Your web site is not something you can put live and then forget about it on many levels. If you want your web site to keep running and not get hacked you MUST maintain the backend that runs the site. Updating your CMS is a vital part of website maintenance. We are in a tech savvy world with constantly evolving technology. Therefore, you need to keep your CMS up to date so that there are no compatibility issues.

We hear all the time "But its running just fine". Yes there is a reason its running good - the CMS is updated along with the modules you use. If you do not upgrade the CMS that runs your web site, its like you are screaming to hackers to come find you. Another reason to keep up with updates is technology changes constantly. Your browsers (Chrome, FireFox, Edge, etc) update constantly. You might not even know they updated until a site stops working.

Why update your CMS

1. Security - Hackers are always finding new ways to exploit sites. They look for sites with non-secure technology to hack into. Patching your CMS and modules you use prevent these vulnerabilities. Hackers could upload files to your site and put inappropriate content on your site or crash your site completely. You want to protect your company and your web site visitors from cyber attacks.
2. Bug Fixes
3. Efficiency - If you fall behind on your CMS upgrades, it will require more time and money to get it up-to-date. Minor updates are usually quick and do not break anything. If you are major versions behind it is an extremely time consuming process to upgrade and many things will probably break or stop working.
4. Cost Savings - Even though you might think not upgrading your CMS will save you money, this is not the case. It will cost you a lot more to fix a site that has been hacked, not to mention the potential legal issues coming from a hacked site.
5. New Features - As technology changes, new features and enhancements will be added to the CMS.
6. Technology Changes - Your web browsers will changes constantly. Those changes could impact how your web site is viewed. The biggest example of this was when Flash stopped being supported in browsers. This caused some web sites to stop working or features on web sites to stop functioning since they relied on Flash. Updating your CMS will prevent things like this. CMS's lately had to adopt to MS Edge when MS IE stopped being supported.

If you don’t keep your CMS up-to-date, you not only run the risk of compromising our site’s security, but it can also result in a bad user experience and loss of business.