Do you update WordPress in a risky way?

A message magically appears at the top of your WordPress dashboard when a WordPress update is available. After reading this message, do you:

a. Use the automatic update option, but only after backing up your WordPress database?

b. Quickly press the update now button, but do not make a backup of your WordPress database?

c. Ignore it?

The safest option is a.

If you chose b you are taking a risk every time you update WordPress.

Why?

Database changes occur during the update process that put it at risk. And because the database stores your website content, anything that goes wrong with the database during an update could have a catastrophic effect on your website. Don’t worry, though; soon you’ll know an easy way to avoid that risk.

If you chose c you are missing out.

It’s usually a good idea to update your WordPress install when a new version becomes available.

That way you can take advantage of improvements such as the new dashboard design, or the new default theme Twenty Eleven, both of which came with WordPress version 3.2.

With 3.2 you now have the option to write your next post in Zen mode, which is the WordPress developers’ answer to distraction-free writing tools such as WriteMonkey (Windows), WriteRoom (Mac) and Ommwriter (Mac and Windows).

To see how this works, start a new post, hit the fullscreen button and watch as everything but the address bar fades, leaving just you and your text. The only distraction is the address bar. But you can even make this disappear by pressing the F11 key.

Another good reason to update WordPress is to make your website less susceptible to hackers, who are always on the lookout for weak-points or holes in the code that allow them to take over websites.

One day people are finding all the valuable content you’ve worked so hard to put together; the next day they are finding links to dubious pharma-products and pornography, which is not what you want.

An update plugs all known holes in the code, forcing the hackers to look for easier pickings elsewhere–someone running WordPress 2.5, perhaps.

You have two options when it comes to updating.

Either you can do a manual update, which is time consuming and puts important files at risk if you don’t know what you are doing; or you can take advantage of the automatic update option.

The automatic upgrade option became available after WordPress 2.7 and saves time. All you have to do is press a button and the software makes short work of the upgrade behind the scenes.

Whichever way you choose just make sure to backup your WordPress database before you start.

Making a backup is the quick and sensible solution. If you have a backup, you can use it to get up and running again if something goes wrong during the update.

Let’s look now at how to make such a backup.

First, though, a note of caution: many web-hosting firms claim to do automatic database backups.

Please, please, please do not rely solely on your web host to backup your database. When you look in the relevant folder, do not be surprised to find either no backup file or a backup that is so out of date as to be almost worthless to you. It happens.

A much better way is to use the popular (over one million downloads) WP-DB-Backup plugin.

This plugin makes backing up your database a breeze. You can choose to save the backup to your server, download it to your computer, or have it sent to you via email.

The plugin even allows you to create automatic hourly, twice daily, once daily or once weekly backups, which you can have sent direct to your inbox.

Now that you know how easy it is to backup your database before updating to the latest WordPress version, are you going to make it a habit? Surely, the alternatives are too risky.

After you have made a safe update you have the potential to do new and better things with your website. Not only that: you can relax knowing that your website is less prone to hackers.