This article will guide you through several specific activities but they are not related. You could set aside some time to do them all at once or you might just like to do one at a time. There are no hard and fast rules but I would suggest that all of these activities are done at least every couple of months, more often if you post to your Wordpress blog more than once a day.
The most important thing to do is to ensure that you are using the latest version of WordPress and all of the plugins you have installed.
WordPress is what is known as ‘open source’ software and that means that the internals of how it is written is publically available for all to see – including hackers. WordPress work very hard to ensure
their software is very secure and they constantly update it with new features and bug fixes. The problem is that every time they release a bug fix, they announce it which alerts hackers to its presence. If you do not update your version of WordPress as soon as possible, the bug can potentially be exploited by hackers who now know how it works.
To protect yourself from these security risks all you need to do is upgrade WordPress as soon as an update is available. This should not be a problem because the latest version of WordPress (from around version 2.5 onwards) has an in-built notification of when there is a new upgrade and one of the first plugins I got you to install back in lesson 7 was the automatic upgrade plugin.
The same theory applies to plugins as many of these are open source and subject to security risks too. Luckily since WordPress 2.6, you are now clearly shown in your dashboard when an update is available
for a plugin – a red box appears above your plugins link with a number indicating how many updates are available.
Bottom line – any time there is an update available for any WordPress plugin or WordPress itself, upgrade straight away. This should only take a few moments of your time. If you use something other than WordPress this guideline will still apply as all software is a potential security risk.
Sometimes we install WordPress plugins and then find something else to replace them or just stop using them. Every now and then it’s a good idea to just have a look through and see if you still need them.
For example I used to use a plugin that showed the pictures of people in the comments but this functionality is now built into WordPress itself so the plugin became redundant. If you no longer
need a plugin, deactivate it, check that everything still works and then delete it from your server. WordPress will still attempt to find updates of deactivated plugins which is just extra work that it doesn’t need to do.
Another very important thing that is often over-looked is keeping your about page updated and fresh. Many people keep the same outdated description of themselves and their blog for years. You should definitely watch out for this.
These are a few simple tasks that can help you keep your Wordpress blog up to date and working without any glitches.
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