Update your website without breaking it

Before you update anything

1. Take a full backup and keep it off the website. A full backup means the files and the database. Most hosts take one on request from their control panel; a backup plugin works too, as long as it saves to cloud storage or another server, not to a folder on the site itself. Note the date and where it is.
2. Make sure you can restore it. Ask your host how a restore works on your plan before you need one. A backup you've never restored is a hope, not a plan.

Test on a copy first

3. Make a staging copy: a private copy of your site where nothing you break is seen. Many hosts offer one-click staging in their control panel. If yours doesn't, a staging plugin can make one, or ask your host.
4. On the copy, update one thing at a time, not everything at once. After each update, run the checks in step 6. If something breaks, you know which update did it.
5. Read the notes before big jumps. When the first number of a version changes (4.9 to 5.0), expect bigger changes. Check the plugin's changelog on its page, and that it supports your WordPress and PHP versions.

The checks after each update (about five minutes)

6. On your phone and on a computer, logged out:
- the homepage and the menu open and work;
- send a test enquiry through every form and check it arrives in your inbox;
- make a test booking, if you take bookings;