Updating Your WordPress Website: Why is it So Important?

Wonderful World of Websites | Website Wonder Woman

Introduction to Updating Your WordPress Website.

Updating your WordPress website is one of the most important things that you can do and it needs to be done regularly.

So, why is it so important?

Things go wrong, and it's far more common than you think.

updating your wordpress website a close up of a computer keyboard with a key labelled 'update'

Updating your WordPress website plugins.

WordPress, your theme, and your plugins need to be kept up to date to fix things that go wrong. If a plugin is found to conflict with another plugin or there is a bug in the plugin and something isn't working, then the creators will bring out an update to fix those problems.

There are also always improvements that can be made, some suggested by users and some thought of by the various developers. All of these bits of your website are always being improved and fixed, so the least you can do is to take advantage of that 🙂

An out-of-date theme, plugins, and also WordPress itself can pose security risks to your site. Hackers find ways of getting into websites, and all this is automated. They don't come across your website, have a nice look around, and then think, let's ruin things for this person. They have ways of finding vulnerable sites, and things that are out of date are one of those vulnerabilities. Imagine a plugin that hasn't been updated for years, no one has taken the precautions of protecting the plugin from more recent security risks and developments. Whether the developer or yourself hasn't updated the plugin, the risk is the same.

Things can also stop working if you don't update things, so if something is going wrong on your site, then make sure it is all up to date before you start panicking.

So, how do you go about updating your WordPress website?

Luckily, it's quite simple. Simply go to your WordPress dashboard, and if you have any updates, then there will be a number next to the Update menu item. Click on update, and you will see a list of available updates. Select everything you want to update and click update.

Yes, it really is that easy, but don't do it yet, my eager students! Read on.

a computer screen graphic with a spanner and cog wheel on it to represent updating your WordPress website

Will updating my WordPress Website break it?

However, new updates can cause problems and conflict with other plugins or your theme, which have their own issues. There are so many things that are running your site; it can often be hard to keep up, and many people worry about updating things in case it breaks their site.

If there are any problems or conflicts with an update, then the developers usually get to know about them pretty quickly and then release another update to fix the problem. If it is a plugin update that is causing a problem, you can always switch that plugin off or go back to a previous version.

Which brings me on to backing up your website...

Website Backups

So what if something goes wrong with an update, well, you can just restore a previous version of your backed-up website. But, you need to make sure that you back up your site in the first place!

There are other things that can also go wrong. remember those hackers I told you about earlier? Well, there are also other ways that they can get into your site and wipe it clean. Yup, all your hard work, time, and money GONE in seconds.

You keep your home safe, make sure you keep your business safe!

Your hosting or domain name could expire, that's it - website gone.

These incidents are also far more common than you think, so always remember the importance of updating and backing up your website.

A great, free plugin to back up your website is called Updraft Plus. This plugin allows you to set your site to automatically back up to a cloud-based platform such as Dropbox or Google Drive, etc.

It's really easy to set up, and you can set it up and then forget about it, as it's working in the background automatically.

Updating your WordPress website lightbulb with 'top tip' written in it

Updating your WordPress Website Top Tip

Update your website at least once a month, as when people come to me with glitches on their website it's usually becuase they haven't updated for months. Once the updates are done the glitches tend to dissapear!

Set a date in your diary to do your updates or if you go to Plugins on the WordPress dashboard menu you can select plugins to auto update. But I always recommend visiting your website at least once a week to make sure everything is running smoothly.

For reminders and weekly tech help why not find out more about The Tech Tavern, our monthly tech membership.

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Help ChatGPT find your website a laptop with a megaphone coming out of the screen

I know that sounds ridiculous, but spend a few minutes browsing small-business websites, and you will see why it matters.

For example: A homepage might say: "Helping you achieve your goals." That's great, but what goals? Who are you helping?

A web visitor might work it out from the logo, photographs and navigation. Machines have less tolerance for ambiguity.

Compare that with: " We provide commercial cleaning services to offices, schools and healthcare businesses across South Wales."

Suddenly, there's much less to decipher. Who are you? A commercial cleaning company. What do you do? Clean commercial premises. Who for? Offices, schools, and healthcare businesses. Where? South Wales.

Clear website copy isn't unsophisticated copy. If you want to help ChatGPT find your website, clarity can be a big advantage.

3. Create Proper Pages for Your Main Services

One mistake I regularly see is businesses trying to squeeze everything they offer onto one service page. Imagine a building company offering extensions, loft conversions, kitchen renovations, and garage conversions. Giving each important service its own useful page creates far more context than mentioning all four in a short bullet list.

A strong page can explain:

what the service involves;
who it is suitable for;
common questions customers ask;
the process;
relevant experience;
examples of completed work;
geographical areas covered.

This is not only useful information for potential customers, but also useful for conventional SEO and will help ChatGPT find your website and understand exactly what your business provides.

However, a word of caution. The important word here is useful. Creating 30 near-identical pages simply to target 30 slightly different phrases isn't the answer. Websites are ultimately for people, so create pages because you have something worthwhile to tell them.

4. Answer the Questions Your Customers Really Ask

3d speech bubbles with Q & A in them for Help ChatGPT find your website blog

This is where good blog content becomes particularly valuable and can help ChatGPT find your website.

People often interact with ChatGPT and other AI bots in a conversational way. Rather than searching for something like: "loft conversion Cardiff", they might ask "Do I need planning permission for a loft conversion in Cardiff?" or "Is my house suitable for a loft conversion?". You get my drift.

Think about the questions customers ask you on the phone, in emails, during quotations, or at meetings. Those questions can become extremely useful website content. And don't limit yourself to just obvious FAQs. Some of the best content comes from the questions that require actual expertise to answer: comparisons, costs, pitfalls, misconceptions, alternatives, and situations where one option is better than another. That is where your knowledge becomes valuable. Put that into blogs, and it will help ChatGPT find your website.

5. Don't Just Say You're an Expert - Demonstrate It

Almost every business website claims some variation of: "We pride ourselves on providing a professional, high-quality service." The problem is that anybody can write it. Evidence is much more persuasive.

If you want to help ChatGPT find your website and understand why your business might be a credible source, then you need to give your website substance.

That could include detailed case studies, named authors with relevant experience, customer reviews, original photographs, accreditations, qualifications, awards, research or data you've produced, and genuinely knowledgeable articles/blogs.

A case study saying: We recently completed this project for a client in Newport", isn't particularly informative. Explain the problem. What did the customer need? What did you recommend? Why? What difficulties arose? How did you solve them? What was the outcome?

That is useful information for humans, and it gives search and AI systems considerably more context about your real-world expertise.

6. Make Your Location Clear

Naturally, this is particularly important for local businesses.

If you are an electrician serving customers across South Wales, make that clear on your website. Your address, service areas, and contact details shouldn't require detective work to find.

Your About and Contact pages can reinforce where you are based, while individual service pages can naturally explain areas you cover. However, avoid creating dozens of thin location pages where the only difference is swapping one town name for another, like "Electrician Newport", "Electrician Cardiff", and "Electrician Cwmbran."

That's not useful content. If a location genuinely warrants its own page, give the reader something specific and worthwhile.

7. Build Your Reputation Beyond Your Own Website

Your website doesn't exist in isolation.

If you claim to be a leading expert in your field but nobody else on the internet appears to know you exist, that's not a particularly convincing signal. Therefore, I want you to think about your wider digital footprint.

Are you listed accurately on relevant professional or industry websites? Have local publications mentioned your business? Do reputable websites link to you? Are there genuine customer reviews? Have you contributed expert comments or guest articles elsewhere?

You see, digital PR, quality guest blogging, and traditional link building still have a place. However, the aim shouldn't be to scatter links across hundreds of low-quality websites to help ChatGPT find your website. On the contrary, it's to build a recognisable business with a credible online presence.

8. Write Content Worth Citing

Graphic woman sat at a computer with pages of content coming out of it

This may be one of the biggest opportunities created by AI search.

If everybody writes a generic article called "10 benefits of X", then there is very little reason for any search or AI system to favour yours above the others. To help ChatGPT find your website, you need to give it something better:

Share your experience.

Explain what customers commonly get wrong.
Compare two approaches and say when you'd choose each one.
Publish original examples.
Answer awkward questions.
Discuss pricing honestly where possible.
Challenge a commonly repeated piece of industry advice if you disagree with it – and explain why.

The internet doesn't desperately need another 800-word blog saying the same thing as the previous 100 ones. What it does need are people who actually know their subject sharing information that isn't available everywhere else. Tricky, yes. Impossible, no.

9. Don't Forget Traditional SEO

As I mentioned right at the beginning of this article, trying to help ChatGPT find your website doesn't mean forgetting Google and other search engines. In fact, as I'm sure you've realised by now, many of the fundamentals overlap.

You still need a technically sound, crawlable website with logical navigation, descriptive page titles, useful headings, strong internal links and well-written pages focused on genuine customer needs. Ultimately, your content should make sense to a person first; I always stress this to my clients. There is little to be gained by contorting every single paragraph into something you imagine AI or search engines want to read.

Cater for your customer. Ensure your website clearly explains who you are, what you do, where you operate, and why you know what you're talking about. That's what they need to know, and by doing that you are already building a much stronger foundation for both traditional and AI-driven searches.

Help ChatGPT Find Your Website - But Write For People

Help ChatGPT find your website a 3d graphic of a person in front of a laptop with books and text

AI is changing how people discover information online, but that doesn't mean websites suddenly need to be written for robots. Quite the opposite. After all, humans, your potential customers, are asking ChatGPT the questions. So, if you want to help ChatGPT find your website, you must make it clear, informative, and more authoritative for the people you're trying to reach.

Follow the guidance listed above. None of it is particularly technical (save point 1); it is simply about making sure you have good website content. The difference is that today, a well-written website isn't only helping a potential customer decide whether to contact you; it may also help ChatGPT find your website and decide whether or not to list it in response to a query, ultimately driving fresh traffic your way.

If you would like help reviewing your website content, or creating quality blogs that appeal to both humans and bots, please do not hesitate to get in touch. My name is Heather, and I'm The Content Creator.

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A bit about the author

Heather founded The Content Creator nearly three years ago, combining her love of writing with a genuine passion for helping small businesses and solopreneurs get seen online. She supports her clients with everything from website copy and SEO to AI search visibility, newsletters and social media, taking the stress out of creating content that not only sounds like them, but helps their business grow.

If you need a helping hand with any of these areas, Heather is your go-to girl! We can speak from experience, too, because she works on our own website, helping us keep up with the ever-changing world of SEO and AI search and making sure our content continues to work hard for our business.

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