How to Update WordPress Website without Losing Content
WordPress is one of the most popular, open-source content management systems (CMS). It is a great choice for bloggers who want to build their audience and monetize their content. In this guide, we will teach you how to update your WordPress website without losing any content. This way, you can continue posting new content and growing your audience while keeping your existing blog followers engaged with new content.
Back Up Your Website Before Making Changes
Even if you’ve been blogging for years and have never had a problem with your content being lost, it’s still a good practice to back up your website before making any changes. This way, you can ensure everything is saved in case something goes wrong.
Before making any changes to your website’s content, you should back up your existing content first. This will help you ensure you can restore your site to its previous state if anything should go wrong.
Follow The Right Procedures
Updating WordPress is not as easy as dropping in a fresh copy of the software and expecting everything to work perfectly. There are many pitfalls that you must avoid if you want to ensure your content is not lost during the transformation process.
To update WordPress, you must first log in to your account at WordPress.com and follow their instructions to obtain a plugin key. Without this, you will be unable to update your site. Once you have the key, you can proceed to install the latest version of WordPress from the official WordPress repository. At this point, you must test-run the new version to ensure it does not have any major glitches before implementing it on your site.
It is also essential to test your site after the update to make sure everything is working as expected. This can be a painstaking process and should not be taken lightly; failing to do so can result in content being lost along with your efforts and investments in this endeavor. Ultimately, this is why it is important to back up your website content before beginning any major overhauls, otherwise, you might end up in a bit of a pickle.
Ensure You Have Everything Before Starting The Process
One of the biggest fears anytime you’re doing anything significant is losing your content in the process. Even if you’ve been blogging for years and have never lost a post, you still fear the unknown. Once you’ve started the process of updating your WordPress website, this becomes even more crucial.
To avoid this from happening, you must have everything before starting the update process. This means making sure all the content is backed up, that you’ve tested the new version, and that you have sufficient resources (such as disk space) to complete the update successfully. If you’re not sure where to start, ask a friend or colleague who’s done this kind of work before to help you get oriented.
Use The Right Software
If you’re using any kind of CMS, plugin, or template on your blog, you must be sure that these are compatible with the version of WordPress you’re currently using. This can be challenging if you’re using an older version and the software is considerably newer. In these situations, you might have to go through a bit of an upgrade process before everything will work together nicely.
If you have any doubts about whether or not your software is compatible with the version of WordPress you’re using, contact the developer of the plugin or template to ask about patches or versions that might be available. Sometimes, this can be a time-consuming and frustrating process, but it’s worth it in the long run.
Only Make Changes To What You Need
Another critical point to make is that you should only make changes to what you need. While it’s tempting to want to revamp your entire blog using a new theme or plugin, this is seldom the best approach. The truth is you’ll only end up frustrated and overwhelmed if you try to change too much at once.
If you decide that a new theme or plugin is what you need to provide a better user experience for your readers or make your blog look more modern, go for it. However, if your existing design and content work just fine, there’s no need to complicate matters by making far-reaching changes. Ultimately, this could lead to you losing content if you don’t have a back up.
Keeping things simple is an excellent approach. Changing too much can cause you to lose track of what you were doing and ultimately result in you not being able to update your blog without losing content.
Be Careful When Updating On A Live Website
When you’re on the verge of updating your WordPress website, there are multiple choices that you must make. These range from whether or not you should do this on a live website to whether or not you should backup your existing content before making any changes. If you’re not careful, you might end up in a bit of a pickle, especially if you’re updating on a live website.
Updating on a live website means that changes you make will be reflected on the site immediately. This can be a great way to test out new features and ensure everything is functioning properly before rolling it out to your entire audience. While this might be tempting to do, a lot can go wrong if you do it without proper preparation. This is why it’s important to take your time and do it right the first time.
As a general rule, updating on a live website is a bad idea because it can lead to you losing content if anything goes wrong. Even if you’ve been blogging for years and have never lost a post, you still need to have backup copies of all your content in case something happens.
Use An Anti-Virus Suite
Even if you publish only honest content and don’t abuse your blog with SPAM, you should still use an anti-virus solution for your blog. When it comes to protecting your content from being destroyed by viruses, WordPress is one of the worst offenders. Because it’s such a commonly used platform, nearly all malicious software targets WordPress first when it comes time to infect a host device.
Luckily, many anti-virus solutions have a built-in mechanism for detecting and removing WordPress viruses. If your blog gets hit with a malware attack, you can be sure that your anti-virus suite will detect it and clean it up quickly and effectively.
On the other hand, if you’re running a WordPress site and you don’t have anti-virus protection, then it’s time to get it. There are many free anti-virus solutions that can be easily integrated into your existing security software (e.g. 1Password). If you can afford it, then getting a premium AV solution would be the best option. These types of products keep up with the ever-changing nature of malicious software and have some pretty cool features that make detecting and removing viruses from your blog much easier. Additionally, keeping your anti-virus software up-to-date is a critical step to take to ensure you’re always protected.
Back Up Your Website Regularly
Blogs are all well and good, but they are inherently useless if they aren’t backed up. Your entire blog ecosystem (hosting, WordPress, and your posts) can and will one day break down. There’s an inherent chance that your website could become unusable due to malware, hackers, or even natural disasters.
To avoid this from happening, you need to back up your website regularly. There are a few different ways to do this, but the easiest is to use an online backup service like BackupBuddy or One-click Backups.
BackupBuddy is a popular choice among bloggers because of its simplicity. To use the tool, all you need to do is create a free account and set up a schedule for regular backups. The app takes care of the rest and ensures that your content is backed up properly and quickly. Even if you’ve been blogging for years and have never lost a post, this is an excellent option for quickly restoring your content in the event of a major disaster.
One-click Backups is another popular option among bloggers because of its simplicity and the fact that it’s integrated into your WordPress dashboard. To set this service up, all you need to do is head over to the WordPress backend and click the “Backup” button. This will initiate a backup, which can be scheduled to occur automatically or manually as desired. While this backup can be beneficial in the event of a major disaster, it isn’t a substitute for regular backups.
Monitor Your Website’s Performance
WordPress is a great choice for bloggers because of its flexibility and vast community. This is one reason why it is so popular among bloggers. Because it’s so easy to use and deploy, almost anyone can setup a functioning WordPress website within minutes.