Why Upgrade?
If
there is one thing that's guaranteed about the technologies used to
power the Internet is that they are always changing.
And the Content Management System (CMS) that runs your website is no different. There are many good reasons why you should keep your website's CMS up-to-date. Read on to find out what they are.
Security / bug fixes
Some CMSs are more secure than others but regardless of which one you use, all will release updates over time that enhance their security and fix bugs that could potentially lead to your site being hacked or sensitive data being stolen. If your site collects information from people who visit your site, it's particularly important that you keep your CMS up-to-date with the latest releases.
Site speed
Aside from security concerns, the other main area of focus for software updates of Internet technologies is improved efficiency of processing which leads to faster performance that uses less energy. That means that a website that uses the latest version of a particular CMS will be faster than one that's using the same CMS but several versions older. The faster your website, the happier your visitors and search engines will be.
New features
Improving what's already there is just one part of what you can expect from CMS development. CMS developers are always looking for ways to implement new features into their products. So with newer versions of your CMS you may be able to do things that weren't possible when your site was first developed. Or maybe the publishing/editing experience will be more streamlined or enjoyable than it was in the past.
Official support
Many CMSs offer official support options when you first start a new project, particularly those that require a license fee for you to use it on a commercial website. This developer support can be invaluable if you run into problems that you can't solve yourself. But official support almost always has a time limit which means if you haven't upgraded your CMS for a while, it's likely not covered by support anymore.
If your site is using an older version of a CMS, you don't have to upgrade: people will still be able to visit your site, and you will still be able to update it. But it will be a bit like the difference between owning a new car over an old one. The old one will still get you from A to B. But with a new car, the journey will be more comfortable, the driving experience more enjoyable, you'll be safer, and your car will be more efficient and better for the environment.
With a site running an up-to-date CMS, the publishing/editing experience will be more enjoyable, and your site will be more secure and faster, which is not only good for your site's visitors, but search engines will like it more too and give your site a better ranking.
My site is broken!
Unfortunately, another reason why you might need to update your website's CMS is because the server that your site is hosted on has itself had its software upgraded and it's broken your site.
But how does this happen?! Web hosting companies always keep the
software that runs their servers as up-to-date as possible. The people
who write software that runs the Internet try their best to make sure
any changes they introduce don't break things that were made in the
past, but it's not always possible.
So sometimes server software upgrades will become incompatible with the software that runs your CMS and your website will stop working, either displaying error messages or behaving in unexpected ways.
But don't panic, if this situation happens to you, we have the solution.