Parallax Scrolling

Essentially, parallax scrolling is a website effect where the background, which could be an image or text, is moved at a different speed to the foreground of the website whilst the user is scrolling. It works great to make a web page more dynamic especially if your website has a combination of videos, pictures, and lots of text. Parallax scrolling can help organise the information you want to portray on your page whilst making the content more engaging for the user at the same time.

Horizontal Scrolling

Horizontal scrolling won’t apply to every industry but if you’re in a creative and visual industry like art or fashion, for example, you can use this feature to create an amazing experience for website users, especially for users on mobile devices as an Oberlo study revealed that as of August 2022, a whopping 59.4% of all web traffic came through mobile phones. This website effect is an amazing way to display several images or display information in a large visual area e.g., a map. In recent years, this feature has most popularly been used by photographers or artists to portray their portfolios, you may have also seen big clothing companies use this feature to display new clothing collections.

Chatbots

We see chatbots and 24/7 online assistance everywhere these days, and this website feature will continue to be relevant, if not become more relevant in 2023, especially with the continuous advancements in artificial intelligence and machine learning. Although not all consumers will prefer online support as a pose to support from an employee, many businesses are looking to incorporate chatbots to assist with tasks like appointment scheduling, customer support, and even processing refunds or complaints.

Micro-interactions

A micro-interaction is exactly what it sounds like, small animations that users can interact with on a website. They could be as simple as seeing a link change colour when users hover their mouse over it. A more recent example is the use of a bar at the top of an article page, as you scroll downwards towards the end of the article, the bar moves towards the right of the page horizontally until you finish the article or blog. These micro-interactions enhance the experience for the reader by capturing their attention and keeping them engaged without distracting them from the information that you want to portray on your web page.

White Space/ Negative Space

White space is a common technique used by some of the biggest companies in the world. Apple is famously known for using white space in its branding, packaging, and website. It’s a great way of showcasing high-quality images and improving readability in a simple way. This technique just refers to leaving space between elements, the space doesn’t need to be white, it can be any colour, which is why this technique is also referred to as “negative spacing.”

Asymmetrical Layouts

With the high number of websites software out there, a lot of website templates can end up looking quite similar and boring for users. If you’re worried that your website looks too similar to other websites you’ve seen, using an asymmetrical web design will grab the attention of the user by automatically bringing the viewer’s eye to the focal points as our gaze will naturally settle on asymmetrical parts first. You can play around with this website layout by positioning and adjusting different elements on a page so you can direct the user’s eye to different areas. For a truly unique design incorporating asymmetrical layouts, the team at Reactive is here to help.

Dark Mode

Many companies are using dark-mode web designs because it is an eye-catching, practical, and modern way of presenting your website. The great thing about the dark mode is that it can be adapted to almost any type of business, and it reduces eye strain for the reader. It’s an easy and simple way to highlight elements of your web page to create an ultra-modern look.

Unique Use of Colour

Typically, when picking brand colours most companies may stick to three to four different colours which are then incorporated into their brand identity. However, it has become quite popular to use gradients of these colours to make elements on the web page stand out by adding dimensions and realism to a design. Spotify is known for doing this, they usually use gradients of the colour purple or green on their websites and it provides an eye-catching and unique feel to their website and app. Utilising colour gradients is very visually appealing and a great way to add sophistication to your website whilst also looking modern.

Bonus Section

No matter how beautiful and elaborate your website design may be, user experience is more important. One of the main factors that contribute to great user experience is fast website speed as it helps to streamline the browsing experience and process for the website user. Ideally, you should aim for your website to load within two to three seconds as a study completed by Website Builder Expert revealed that 40% of consumers will wait no more than three seconds before leaving a site. Improving your website speed doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive, there are some easy ways to improve your website speed such as cleaning up your website’s code by removing unnecessary elements like white spaces or inline spacing, compressing and optimising images on your website, or minifying and combining files, a good place to start is normally HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files.

Using some of these techniques and incorporating great accessibility and website speed will ensure you have the perfect website for your business. If you want to keep up with more updates like this, be sure to follow us on social media and have a look at our other blog posts linked below.However, there are many more issues not covered here that need to be considered. If you would like professional assistance for a smoother, less stressful web design process, Reactive Graphics are here to help. Get in touch with us today to find out more.

Target Audience

Most of us usually buy products and services from brands we feel aligned with. If someone visits your website and sees their values, goals, and priorities reflected there, then they are more likely to purchase from you.
To personalise your website design to your target audience, consider:

• What tone of imagery works for your audience? (professional, minimalistic, bubbly, etc.)
• What themes and topics will your target market expect to see on your website?
• How can you convey your brand positioning through your web design?
• What calls-to-action (CTAs) will your target audience respond to (and where you should put them to optimise your click-through rate)

It can also be helpful to draw inspiration from competitors or brands that sell different things to your target demographic.

Accessibility

Accessibility should be one of the most important web design principles to consider for any website designer or developer. There is no one-stop solution or quick fix for improving accessibility – as web designers we are tasked with thinking of new ways to make websites easier to read and use for as many people as possible.

Because of this, making sure that your website follows the latest accessibility guidelines is one of the first and most important WordPress design principles you need to follow.
Some simple ways to improve accessibility include:

• adding proper image alternative text for people who use screen readers
• creating content that is easily navigable with only a keyboard
• ensuring mobile responsiveness
• adding captions for videos.

However, it does not end there. Incorporating accessibility into web design is a continuous process, and you will notice that many of the web design principles mentioned here will help you create more accessible and inclusive websites.

Colour Scheme

Getting the right colour balance for your website is extremely important. Whether your business already has an established colour scheme, or if you want to start with a fresh palette, it is vital that your web design uses the right amount of colour to create appealing visuals.

Most WordPress themes have a built-in option to choose primary and secondary colours. This means that once you choose a primary colour, the colour of some elements and usually parts of the layout will change automatically. For a more detailed design, add variants of your primary and secondary colour and use them for custom made details.

The most important thing you need to know is what makes an effective colour palette for your web design. Here are some tips:

• Your primary colour should be your brand’s main colour. For example, if your logo and branding is primarily green, then it’s best to use that as your website’s primary colour.
• It also helps to use lighter and darker shades of your primary colour to help you gain depth and achieve a professional look.
• Your secondary colours should compliment (or contrast) your primary colour. For example, an orange/gold colour would contrast well with a navy blue primary colour.
• Add neutrals (white, grey, black).

White Space

Negative space (or “white space”) is the region around the subjects of a page, whether they be images, videos, text, or buttons. Many enthusiastic designers will rush to fill every free space on a page, hoping that giving visitors more information will get them more engaged. However, this often results in overwhelming and confusing pages. Users can only digest so much information on one screen, and over-saturating your website with elements can be detrimental to your business.

This is where negative space comes in. Using negative space emphasises the most critical elements of each page, as the lack of colour draws the visitor’s eyes to brighter areas. This will enhance your key elements and allows you to space out your content so that users do not get overwhelmed.

Mobile-friendly Design

The majority of worldwide online traffic comes from mobile devices. Your financial business can no longer have a website that only functions optimally for computer screens – a sub-optimal mobile layout will lose you a huge portion of potential clients browsing the web on mobile.

All of our WordPress web designs ensure that your content flows just as well on mobile as it does on desktop. This includes:

• Images scaling correctly and optimised for mobile browsing (i.e. a low file size to make sure they load quickly on mobile devices).
• Text scales down to fit mobile screens and doesn’t become illegible and/or roll off-screen.
• Webpage elements need to line up in a cohesive manner – for example, your contact form should not appear before your company’s key information.

Typography

Typography includes the fonts and sizes of your website’s text. Typography affects the ability to read and understand your content. So, what makes for good typography?

• Your text shouldn’t be too small or too large. For body copy, 16px is optimal, with 12px being the absolute smallest size that is still viewable across mobile devices.
• Keep your number of fonts used to a minimum. We usually recommend two fonts that complement each other well – a serif and sans-serif font will usually do the trick.
• Your text colour should always contract well with your background colours. Failing to do this will result in inaccessible, illegible text and put potential customers off your brand.

By following these typography tips, your website can present information in a visually appealing, easy-to-digest manner which can lead to more conversions and subsequently more customers!

WordPress design can be a difficult process to traverse, especially if you are a new business or do not have an in-house design team. If you would like a new WordPress website tailor-made for your business, Reactive Graphics are happy to help. Get in touch with us today.

Easy To Digest Web Design

Financial companies often have a wealth of important information that needs to be presented to potential customers. This includes information about the business itself, the services they provide, legal documents and more.

A key principle for strong finance web design is presenting information in a visually appealing, easy-to-digest manner. If you do not consider how you present information then this can easily deter customers. For example, if a potential customer is immediately greeted by large paragraphs of information, this will make them feel overwhelmed and less likely to stay on the website.

Important information should be presented in a manner that does not over-saturate the page. For example, presenting a couple of text paragraphs next to an image, graphic or video will keep the user interested in the page and make them more likely to click onto other pages.

Another great way to convey information is to use graphics and animation to showcase important facts and figures. For example, your company may have a long extensive history, which could be presented to the customer as an interactive timeline. This prevents the need for a text-heavy approach and increases the visual appeal of your site.

Sleek Minimalism

A good business web design must visually convey your ethos and values. This is a crucial factor in building a good reputation with customers. A finance company will usually want to convey a message of security, as customers will want their money to be in safe hands. They will also want to look professional and trustworthy, which is very important in building a strong reputation with prospective clients.

We find that taking a minimalistic approach tends to work extremely effectively when designing a website for a finance company. This includes usage of a subtle colour scheme, clean imagery (instead of complicated animated graphics) and modern, sans-serif typography.

A great example of minimalistic financial web design is the one-page website we developed for Axxa Capital. The use of whitespace makes the website text look clean and easy to read. Usage of subtle graphics and background colour changes keeps users engaged and more likely to scroll through the page. It looks sleek, professional, and most importantly, trustworthy. If you would like a similar-looking website or a new, more modern brand, Reactive are happy to help.

Simple, Logical Navigation

If your website needs a lot of information, you’ll likely need a lot of pages. Navigating a large number of pages can be confusing for users, as they will have a large amount of menu links, buttons and calls to action to navigate through.

A well-designed finance website will implement a simple but effective menu hierarchy to ensure users do not get lost on the website. It should also not overwhelm the user with a large amount of items to scroll through. For example, if you have a large library of projects or news articles, users should be given a filtering feature allowing them to reach their desired information quicker.

Show Your Statistics

As mentioned earlier, making overly heavy use of text in a web design can be detrimental when trying to keep customers interested. A great way to convey key information in a visually-striking manner is to make use of your business’ statistics.

Suppose you have a large financial company with 20+ offices worldwide, hundreds of successful deals completed and billions of dollars in your care. This is concise but effective statistical information that would be very useful to present to customers! A benefit of using statistics is that they can be presented in a variety of different ways. For example, our Kreos Capital web design animates in their key statistics in front of breath-taking fullscreen imagery. Statistics can also be used alongside text paragraphs to give more visual appeal when users are reading through important information.

Mobile-friendly Design

The majority of worldwide online traffic comes from mobile devices. Your financial business can no longer have a website that only functions optimally for computer screens – a sub-optimal mobile layout will lose you a huge portion of potential clients browsing the web on mobile.

Each of our financial websites always ensure that your content flows just as well on mobile as it does on desktop. This includes:

• Images scaling correctly and optimised for mobile browsing (i.e. a low filesize to make sure they load quickly on mobile devices).
• Text scales down to fit mobile screens and doesn’t become illegible and/or roll off-screen.
• Webpage elements need to lineup in a cohesive manner – for example, your contact form should not appear before your company’s key information.

Search Engine Optimisation

Everyone wants their website to rank highly on Google. After all, the higher the rank, the more likely customers are to see your business and view your website. This in turn can lead to more conversions and attention from new prospective clients!

Each of our web development projects are developed using proven SEO standards. This includes:

• Making sure content is relevant and includes SEO keywords for your finance company in a smooth, user-friendly manner.
• Having important keywords appear in headings and other important text sections.
• Ensuring a consistent spread of search keywords across the whole website.
• Site meta-data (meta titles, descriptions etc) must not be too long or too short. Your meta description should contain your desired keywords or key phrases.
• Making sure each and every page is readable and relevant to the business.

These factors can hopefully guide you in the right direction for your company’s web design. However, there are many more issues not covered here that need to be considered. If you would like professional assistance for a smoother, less stressful web design process, Reactive Graphics are here to help. Get in touch with us today to find out more.

For logistics companies, your web design is crucial for attracting new businesses to your brand. A good logistics web design must ensure a number of criteria are met, including:

• A clear, commanding website message
• An abundance of high-quality content that covers everything about your business, down to the fine details
• Frequent updates to clients, through either a blog or similar social media feeds
• Regular calls-to-action to guide potential buyers through your site information.
• A simplistic yet visually appealing design that potential customers can easily navigate and understand.

If you are looking for a fresh, modern web design for your logistics business then Reactive Graphics can help.

We are highly experienced in the field of B2B websites and have completed several web design projects for logistics companies. Our eye for detail coupled with our attentiveness to client requirements ensures a smooth design process from start to finish.

You can read more about our logistics web design services in the case studies below. These detail our completed projects for M9 Logistics, Tower Cold Chain and Axis Logistics, three large-scale logistics firms.

Related Articles:

• 5 Reasons Why you Should Be Regularly Updating your Website
• Common web design mistakes that make your website look unprofessional
• 6 web design trends for creatives to take note of in 2022

M9 Logistics

M9 Logistics provide a wide range of freight-forwarding, warehousing, customs clearance and IT solutions. They help to simplify interactions with customers and suppliers worldwide.

With over 30 offices and affiliate companies, M9 required a website that could present a lot of business information in a clear, navigable format. They required information-dense pages for all of their providable services, in addition to details for the many industries they operate in (airspace, oil & gas and pharma to name a few).

Webpages were required for each of their offices, as well as a blog functionality to keep their clients and stakeholders in touch with company activities. They also required a website that better suited their current branding.

Our design provides the user with a clear, linear homepage navigation. Users can access M9’s services and blogs, read testimonials and browse worldwide locations. There are also ever-present links for important calls to action (Request a Quote, Become a Member and Contact Us). We also developed a contact form on the homepage so that clients can easily find a way to get in touch, which helps drive conversions.

From an aesthetic perspective, we took time to consider M9’s current branding and how this would be showcased throughout the new site. We developed a simple but effective homepage video, showcasing their worldwide coverage. We utilised clear, crisp imagery to help break up text and add bursts of colour to sleek, minimalistic backgrounds. The site colour scheme was made consistent with M9’s current branding.

Tower Cold Chain

Tower Cold Chain rents containers to the pharmaceutical industry that are used to transport products requiring temperature control. They are a global company, with offices spanning across Europe, Asia, Africa, the USA and more. Along with details of their offices, their new website needed to list over a dozen different shipping containers for clients to compare and choose from.

A key requirement of their website was a page which allowed in-depth comparison of any two products. This would enable prospective clients to assess any product of their choosing in detail, which would then increase the likelihood of them requesting a quote.

Our design for Tower Cold Chain would have to display an abundance of information without overwhelming new visitors. To accomplish this we adopted a minimalistic approach, with a clear white background overset by black and blue text. This helps bring Tower’s product imagery to the forefront of each page. We also used full-screen imagery on many of the webpages to complement the flow of text throughout the website.

When going through each product, users can download PDF documents of important product information. They can also request a quote and subscribe to mailing lists at the click of a button. We went above and beyond a standard logistics web design and custom-coded a ‘Payload Calculator’ page. The calculator can tell potential clients how many shipping containers they will need to transport their product. It takes into account product length, width, height and weight.

“With so many design and build companies in London it is great when you find one you can trust. Reactive Graphics don’t only get on with the job, they advise, check react quickly and at the same time make the work easy. I’d highly recommend them to any business looking to work with a company who will take care of them throughout the entire project and provide a top quality job.” – Cliff Findlay, on behalf of Tower Cold Chain.

Have a look at our case study for Tower Cold Chain here.

Axis Logistics

Axis Logistics is the in-house logistics division of the Prax Group of companies. They are a British multinational independent oil refining, storage, distribution and sales conglomerate. Specifically, they deal in crude oil, petroleum products and bio-fuels, and are headquartered in London.

Axis wanted us to develop a simple but visually engaging website which could provide potential clients with a rich insight into their company history and values. They also required a blog to showcase company activities, and a map to show their extensive network of offices.

We took a minimalistic approach to our logistics web design. The homepage uses a full-screen video accompanied by text to showcase the range of services provided by Axis. For the colour scheme, we used green accents on a white background to reflect the company’s consciousness towards the environment and society as a whole. The company’s ethics and values were presented in a clear, concise manner through the use of dynamic columns. We produced a world map which featured interactive labels for all of Axis’ offices. All company details, including office locations, email and social media accounts (Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook) were made available at the click of a button.

If you would like a sleek, modern logistics web design then Reactive Graphics are ready at your service. By working with us, we will make sure you are getting exactly what you desire and provide proven-quality solutions to all your web design needs. Get in touch with us today to discuss your new project.

Want to know the 10 best plugins for WordPress? Well there are more than 50,000 plugins in the WordPress directory, not to mention thousands more third-party websites. Since WordPress is open-source code, anyone can create and sell a plugin or make it available for free. With so many options to choose from, selecting which plugins are best for your WordPress site can be tough.

As a Web Design Agency with 16+ years of experience and a deep knowledge of building WordPress websites. We have made a list of 10 of the best plugins for WordPress in 2021:

1. Yoast SEO

Every WordPress site needs an SEO plugin if they want to stand a chance of getting their pages to show up in search engine rankings. When you’re working with a self-hosted WordPress site, the Yoast SEO plugin is one of the most valuable tools you can have. Yoast SEO is the only WordPress SEO plugin made by world-renowned SEO experts.

The Yoast SEO WordPress plugin helps you to optimise every aspect of your site for search ability. Yoast SEO is famous for its state-of-the-art content and SEO analysis. It gives you features such as SEO analysis, readability analysis, a google preview and more. Keep in mind that while Yoast can give some very helpful feedback, you don’t necessarily have to take all of its advice to heart.

Yoast SEO has a free option to get you started and a premium option for those who want the extra functions. The free version contains everything you need to manage your SEO, and the Yoast SEO premium plugin and its extensions unlock even more tools and functionality.

2. WooCommerce

WooCommerse is the most popular ecommerce plugin for WordPress used by over 5 million websites. Over the last few years, WooCommerce has established itself as the most dominant ecommerce plugin for WordPress, the plugin currently powers more than 30% of online stores. The WooCommerce plugin allows you to turn your website into an online store and sell to your customers.

The standard, free version of WooCommerce can calculate the costs of shipping an taxes and offers the ability to accept major credit cards, PayPal, bank transfers and cash on delivery. There are also some very capable management tools to help you keep track of your inventory. However, the premium version of WooCommerce comes with more advanced tools, such as a one-page checkout and an add-on for cart abandonment emails. There are also hundreds of add-ons and themes to extend WooCommerce’s functionality further.

3. WP Forms

Every website needs a contact form because it makes it easy for your visitors to get in touch with you. WPForms is one of the best WordPress contact form plugins because it is the most user-friendly. The drag and drop online form builder allows you to easily create contact forms, email subscription forms, online order forms, surverys, polls and other types of online forms with just a few clicks.

There is a free WPForms Lite version available for those who are looking for a simple solution. However, if you are seriously looking to grow your business, then we recommended getting the Pro version. This version comes with all the powerful features you need to boost your lead generation efforts.

4. Duplicate Page

One of the go-to options for WordPress page and post cloning is Duplicate Page. This plugin provides functionality to duplicate pages, posts and custom posts with one single click, and it will be saved as a draft.

When you are running a blog for a while, you may sometimes need to copy a post or page. Duplicating a page or post in WordPress can mean more than simply copying and pasting the content. With this plugin you can also retain the page template, SEO data, and images, in order to save time when redesigning your website or updating your content.

5. Really Simple SSL

Really Simple SSL is a premium WordPress SSL plugin, that offers a paid service to easily transfer your WordPress website to SSL. While using the really simple SSL plugin, you can handle most issues that WordPress has with SSL. This plugin can do a lot more than what you would expect. For instance, when you are behind a load balancer, reverse proxy, the headers you use in the plugin can detect the issues with SSL.

They also have a free version of the plugin available that can be used as a base, and their pro version works as an addon to add features like applying SSL on complete website, single page, social media widgets, multisite and more.

One of the interesting facts is that all incoming requests are directed to https since it is a default WordPress redirect. Also, you can enable the .htaccess redirect. As soon as you start using this plugin, the home URL page and site URL page can be changed to https.

6. WP Rocket

WP Rocket is a caching and performance optimization plugin to improve the loading speed of WordPress websites. WP Rocket is a premium cache plugin, that doesn’t offer a free version. Prices start at $49 for 1 website per year. However, they do offer a 14 days money back guarantee and in case if you are not happy with the plugin, you can get a refund.

40% of people who visit a website will leave it if it takes more than 3s to load. That’s why every website should be optimised for speed and have a powerful caching system at its core. It is also no secret that a fast site is more likely to rank higher in search engines. With page speed being an SEO ranking factor, the faster your pages load, the more Google will love them.

7. Google Analytics Dashboard for WP

The Google Analytics WordPress plugin help you to setup all the powerful Google Analytics tracking features without writing any code or hiring a developer. More importantly, over 1 million users love this powerful, free WordPress plugin because it helps you view key Google Analytics stats right inside your WordPress dashboard.

This plugin enables you to track your site’s visitors using Google Analytics’ tracking code, and view key statistics within your WordPress installation. You can use Google Analytics Dashboard for WP to generate a set of performance reports about the site’s performance as a whole, as well as that of individual pages and posts, and the information you get back is fully customisable.

8. Akismet

If you allow comments on your WordPress site, you will know what a headache comment spam can cause. Akismet is a WordPress plugin that automatically checks all comments and filters out the ones that look like spam for you. It works in the background and there are no settings to configure, so it’s extremely easy to get started.

Akismet is the quick and easy way to manage and eliminate spam comments. This plugin is free to download but you’ll need an Akismet.com API key to use it. Keys are free for personal blogs; paid subscriptions are available for businesses and commercial sites.

9. WP Smush

Images are important assets to your website pages that can easily gran a users attention. Unfortunately, they also take up a lot of storage space and can slow down your website if not optimised. Image optimisation is one of the easiest ways to make your website load faster. When it comes to improving site speed, Smush is an invaluable tool.

WP Smush is a WordPress plugin that allows you to compress and optimise images without reducing the quality of the image using the Smush plugin. It optimises all your image files in JPEG, GIF and PNG formats using advanced compression techniques and saves lot of storage space. Smush meticulously scans every image you upload – or have already added to your site – cuts all the unnecessary data and scales it for you before adding it to your media library. And it can serve images in the WebP format.

10. Smarter Slider

Smart Slider 3 is the most powerful and intuitive WordPress plugin to create sliders which was never possible before. The sliders are fully responsive, SEO optimised and works with any WordPress theme so you can create beautiful sliders and tell stories without any code.

This versatile plugin can be used to create a wide variety of different sliders. With this plugin, a special consideration has been made to ensure that your sliders will work with a variety of different devices. On top of being responsive, the sliders will also be touch-friendly for the sake of visitors from mobile and tablet devices. Not only that, it has also been designed to be SEO friendly.

Some Worthy WordPress Plugin Mentions

MailChimp for WordPress

Allowing your visitors to subscribe to your newsletter should be easy, with this plugin it is.

This plugin helps you grow your Mailchimp lists and write better newsletters through various methods. You can create good looking opt-in forms or integrate with any existing form on your site, like your comment, contact or checkout form.

Smash Balloon

Smash Balloon is the world’s leading social media feel plugin for WordPress. This plugin lets you create completely customisable social media feels tailored to your website.

Smash Balloon is a combination of four plugins that makes it easy for you to create and display custom Facebook feeds, custom Instagram feeds, custom Twitter feeds, and custom YouTube feeds on your WordPress site.

If you require a website for your business then Reactive Graphics can help.
Get in touch with us today to see how we can get your project off the ground!
To take a look at how Reactive Graphics have applied visual hierarchy within their web designs, please take a look at our our portfolio of work here.

Security

The primary reason you need to have a current WordPress installed is for security. With millions of websites hosted using WordPress it is not surprising that it is a huge target for hackers.

Security ricks are identified regularly by WordPress’s security team and they will release updates or patches to fix these security risks. It is more likely your website can get hacked if using an older version of WordPress or plug-in’s. If your website were hacked this could have a serious impact on your business such as loss of client data and your site being offline.

To fix your website after a security breach is likely to end up costing a great deal of time, effort, and money. Which is why it is imperative you keep your WordPress site updated and secure.

New Features

As with all software a new version usually brings new features, and this is no different with WordPress. Each version of WordPress comes with new features which may be a more intuitive admin experience or a new hook to help developers’ program additional new features.

However, it is often plug-ins where you will see the major improvements. Developers often update their product to improve performance and keep the downloads and purchases coming in. Most plug-ins regularly introduce new features in updates.

By ensuring your WordPress install, theme & plug-ins are all using the latest versions you will always have access to the latest features.

Bug Fixes

Before a new version of WordPress is released to the public it undergoes rigorous testing. A major release will tend to be very stable and bug-free due to the rigorous development cycle and the huge number of people who will help with testing.

However, some small bugs slip through the cracks. Regular WordPress updates are released to fix these bugs. Usually a new minor version of WordPress may fix up to ten small bugs, again ensuring the best experience for both you and your website visitors whilst using your website.

Compatibility

Following a major WordPress update, many plugins will also get an update to ensure compatibility with the new version, or to make use of new features.

Occasionally you may find that an update to WordPress or to a plugin results in compatibility problems with another aspect of WordPress. For example, another plugin is no longer compatible. Therefore, it is important to perform a back-up of your site prior to updating.

Backup before Updating

Most website owners will simply click that update button, cross their fingers and hope for the best. However, clicking update without the proper preparation is risky for your site. Running updates incorrectly can easily break your website and leave you with long term website problem.

Before beginning to perform website maintenance and updates, run a backup. Using one of the available WordPress backup plugins makes it easy to automate daily backups of your themes, uploads, plugins, and database. If you haven’t done this yet, it’s important.

Hosting companies normally make it possible for you to backup your database and website files. Ensure that you will be able to restore any of your backups from the past 30 days.

How do you know when you have updates waiting?

Look for red circles with numbers in them that tell you how many updates you have on any screen in the admin area including the Dashboard. In the updates page it will tell you if there is a new version of WordPress to be installed and the list of plugins and themes that have updates too.

How to make your updates to WordPress

Remember to always backup your website before making any updates. Then when you click on the update’s menu item or the top Updates icon menu item, you will be taken to the following WordPress Updates screen:

• If your WordPress version needs to be updated, notification appears just above the Plugins section.
• This is where any plugins and themes that have updates are listed
• You can select the plugins you want to update then click update but we recommend updating them individually from the plugins window.

Take the time to make sure you update one thing at a time and make sure your website is backed up and your WordPress version is up to date first. Then check if anything on your website has broken or changed from the updates.

How often should you update your WordPress Website?

The average WordPress website will have 5-10 (or more) updates available to run every month, some of these updates may include critical security and bug fixes so usually we recommend sticking to a monthly update schedule.

Weekly updates are often too frequent because running updates with care is somewhat time consuming you can end up spending a lot of time working on your updates.

However quarterly or annual updates are far too infrequent because if you leave large gaps between updates you are highly likely to have a known security issue maliciously exploited before the next update is run.

We at Reactive recommend you check for update every month to keep your website safe and up to date.

We build WordPress websites and can keep them up to date for your business.
If you require a website for your business then Reactive Graphics can help your company to correctly position itself in the marketplace.
Get in touch with us today to see how we can get your project off the ground!
Or you can view our portfolio of work here.