WordPress: The Popular CMS Platform

WordPress is a highly popular content management system platform that has millions of users worldwide. It is widely known for its flexibility, ease of use, and its capability to be applied to various applications, whether personal blogs or large e-commerce sites.

Keeping Your Site Up to Date

One of the essential aspects of maintaining a WordPress site is keeping it up to date. This includes updating both the core software, themes, and plugins installed on it. By keeping your site up to date, several benefits come with it such as improved security, bug fixes, and new features.

However, keeping your site up to date manually can be tedious and time-consuming. Fortunately, WordPress offers several automated features that allow you to automate the update process.

First Things First: Backup Your Site

The first step necessary before updating your WordPress site is to back it up. Though automatic updates are generally safe, issues could arise, and having a backup ensures that you can restore your site to a previous version.

There are several backup methods available, such as using a plugin or manually backing up your files through your hosting control panel. Whichever method you choose, ensure to save a copy of your backup on an external hard drive or cloud service.

Enable Automatic Updates

WordPress only provides automatic updates for the core software, but you can activate automatic updates for themes and plugins by adding specific code to your site’s functions.php file.

To enable automatic updates for themes, add the following code:

add_filter('auto_update_theme', '__return_true');

To enable automatic updates for plugins, add this:

add_filter('auto_update_plugin', '__return_true');

Once you add this code, WordPress automatically updates your themes and plugins when new versions come up.

Update Your Core Software

The automatic update for WordPress core software started in Version 3.7. Upgrade your site if you’re running an earlier version before enabling automatic updates.

The following steps will guide you when upgrading WordPress:

1. Log in to your WordPress dashboard
2. Click the ‘Updates’ link in the left-hand sidebar
3. Hit the ‘Check Again’ button to find any available updates
4. If an upgrade is available, click the ‘Update Now’ button
5. Wait as WordPress downloads and installs the update

Once you’ve updated WordPress, add the code to allow for automatic updates.

Enable Automatic Updates for Themes and Plugins

The process of enabling automatic updates for themes and plugins is complicated but easy to do.

Start by installing the Easy Updates Manager plugin that allows you to enable automatic updates for themes, plugins, and the core software.

Steps to install:

1. Log in to your WordPress dashboard
2. Click the ‘Plugins’ link in the left-hand sidebar
3. Hit the ‘Add New’ button
4. Search for ‘Easy Updates Manager’ in the search bar
5. Click the ‘Install Now’ button next to the Easy Updates Manager plugin
6. Wait while WordPress installs the plugin

Once you install the Easy Updates Manager, enable automatic updates for themes and plugins by:

1. Click the ‘Easy Updates Manager’ link in the left-hand sidebar
2. Hit the ‘Dashboard’ tab
3. Slide the toggle switch to the ON position to enable automatic updates for themes and plugins
4. Click the ‘Save Changes’ button

Once activated, Easy Updates Manager will execute automatic updates for your themes and plugins when new versions become available.

Conclusion

It’s crucial to keep your WordPress site up to date by maintaining performance, security, and reliability. Automating the update process helps make it less mundane and time-consuming. Follow the steps discussed here on how to enable automatic updates to keep your WordPress site running smoothly and focus on creating excellent content for your visitors.