I maintain some small websites (5 to 10 pages) that are mostly static. Perhaps there is some ACF or JetEngine here and there, some advanced contact form, some filters, some custom design and menu here and there…
If it was my website, I would update it regularly.
I read the changelogs of the plugins, stay up to date with what they are doing, update on dev site and test and then update on live site
Let’s say for small clients, that’s a minimum of 1/2 hour per month to get this done. We all know, nothing should go wrong as 1/2 hour is not much per month. So perhaps I run the updates only every 2 or 3 months to have a bit more time for it.
However, **even that little amount of time is sometimes difficult to argument for.**
We are talking about small clients, perhaps some from your relatives or friends groups. They are successful in what they are doing, but they mostly give a crap about their website.
The website works as is. Why would you need to update it.
And it’s true – most of the updates break more things as they would improve.
I don’t think anything is going to happen to the site if it doesn’t get updated in 18 months. They perhaps had previously a Wix site and didn’t even have to think about updating a site.
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**So what are the arguments to small clients, to still get it maintained?**
Of course, I wish to maintain it. If something goes wrong, you know you’ll find a well maintained website in front of you.
**But most likely, if you just update after 18 months, everything is still good**. The small client would save 1/2 hour per month. I would save that time. The website would for sure function the same all the time (updates can break something you don’t know as you cannot test everything).
When I look at it from this perspective, I myself can see and understand why a client would decide not to let the website maintain.
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Perhaps, explain to clients that website updates are like antivirus updates. Like in a PC, if one gets hacked, it could cost a good coin to get the information restored and the site cleaned up and running again. Giving them costs comparisons could be a good way to aid their decision.
Except for that, updates are indeed risky as they could introduce bugs, which may take time to find and in the meantime cost a business in missed sales and opportunities.
Unfortunately, in WP plugin dev, there’s no std. practice to keep security updates separate from feature updates. Perhaps, update more sparsely as you suggest, but offer a protection package instead (e.g. Worldfence + CF WAF, etc.), which could be cost-wise and a reasonable trade-off for most of your smaller clients.
My 5c.