: Updating WordPress, Plugins, and Themes
- Compatibility: WordPress websites
- Backup Plugin : Updraft (recommended)
Product Usage Instructions
Step 1: Backup Your Website
Before updating anything, always create a backup of your website to avoid data loss in case of any issues.
Step 2: Update Plugins
- Log in to your WordPress website admin panel.
- Go to the Dashboard and select Updates.
- You can choose to either select all plugins or manually select the ones you want to update.
- Click on “Update Plugins” to start the updating process.
- Monitor the number of updates remaining and check your website after each update.
Step 3: Update Themes
If there are theme updates available, select the theme you want to update and click on “Update Themes”.
Step 4: Update Translations
Even if you do not use translations, it is recommended to keep them updated. Click on “Go to WordPress Updates page” to update translations.
FAQ
- Q: Why is it important to update WordPress, plugins, and themes?
- A: Updating ensures that your website remains secure, performs optimally, and is compatible with the latest features and technologies.
- Q: What should I do if an update causes issues on my website?
- A : If an update causes problems, you can restore your website from the backup you created before updating. You can also seek help from support forums or developers.
- Q: How often should I perform updates?
- A: It is recommended to regularly check for updates and perform them as needed. Some updates may contain security patches that are crucial for protecting your website.
Beginners Guide: WordPress Maintenance – Updating WordPress, Plugins and Themes
This beginner’s guide provides step-by-step instructions on how to update WordPress, plugins, and themes. It emphasizes the importance of taking backups before updating and provides tips on how to approach updating plugins based on their version numbers. The guide also covers updating themes and translations, as well as updating the WordPress core. It reminds users to clear their cache and review their website after updates. Overall, this guide is a comprehensive resource for beginners who want to learn how to properly maintain their WordPress website.
- Navigate to your WordPress website login. Typically it looks something like https://www.yourdomain.co.uk/wp-admin
Log in with your credentials. You must have full access, so be sure to log in as an administrator.
Notice the red dot with a number – this shows how many items need updating
.
WARNING
But first, we ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS take a back-up just in case something goes
wrong.
- 8. If you want to, you can Click the “Select all” field. This will do a blanket update of all plugins. Since we have so many plugins to update, I prefer to start with a more considered approach.Have you ever wondered why version numbers have 2 to 3 digits 1.2.11 or 2.3, well generally these denote whether the update is minor or major. 2.3.11 to 2.3.12 suggests a small update has been made, possibly a tweak or quick bug fix (x.x.11 update to x.x.12) 2.3.12 to 2.4 however suggests a more important update but is still relatively minor (2.3.x to 2.4)
When we see updates to the first number, eg 3.4 to 4.0 this is a major update and more fundamental changes to code have been made, which in turn can have bigger impacts to your website (3.x.x to 4.x).
For that reason, I like to start with updating the plugins with minor updates, then the slightly more important updates and finish with the major ones. Each time clearing my cache and checking how the website appears on the front end to visitors.
You can also update each plugin one by one with a check following each update, just to make sure.
- 16. If we go back to Dashboard and click “Updates” and scroll down, we can see there are also Themes to update.
- 17 Select the theme to update and Click “Update Themes”
- 18 We may also have Translations available to update. Even if you don’t use translations, keep them updated.
- 19 Click “Go to WordPress Updates page”
- 20 WordPress is the core code that runs your website. It’s important to keep this updated. All of your plugins have to work flawlessly with WordPress so keep in mind that when plugins are updated and WordPress is updated, there’s always room for incompatibility and there may be a few more iterations to come!Click “Update to version xx” to update WordPress
- 21 If you have a caching plugin, don’t forget to purge the cache to ensure the changes filter through to your website. In this case we hit, “Purge cache for all pages”
- 22 Now perform a last review of your website to make sure everything looks AND operates as it should.
- 23 Congratulations you’ve updated your website!
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