Outdated WordPress Websites Problems

In today’s article, we’ll explore the major problems that outdated WordPress websites can generate. It’s easy to think of the web development work that goes into your new WordPress website. As over-and-done once the official launch takes place. But just like any complex system, your new website requires some periodic maintenance. Otherwise, things could go sideways. Think of it this way: You wouldn’t buy a brand new car and then never get an oil change. However, a surprising number of top businesses have done the website equivalent. because their new WordPress sites are up-to-date.

A new security analysis of top websites has revealed 33% of top WordPress sites are seriously outdated. As a result, vulnerable to hacks. Here’s what they found and why it’s a problem. However, in the case of WordPress-powered websites, following this adage can have disastrous consequences. According to recent reports from Sucuri, WordPress website infections have grown from 83% in the year 2017 to 90% in the year 2018. And WPWhiteSecurity revealed that 73.2% of the popular WordPress installations are vulnerable.

Outdated plugins

Yes, we understand why you may be hesitant to upgrade to the latest version. Despite all the benefits related to enhanced features. Security fixes, and better user experience. As a website owner, you are right in being concern about the bad aspects of making a WordPress update. Such as the chances of a broken website, compatibility issues, and even loss of data.

The solution to these update problems is not to completely apart carrying out the update. But rather to plan and follow some basic safety measures when doing so. Performing regular WordPress updates on your website are mandatory as the consequences of not doing so can be very drastic. Let’s discuss in detail the consequences of not keeping them Up-To-Date:

Consequences of an Outdated WordPress Website

Powering over 33% of all websites, WordPress is an obvious choice for website developers. Owners among all Content Management System (or CMS) platforms. Thanks to its popularity, WordPress is also the main target for hackers all across the globe. They can inflict the maximum damage by finding some security-related vulnerability in any of the installed WordPress websites.

So, you may ask, “why should hackers target my small business website with a limited number of online visitors?” Well, the truth is hackers do not discriminate between a small business website. Or a large corporate website (with thousands of web pages). As long as they can find and exploit any security flaw.

You may ask, “what has all this got to do with WordPress outdated versions?” For WordPress updates, you need to keep the following 2 WordPress components up to date. With the latest versions: The main WordPress version. In addition to WordPress plugins and themes.

The fact is with each released WordPress versions, the team of core WordPress developers introduces fixes that take care of known security flaws, thus making it harder for hackers to compromise websites that use the latest version. Do you know that since May 2003, there have been 32 major versions of WordPress? With a release happening once every 152 days?

In simple terms, what this means is that the greater number of WordPress updates that you apply, the more secure your website is going to be from hackers. So, be it malware or a brute force attack, what are the major negative consequences of your website getting hacked? Oh plenty, here are a few of them:

Website Crash

A website crash is easily the worst consequence of a hacked website with your home page displaying the. “Page Not Found — 404 Error.” A complete website crash typically signifies that the hacker gains full control of your website. Making many changes (that could take ages to recover!). Among its major impacts on your business, your website loses all its web traffic and can also cause a loss of brand trust among online users and customers.

Loss of Personal or Customer Information

Aimed to gain access to personal or customer information, hackers use either brute force attacks or SQL injection attacks to steal sensitive information such as credit card details, confidential business information, and trade secrets. Moreover, hackers may try to sell this sensitive information to earn some money, which may, in turn, cause more damage to the company. In the event of such attacks, business enterprises can lose customer trust or may even be sued by consumers in the legal court.

Website Defacement Problem As a Result Of Outdated WordPress

Among the more visual forms of cyber-attacks, website defacement can completely damage the appearance of your website or a webpage. Among hacked websites in 2017, defacement comprises of about 5.5% of successful malware attacks. The most common mode of website defacement attacks is SQL injections that are used to gain illegal entry into administrator accounts.

How can this damage your business? A defaced website is immediately noticed by your website visitors and can lead to loss of website traffic, brand trust, and even revenue. This can be particularly damaging if you are running an E-commerce website

Data Loss Problems Because of Outdated WordPress

In addition to stealing sensitive business information through brute force or SQL injection attacks, hackers can delete important business-related data such as customer orders, business emails, and invoices from the database. Such a data loss (particularly if you do not have a data backup) can cripple your business operations for weeks or even months.

Automatic Redirects Problems

Are your website visitors being redirected to another website that is selling illegal or suspicious products? Hackers often insert malicious code into your hacked website that redirects visitors to their websites or phishing pages.

Automatic redirects can destroy user trust in your business and reduce the incoming traffic to your website. Additionally, the redirected user could end up purchasing any banned product or illegal service from the other website, thus damaging your business reputation even more. Other negative consequences for website redirects are blacklisting by Google and as a result, a drop in your business’ SEO ranking.

Problems of Outdated WordPress Plugins and Themes

According to WPScan, 52% of WordPress vulnerabilities has relation to outdated WordPress plugins, while outdated WordPress themes cause 11% of the vulnerabilities. Not surprising then that according to this WPBeginner statistic, 86% of hacked WordPress websites contain outdated versions of WordPress plugins and themes.

As a WordPress user, you can download thousands of plugins and themes created by third-party developers to their website. Do you know that there are over 48,500 free plugins in the WordPress Plugin Repository with over 1.5 billion instances downloads?

In addition to updating the WordPress version. You must also update all the WordPress plugins and themes installed on your website. Along with new features, plugin developers can also include security fixes to each released version of their WordPress plugins and themes. Just like in the case of WordPress released versions, installing the latest version of the standard WordPress plugins and themes makes it harder for hackers to find and exploit vulnerabilities. So, what happens if you do not update your plugins and themes regularly?

In addition, outdated WordPress versions of plugins and themes can impact your website speed and performance in several ways. They can increase your website response time, which can, in turn, make your website visitors lose interest in your business. This ultimately leads to lower customer engagement and loss of revenue.

On the other hand, installing the latest WordPress plugins and themes is more beneficial. They are more optimized for the latest WordPress website technologies, thus improving the overall performance and user experience.