Perhaps you already have an SEO strategy or are looking to implement one that will cost you thousands of dollars per month on pay-per-click advertising or are setting up a content marketing play. Either way, if you do not keep your website up to date, your efforts could be in vain. An outdated website can cause potential loss of trust from your customers, impact your ranking on Google, and can affect your bottom line.
Managing website updates in WordPress is an essential part of managing your SEO. By keeping everything up to date, you can better prevent hacks or downtime that damage your position on the SERPs.
Improve security by managing website updates
You need to update the WordPress core and any plugins you leverage. WordPress usually updates the core a few times a year, and applying these updates is an important factor for securing your website.
All WordPress updates include security patches and information about what has changed. Updating your website will create a secure environment for you and your users. It’s essential to be on the lookout for alerts from the WordPress team about any updates that may affect your site. These updates can introduce new features, but they also fix potential security vulnerabilities. Hackers tend to target outdated websites as they make for vulnerable targets that are easy to exploit. This becomes even more concerning as 73.2% of popular WordPress installations are vulnerable to hacks.
Plugins can become significant vulnerabilities if the developer does not update the plugin in line with a WordPress core update. To stay abreast of changes, you will need to monitor WordPress core updates and ensure your plugins receive an update as well. This kind of activity can become time-consuming, so you might consider engaging a WordPress hosting provider to manage this aspect of your site for you.
Maintain customer trust with SSL
A Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate is a way to verify the legitimacy and identity of a website that protects sensitive data such as usernames, passwords and credit card information when transmitted from a website to the browser. SSL certificates extend beyond online purchases to include logins, registration forms, and password updates too.
Google has gone on record claiming SSL as a ranking factor when it comes to search engine rankings. As Google is always working to continue making its search engine better, it pushes websites with updated SSL encryption as a higher priority in their results.
This concentration on security lies in the fact that users’ private information can become vulnerable and easily intercepted online without any encryption. Therefore, customers can visit your website with the confidence that you are taking steps to protect their data before entering their password or credit card details.
Of course, adding an SSL certificate is not a shortcut for improving SEO, but having one and keeping it up to date will help. It essentially comes down to this: your customers like to see the lock in the URL bar.
Secure your reputation on the SERPs
Your WordPress website needs to be kept up-to-date for managing security vulnerabilities, which helps you avoid having a hacked or compromised website. Keeping your website up to date can help you maintain your reputation on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).
Google might put a line in your website’s snippet warning people to be cautious of your site. To further protect visitors, Google may rank you further down on the search listings and warn those who click on your site that it may not be safe.
Resolving the issue can become a lengthy process. You will need to investigate why the issue occurred and eliminate the security issue that created the alert. Even after that, re-securing your reputation on the SERPs will not happen overnight. Google will not remove the ‘This site may be hacked’ message until your website has undergone a review from their security team.
I recommend working with a WordPress expert that understands the importance of managing website updates for maintaining SEO. Working with experienced professionals is essential to maintaining your online reputation and generating more traffic from search engines, such as Google or Bing.
Increase uptime by managing website updates
Downtime can become a costly problem. You might lose traffic, conversions and sales, all of which can negatively impact your revenue.
Keeping your WordPress website updated can mitigate your risk of being hacked and experiencing downtime. Downtime is another factor that can seriously impact SEO. Even though your site is down, your bounce rate will increase every time someone clicks away from it. Google will also notice that your website is not up and might drop lower in the rankings.
Managed WordPress hosts can monitor theme, plugin or core updates and quickly resolve any issues these may cause for the integrity of your website. Keeping plugins and themes up to date can help you maintain SEO as it lessens the security risks that outdated plugins and themes might cause.
Managed WordPress providers will also help you keep your website up to date so that you can avoid any interruptions in SEO. The provider will be managing your updates for you to ensure a higher level of uptime. As a result, your site will experience less downtime, leading to increased traffic and conversions from those visiting the website.
Conetix can manage updates on your WordPress site
Conetix provides Australian businesses with fast and reliable hosting on an Australian-based cloud network. Our Managed WordPress plans include updates to the core system, plugins and themes, all backed by our friendly and knowledgeable support team.
Conetix provides Australian businesses with fast and reliable hosting on an Australian-based cloud network. Visit our Managed WordPress page for more on our capabilities.
