Section 14: Church WordPress Website Updates and Maintenance
One step you can take on a regular basis to protect yourself from hackers is to keep your WordPress Install, Themes and Plugins updated.
When these are out of date hackers can exploit those weaknesses. This is why security updates are available on a regular basis – to clean up problems and stay one step ahead of the hackers.
But first, you will want to protect yourself from the updates themselves!
Sometimes these updates can cause problems with your site, and you will want a backup to be able to revert to if that happens.
1 – Backup your Website with your Website Hosting Dashboard
Thankfully, our Website Hosting Company has provided us with a way to create backups easily. If you did not use our recommended website hosting, you will need to contact your website host to see if there is an easy backup option.
To create a backup using Bluehost, login to your dashboard and go to the “Files” Section, then click on “Site Backup Pro”.
Click the free “Backup and Restore” option, then scroll down and click “Download” under the “Full Cpanel Backup”. Follow the instructions to complete your backup download.
If something were to happen to your website after completing the updates, at least you would have all of the files you need to fix it even if you do not know how to do it yourself.
2 – Run WordPress Updates
After you have completed the backup process, you are ready to run the updates.
Go to the “Dashboard” link in your WordPress Dashboard sidebar, then click “Updates”. If updates are available, run the updates. Not only will you see the Themes and Plugins that you installed, but also a few default Themes that came with the initial install. Keep these Themes updated too.
If you want to be extra safe, you can run each update one at a time and test your site to make sure everything is still working correctly. You can also check multiple updates at once to make the process go quicker.
Usually the update process only lasts a few seconds, but some site functionality may be suspended while updates are being run.
3 – Need help with your Church WordPress Website Issues?
There may be a situation that you run into that is beyond your ability to handle, or a WordPress issue that you cannot fix.
Bluehost will not fix your specific WordPress issue, but I have found that many issues that you might run into with WordPress cross over into a hosting issue. I have gotten on Bluehost live chat support and they have helped me out or pointed me in the right direction nearly every time.
So my go to response when I run into a problem is to either Google it and try to find the answer there OR if that doesn’t work I go on Bluehost live 24/7 Chat Support. They will either help me fix the issue or they will point me in the right direction where I can find the answer.
They also have specific hosting plans that work better with WordPress than their Basic or other plans. It costs more, but that my be a great option for you if you want more power and hosting resources for the backend of your church website.
Check it out at the graphic link below…