Once you have had a website designed and programmed, it can be easy to leave it for a long time as it all appears to be working. Not only is this a bad idea in terms of search engine optimisation and marketing but also in terms of website security.
With cyber-attacks on the increase it is vital to make sure that your website is up to date in terms of any code and software used. If you use a bespoke content management system for your site, then the web developer who created the site for you will need to ensure they update the code as and when required. If you use an “off the shelf” content management system then you may be responsible for doing this yourself. WordPress for example, is an open source content management system and updating it can be a fairly easy. Once logged in to the dashboard it will notify you that an update is available. If someone has developed the website for you it is always worth asking them if you are ok to carry out the update, as if they have made changes to the template, these may be lost during an update. It is also recommended to take a full back up of the site prior to doing any updates.